The steps to take to avoid your Tastecard auto-renewing.
A Tastecard can save you money when eating out or going to the cinema – I’m a fan. But it’s only decent value for money if you use it.
And sometimes those who don’t use it – or forget they have one – have been caught out by auto-renewals. And even those who remember might find it hard to process their cancellation.
With my trial about to end I thought it was a good time to find out just how you to end your membership and stop it auto-renewing.
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What is Tastecard?
Tastecard is a discount membership where you receive two for one or 50% off at selected restaurants. The more recent Tastecard+ add-on lets you get some pretty decent discounts at cinema chains.
You can normally get a 90 trial for £1 (sometimes even free), or a full year for a discounted £30 or less. After that, prices jump to anywhere between £40 and £105.
The problems with cancelling Tastecards
In the past Tastecard has had a bad reputation for people trying to cancel. You just have to search Twitter for Tastecard to find someone angry about their membership or free trial autorenewing and not being able to claim a refund.
Now, it is clear in the terms and conditions that once the trial or first year ends, you will auto-renew.
Though it’s not ideal, Tastecard isn’t the only service that does this, so it is down to the customer to make a note to cancel before the membership ends.
But even if you do remember to cancel, it’s not easy to find how to actually do it.
How to cancel a Tastecard membership
So with my Tastecard coming to an end, I made a note in the diary to cancel more than a week before the expiry date. Here’s my video for how I did it.
The good news is they’ve now added an online form to cancel. It took just seconds to fill it in, and my card was cancelled.
How to make sure you don’t get charged auto-renewal fees by mistake
If you have a full membership you could cancel as soon as you get your card. This way you won’t forget and then accidentally get charged for another year. Doing this won’t affect how long your membership lasts – it’ll carry on as normal but stop on the expiry date.
If you’re on a multi-month trial then leave it to the start of your final month to cancel so you definitely get the full trial length you signed up for.
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The link no longer works, it’s now https://www.tastecard.co.uk/cancel-membership
Please Cancel my Tastecard membership
Hello Mr Thomas. I’ve edited your comment to remove your membership number. This is a personal blog and not part of Tastecard. You’ll need to contact tastecard directly to cancel. There’s a link in this article which will help. Andy
I have been asking you for weeks to cancel my subscription but for some reason you fail answer I have not used my card so I am asking for a full refund please do not ask me again to renew my subscription again Thank you
Hi Ron, this isn’t Tastecard! Try the link in my article about how to cancel – that might help.
I am in the same boat, I took out the £1 trial, and then got a covid automated message, to say they were extending it, and they’d be in touch. They never got in touch, they just took the £39.99 out of my credit card and before I knew it, I had a membership card paid for. If you read the small print, the £1 trial is the start of your membership. I didn’t know that, I thought the full price was the membership. So you have a cooling off period of 14 days when taking that £1 trial out, after that if you miss it, you can’t cancel that card. So the loophole that goes with this story is, Pay £1 for the trial and then after its gone through, cancel it immediately, you still get your trial the card is active for that, but your account wont roll over to the £39.99 It took a while for the penny to drop for me too, but its not short of the tricks that Sky TV get up to, and after working for them for 9 yrs and coping with distraught customers of the same issues, I realised that Tastecard were doing the same.
Hi I cancelled this card two months ago so why you still taking money if no re ply soon shall contact john le wis to cancel instead of you you have fir st stab please axe t his now
Still no cancelled card got you john Lewis has stopped this lark this very day
Hi Richard, I’m not sure you’ve realised this isn’t Tastecard. Best to call them and explain your situation.
Taste card are taking 34.99 out of my account every few months I’m disabled and my kids I’ve tried to cancel this but had no reply so I’m gunna involve trading standards if no reply off them I didnt give permission for them to take my money
Great advice! ???? Thanks
I’ve tried to access the online cancellation form which won’t submit. I tried the link via Be Clever With your Cash, first and when that cancellation froze I went via the Tastecard website. website The cancellation form is there but isn’t working at all and wont submit. I e mailed and received a response next day saying cancellation cant be made by email. Beware.
I tried to cancel my tastecard via email but received a return email to say that it is only possible to cancel via the 0800 5677242 number. My call to this number was answered promptly and a sales advisor offered an enhanced deal (15 months for the price of 12) if I didn’t cancel, when I refused this a further reduction was made to the deal price. I stated that I still wished to cancel and my request was then politely dealt with. I requested a confirmation email which arrived within minutes.
Cheers for this mate, saved me a lot of hassle cancelling my card
Thank you for the help with cancelling!
Thanks so much with the help
Thanks so much for the link to cancel the tastecard – impossible to find on their webpage & they are only open Mon-Fri
thank you for telling me where to find the cancellation form! Like others, I hate using the phone, and I would much rather do it online — and I’ve received the cancellation email, so if they do try to charge me I have proof!
Thank you for the link to the online cancellation form
No problem. It makes it so much easier!
Completely forgot all about my renewal which is due tomorrow, I’ve managed to complete the form successfully but at 10pm at night. What do you think my chances are of either stopping it or getting a refund?
I don’t know – but it would be really useful if you can share what happens back here in the comments. Hope it does work!
Thanks Andy! I panicked at first when I couldn’t see an option to cancel on their website and then I found your blog. Saver! Thanks again.
Great! That link is so useful
Thank you so much for the link to the online cancellation form; I hate using phones, especially when it comes to things like cancelling, so was so happy to discover I could cancel through a very simple form.
Thanks Andy ,used the link you gave and it worked fine . Saved me a morning on the phone . Seems strange they dont give this cancellation option on their website . Maybe it would be to simple to cancel and they hope you will just give up phoning