Let’s dive into the contentious world of opt-in vs opt-out free trials - how most companies get it wrong, and how one company gets it very, very right.

Chapter 1: To Credit Card, or Not To Credit Card?

Why asking for payment details for a free trial makes for terrible UX

Let’s start with the pain-point.

Have you ever wanted to try a certain website or app, but before even being able to look around and figure out if it fits your needs, you’re slapped with a “Sign Up for a Free Trial! [AND ADD YOUR PAYMENT DETAILS]” screen?

Yeah, me too.

9 times out of 10 - unless I’m absolutely certain I need that service - I make a hard exit out of there.

Conversations, surveys, and research across websites and forums all point to the same conclusion: users universally loathe entering their payment details when signing up for a free trial.

Why?

You’ve encountered an Opt-Out free trial, which uses a practice called **Negative Option Billing** (NOB). NOB is where a merchant offers a free trial period to access their services, and automatically enrolls the cardholder into a recurring subscription after the trial period ends.

This is really frustrating for the following (+ more) reasons:

• In a lot of (but not all) cases, you are forced to sign up for the trial before you have even gained sufficient knowledge to understand if the product or service fits your needs, meaning you’re less invested, and less willing to put in the effort for a complicated sign up
• It takes effort to input payment details - and often it’s accompanied by the physical effort of going to get your credit card from another room
• You have to give out a fair amount of highly valuable personal information (name, billing address, contact, payment details) to a company that you do not yet know is worth giving that information to - or that can even be trusted
• You know that if you forget to cancel the subscription, you may end up spending money on a service that you didn’t like or need

So because of transparency, trust, effort and risk, you are significantly less likely to sign up for a free trial requiring payment details than one that doesn’t.

<aside>

As such, it would naturally follow that companies focused on a good user experience and attracting more customers, should not ask for payment details when offering a free trial.

</aside>