Online Dating Blog

As of late, I’ve decided to move from a non-paying site to a paid site. Needless to say, I wanted to delete my old accounts from free online dating sites. I’d rather focus on a new approach with a paid site, although that doesn’t mean I think free sites are “bad”. However, I’ve read the horror stories about getting incorrect charges or autorenewals when using a paid dating service. That is, people complain that the dating sites are still charging peoples’ credit cards after they have stopped using the service or tried to end their paid use of the website.

My experience was that you have to read the fine print:

Shut off the automatic renewal first thing. This can be a bit tricky to find, but most dating websites are going to auto-renew you as soon as your paid time ends. If you pay for 6 months on a service (which can be good since it’s cheaper that way) it’s easy to forget to cancel your account 6 months later. So right off the bat, try to turn off automatic renewals.

Second, when you go to cancel your paid account don’t wait until the last day. The company may start a new cycle before that date causing you to get charged for another month (or six months!). It’s not always clear when renewals are so better to cancel a few days before. If you cancel your service and have 7 days left, you can still use the service even after you cancel, so no real reason to wait.

As for your old free account and wanting to get rid of it. If you want to delete your account, they don’t make it easy. They want their member count high and they want it to be easy for you to return if you decide to give it another try someday. So…. when it comes to deleting your account be very thorough. Follow the instructions which you should be able to find in each dating sites help area. It took me awhile to figure this out myself…

First, the site gave me the option to hide my profile. That was not what I wanted to so I had to read on how to delete my profile. After that, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to do. The site gave me a URL that is not a link but one I had to type in manual. Once that is done you have to answer a number of questions. The whole time asking are you sure, and warning that once your account is deleted it can’t be undone.

After all that, in the end, you finally get to the last question. Why are you leaving this service? You can type in your own answer or just use one of their canned options. What a pain in the butt. I know it’s difficult, but it can be done!

Deleting your account isn’t required to avoid future charges, but I understand that many of us want to do so anyway when we’re done. I get it. So if you get frustrated trying to delete an account, stick with it – it can be done!