Knaek Reviews 

Predatory subscription service.

REPORT TO ACM: doe-uw-melding-bij-acm-consuwijzer
Price increases without fair notice, subscription traps, cancellation fees, and failure to honor cancellations are all considered non fair practices by EU law and this app and its reprehensible distributers should be prosecuted.

Please report at ACM, Android App Store and Apple App Store!

I never received the discount code although I've paid for it

Knaek gives several useful discounts

They charged me 30 euros from nowhere after creating an account. Bunch of thieves.

Scammers, after cancelling my subscription they made me pay 30 euros and threatened me that they will send collecting agency and increase it with forty more. It auto subscribes every year and you cannot cancel it that easy

I signed up during my intro week using a physical paper form, but afterwards never received any communication from them. No welcome email, no please download app email. I thought my registration didn't go through and forgot about it.

Now 4 years later, the first time I ever received any communication from them they are asking for money. Email support is useless. Currently trying to pay them and be done with them.

they tahe your money 2 years after, scam

Definitely one of the most deceiving and scummy things I've experienced. I downloaded the app in my first year, started a free trial since it was required and after I saw it's nothing interesting, I cancelled my membership and deleted. 2 years later they email me I have an outstanding amount so I redownloaded the app and there was my membership that I had cancelled 2 years ago saying it's still active. I emailed them trying to resolve this, but they are really unhelpful and deceiving. They keep sending me threatening messages of increasing the price (which is 30€ atm). I don't know how any of this is legal. What's even more questionable is that my google account doesn't show I've ever had a free trial or a paid membership to Knaek to begin with which is definitely a red flag since that's where you control all your memberships from on android. I saw someone else on here advising me to file a complaint to ACM ConsuWijzer which is what I did. So if you're in the same situation, I advise you to do that as well so they can investigate the company and stop them from taking advantage of students who don't know better and don't know their rights. I'm not sure what I'll do right now, but to whoever is thinking of downloading this, I genuinely ask you to save yourself the trouble.

Scammers, horrible company.

I feel scammed by Knaek.
I signed up for their free trial in 2023 and canceled in July 2024 via the Knaek app, exactly as the app allowed. The app confirmed my cancellation — so I trusted it was done. Now, more than a year later, Knaek is demanding €30 for 2024–2025, claiming that cancellation “via the app doesn’t count.” This is incredibly misleading. Why provide a cancellation button in the app if you later refuse to honor it?
To make matters worse:
Knaek promotes itself as “for students only” (check their App Store description and website), yet they still tried to renew my subscription even though I’m not a student and don’t even live in the Netherlands anymore.
I have never used the service, not once.
Despite this, they send aggressive payment reminders and threaten to add collection costs and interest.
This is not just my problem — I know many students who had the same issue with cancellations not being processed. Knaek is taking advantage of students with misleading practices, and that’s unacceptable.

I researched a bit using AI and here's what I will do:

⚖️ Here’s what you should do if this happened to you:
File a complaint with ConsuWijzer (ACM) – consuwijzer.nl → this helps the Dutch consumer authority collect evidence of systemic abuse.
Contact the European Consumer Centre (ECC-Net) – eccnederland.nl if you live outside NL. They can mediate directly with Knaek.
Block Knaek’s direct debit (incasso) at your bank using their Creditor ID (shown in your payment details) so they cannot keep charging you.
If enough of us raise complaints, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) can investigate Knaek’s cancellation practices, and they risk fines or being forced to reimburse students.
Knaek relies on students not knowing their rights — don’t let them get away with it.

Terrible service, useless product and expensive!

I had previously signed up during the annual introduction days at my university (WUR) 2023 and I believe that I received a 1 year free membership, however the product was bad and I never had any use for it so I forgot about it. Now 2025 I received an email that I need to pay 30 euros, for their product, which I had not used.

I forgot already after the first year that you needed to pay for the product because of the 1 year free membership.
This is most likely their business model too, to deceive students of their money.

Well the app doesn't work if you try to open it while using mobile data. Also, a lot of places like Starbucks and Hard Rock Cafe wont let us use the discounts, saying that they don't work with Knaek:(

Also, for some places thay offer 1+1 fries of the same size and a sauce, they dont want to give the same size and a sauce unless you purchase another sauce 💀

What a scam !! Definitely do not get it !!
They retrive 30 euros TWICE from my account even when I closed the account last year. And now they are sending me threatening emails. Wow
would never recommend anything less

Knaek is a terrible app. It keeps deducting money from my account even after I stopped being a student. They charge unnecessary fees—even a fee just to unsubscribe, which is ridiculous. The app is marketed for students, but once you no longer qualify, you still can’t stop it easily. Very disappointing and feels like a scam. I would not recommend this app to anyone.

Scammers!

They wrote off €30 euros without any notice. Do not EVER trust these guys.

Giving it one star is already too high. This company is a SCAM stay far away! They will debit you for 30 euros even if you already cancelled your subscription years ago, and will only respond to you with automated emails, and charge you to cancel your membership. The cancellation link is impossible to find, and even if the app was legit, the deals are useless.

Deceiving payment method. First year is for free and next year they charge after the academic year has been completed. That is 2 full years for you to foret that this subscription even existed. While legal, their payment method seems to take advantage of students and take every opportunity to get more money from you. By the moment you notice the payment debited from you account, it's too late to cancel the subscription. They even charge you one extra month to cancell because they have a 30 day cancellation policy.
Questionable practices, avoid the hustle. Discounts are not even good in Delft. Never used it.

If I could give 0 stars I would. I got charged €30 with no warning (even tho I unsubscribed from this) and then still had to pay 2.96€ after the 30 bucks because they threatened to charge me a 40€ fee. When I tried calling the service, I got hung up on multiple times. Not once did I get an answer on the phone! Terrible experience with service!

Hello, I don't even know what to say. I was approached as a foreign student at the university, 2023. I tought - naive, I know now - that people who approach me at a univeristy mean well and can not be scammers, otherwise the university would have thrown them out. Oh, how wrong I was. I signed up and could not even use the account as nothing worked. In April 2024 (so long before the renewal of the subscription) I contacted them, asking the support to cancel my membership as I was not able to do it in the app (technical problems??) - they said they deleted it. Just to be sure, as I had a really bad feeling, I contacted them again in July 2024, they assured me that there was no subscription linked to my account. I did not resubscibe. In Germany, things like this don't happen. So I was very suprised to find a charge on my bank account this year, 2025. I am not going to pay this. I do not live in the Netherlands and have no use of this service. I know I should not have trusted them, but I really tried everything in my power to get rid of this subscription. Please don't fall for this and take care of yourselves.
-Janice

They lure you in with the free plan just to annually remove money from your bank account without even sending you a confirmation email. I checked my inbox after I realized I payed them 3 years long and nothing! No invoices or anything. I only found out about this because this time they had an error withdrawing my money and sent me a bill. Of course fortunately for them a month after the end of the cancellation period. Fingers away!