Dark Patterns: How to Escape the Subscription Trap
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What are dark patterns and how do they trap consumers online?
If you've ever felt like the world is conspiring to make you poorer, you're not actually that far off the truth. There are money traps designed to make it easy to spend and harder to stop. They're called dark patterns. And often when you're shopping online is when you're the most vulnerable to them. Anything from subscription traps to your own information being used against you. So how do you fight back? You absolutely can. And I've got just the Money World Insider to help us figure it out. Jan Verburn, senior legal counsel at Revolute, has seen all of these tricky tactics before and knows exactly which levers to pull to make sure you stay one step ahead.
They're relying on that frustration and people being busy.
Because once you know these traps, protecting yourself gets a lot simpler.
There are offerings now where you can have a virtual card. It's a lot more secure. You can say, I actually just want to use this virtual card for one subscription type or just for one transaction.
So welcome to Ask the Experts, the part of making sense where people from inside the money world answer your questions so you can get the inside word on what actually makes a difference. I'm Francis Cook, financial journalist and fellow financial freedom seeker who makes money simple for you. Today, how to escape the money traps designed to keep you paying. This episode of Making Sense is supported by Revolute, the app that helps your money go further at home and your travel budget go further overseas. I want to help as many people as possible reach financial freedom by taking control of their money and you can help me in that mission. Two really easy ways. First, hit subscribe wherever you like to listen.
YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other podcast player. then send this episode to a friend so we can all level up our money together. Then the show grows and I can keep giving you the money info that makes a difference to your life. Welcome, Jan. Ready for the letter?
Ready. Let's go.
All right. Hi Francis.
Why are subscription cancellations designed to be so difficult?
I want to cancel a subscription. That's it. But apparently it's harder than you would think. I signed up on a free trial, it's not for me. Now when I try to cancel, I get sent down this maze, page after page, asking why I'm leaving, offering me a discount, asking if I'm sure, asking again. Five pages deep, and I still haven't actually cancelled anything. Then finally, right at the end, it tells me I need to call to finish cancelling, an actual phone call in 2026 to stop paying for something I don't use. Look, I've got a busy job. This place is only open in office hours and this seems stupid. Is this even allowed? Surely it can't be this hard to cancel something that I don't want anymore. Feel triggered just reading that letter.
Me too. Like, uh we've all been there, right? Um, and it really reminds me of an episode we had a a few weeks back where we were talking about dark patterns and how there's these sort of things that are gray zones that are technically allowed, but they're really annoying. So, you know, when when you've got this system clearly set up to, okay, you can cancel, but we're gonna make it really hard for you. How common is that?
That is something we're seeing increasingly, unfortunately. I think there are certain companies that invest heavily in making it very easy to get your payment information, get you through their onboarding process. And then once you're in, they ramp up the friction to allow you to get off that subscription. And so, as your listener mentions, you feel like you're in a maze trying to just cancel and and stop paying and I think really that they're relying on that frustration and people being busy. to keep you on the subscription server. So they know that If you go down one rev avenue and you're not able to get out of the subscription and then you try and pivot and now you've got to call them. A lot of people will just give up and then they continue paying for the service that they no longer want.
Okay.
How common are subscription‑trap tactics like multi‑page cancel flows?
So what sort of common traps do we see that are along these lines?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are dark patterns and how do they trap consumers online?
0:00–1:57
2
Why are subscription cancellations designed to be so difficult?
1:57–3:54
3
How common are subscription‑trap tactics like multi‑page cancel flows?
3:54–6:33
4
What is drip pricing and how does it inflate the cost of purchases?
6:33–9:36
5
How do foreign transaction fees and poor exchange rates increase online spending?
9:36–11:55
6
What tools does Revolut offer to protect against these money traps?
11:55–14:03
7
How can virtual and disposable cards create a security buffer for shoppers?
14:03–15:43
Speakers
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