Caught in a subscription trap? Why your bank might refuse to refund you

Victims of subscription traps are struggling to get their money back as banks focus on the fine print, while rogue advertisers and scam networks slip through the cracks, Which? has found. 

Recurring payments to random subscription businesses are one of the most frequent threats flagged to our scam sharer tool. People often have no idea how the company got their card details, or they assumed they were paying a one-off fee. 

Most of the websites reported to us sell dubious, outrageously overpriced services such as £46 every two weeks for a ‘blog builder’ and £50 a month for a PDF converter. Many are short-lived, making as much money as possible before disappearing and likely starting again under a new alias. 

Despite these underhand tactics, Which? members often ask us for help because they can’t get refunds for these unwanted subscriptions. Here, we explain why getting a refund can be difficult and what you can do if you've been caught out.  

Why banks refuse subscription trap refunds

Which? member Marilyn asked us to step in when a company set up recurring payments without her consent. She spotted an advert for a charging cable during an online game of Mahjong and agreed to pay a one-off £11 using her Santander card via PayPal. 

Instead, a company called Winkoola charged £19.99 for the cable and took a further £27.57 and £50, apparently for a wi-fi extender and car phone holder that she didn’t order. 

Santander only refunded Marilyn as a 'gesture of goodwill' and didn’t log this as fraud. It said she had authorised the payments and received some cheap items from China. Even when we explained that many others had accused Winkoola of taking unauthorised recurring payments, Santander told us it wouldn’t report the company to Mastercard. 

Santander told us at the time that it had not logged Marilyn's complaint as fraud because she had received the items she had paid for, although it acknowledged it should have explained that the recurring payment remained active. You can read the full responses in our original investigation. 

How subscription traps are advertised

Marilyn’s PayPal statement revealed that the payment went to 'Thicc Winkoola' using a now defunct website (thiccfittslimited[dot]com). Her bank statement showed the payments went to 'PayPal*Winkoola'. We noticed winkoola[dot]com advertised on Facebook and other Meta social media platforms at the time, though the website has since been taken offline. 

Winkoola was being promoted on Meta platforms using the stolen headshot of a genuine consultant dermatologist, Professor Jonathan Barker, in a bid to sell its health and beauty products. 

Professor Barker told us he contacted Meta to report the fraudulent advertiser for using his image and didn't hear back. We also used Facebook's internal reporting tool to flag two Winkoola ads (one for false information and the other for scam content) but we were told these ads didn’t breach its advertising standards. Meta only removed the adverts when we contacted its press office. 

Why getting a refund can be a lottery

If you spot a recurring payment you don’t recognise, your card provider is expected to stop future payments if you ask it to, even if you haven’t contacted the business. 

Getting a refund for past charges, however, can be a battle. To your bank, it will appear that you entered your card details willingly, using your own device and passing its identity checks. We find that even highly suspicious companies successfully defend chargebacks (an industry scheme used to claim refunds for disputed charges) because they list subscription pricing details on their main websites.

Yet the payments industry fails to understand that people rarely seek out these websites directly – they click on ads in their social media feeds and on other advertising platforms.

So, while their homepages may appear transparent, they hook people by using intentionally deceptive and camouflaged adverts that disguise what people are signing up for or hide ongoing charges.  

In the worst cases, victims have no idea how the business got hold of their card details. Some are outright scams, impersonating genuine brands, spreading fake deals and competitions on social media and hijacking QR codes in public places, such as on car park machines and restaurant tables. 

Others rotate between countless websites when they garner too much bad publicity, or hide behind complicated layers of advertising partners that earn a commission to promote them.

How subscription trap websites disappear 

When we looked back at some of the prominent subscription traps Which? has exposed in the past few years, all of the websites have vanished entirely. 

Will new rules stop subscription traps?

The government has promised an end to costly subscription traps. However, it may struggle to make a dent in the darkest corners of this persistent, profitable rip-off.  

For starters, existing rules meant to prevent you from being tricked into paying for a subscription you don’t want are already being ignored at scale.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, contract terms must be fair and transparent – for example, while the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) holds enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 to protect the public from unfair practices like hidden costs. 

New rules, announced by Sir Keir Starmer, and fast-tracked by Andy Burnham, aim to go further. From January 2027, companies will be required to provide clear information, send renewal reminders, and offer a 14-day cooling-off period after a trial or auto-renewal. A CMA spokesperson told us that ‘businesses that hide or obscure key details risk breaking consumer law’ and it will ‘continue to crack down on unfair practices’. 

Yet these proposals alone won’t deter the worst offenders, many of which operate from outside the UK. And, if no one has a handle on sneaky online promotions that mislead the public, or the payment processors that allow these businesses to take card payments, we predict subscription traps will continue to thrive.