This app cancels your Netflix and Pornhub subscription before the free trial ends
The company behind a popular serial parking fine-fighting app has launched a new service to automatically cancel your streaming subscriptions before the free trial ends.
Free Trial Surfing is an app designed to cancel your online subscriptions before you move past the free trial period. Josh Browder created the service after successfully developing an algorithm called Do Not Pay to fight parking fines when he was a teenager.
While Free Trial Surfing's most common subscription cancellations at the moment are porn sites and Netflix but we wouldn't be surprised if Apple TV Plus or even Disney Plus joined that list in the very near future.
The app works by handing out virtual credit card numbers and fake names to customers which they can then use to sign up for any subscription-based online service. The app can even forward emails between the service and the bank account so users don't have to worry about the security of their personal email address.
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Unfortunately, you won't be able to swipe the card details to continue the subscriptions past the trial week or month - the cards are registered to Browder's fintech firm, Do Not Pay, and are designed to deny any other form of purchase. The virtual card information is actually generated in collaboration with a key player in the banking world but Browder is keeping it hush which bank it is that he has partnered up with.
Apparently, some platforms have already tried to block Free Trial Surfing by narrowing down which cards belong to Browder.
"Our bank is so big they would have to screw a lot of customers to stop the product. They would have to end the entire free-trial programme", he told the BBC this week.
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While the app is currently free, Browder is considering moving it into a still affordable $2 a month subscription service of its own. While adding a subscription fee does feel a tad ironic for an app designed to dodge subscription fees, it could potentially save its more forgetful users quite a bit of cash in the long run.
Free Trial Surfing launched in the US for Apple devices six weeks ago and has finally hit the App Store in the UK. Browder is also working on launching a web version in the near future so Android users can take advantage of the free software too.
