It is an age old marketing trick to offer consumers the chance to try a product or service before committing to buy it. In many cases this works well for both parties, as consumers can get a taster of something which they might choose to buy in the future and the merchant can share their wares, improve their reputation and perhaps win many new customers.
In the digital age it is possible to get free trials for all sorts of things, whether it is DVD rental, antivirus software or an online credit checking service and all of these things have positive and negative aspects that are worth taking into account before you sign on the dotted line.
The first question you need to address is whether the company is offering the free trial for the right reasons. The best type of free trial is one with completely no strings attached, although this is becoming much rarer with the growth and ease of online payment. Many firms will require that you hand over some personal details in order to sign up to a free trial. At the very least this will mean passing on your email address, although this can be done relatively safely as long as you are given the option to stop the firm passing it on to third party advertisers. In some cases you will need to give credit card details and it is at this point that you should become more cautious. Often firms will refer to something as a free trial when it might be better described as a free first month of service. You will need to opt out when the limited free period is up in order to make sure that you are not charged for something you no longer want, or in the worst case scenario committed to a lengthy contract.
It is important that you read the terms of a free trial before you sign up, as the length and content of the free trial will differ in each circumstance. Some will last for a fixed period of anywhere between a few hours and a month, at which point you may find that your service becomes inaccessible until you buy the full version. Alternatively you may be automatically charged as mentioned above, so prepare yourself with all of the details from day one. Some trials may operate slightly differently, with a set amount of usage based on variables such as time or data being determined when the trial begins.
When you are coming to the end of your free trial and you have decided to cancel the service, you will need to contact the firm and make them aware of your intentions. Make sure that it is explicitly clear in any correspondence that you are not going to continue, particularly if you have given card details and do not wish to be charged. It is usually sensible to set a reminder on your PDA, phone, computer or calendar highlighting the period at which the free trial concludes so that you remember to get in contact, as you should never rely on the firm to contact you because it is in their interest to keep you signed up for as long as possible.
In essence the simplest way to benefit from free trials is to read all of the small print in the terms and conditions before you hand over any details. The large, established firms act relatively transparently and should make it easy for you to opt out before any kind of payment is taken, but this is not always the case, so caution is advised.