Times Newspapers Ltd Reviews 

Used their free / v cheap trial to read an article but they've made it absolutely impossible to cancel. Do not sign up.

I wanted to read one article, signed up for the £1 offer and went to immediately cancel but had to search for cancellation details, only to find out you aren't able to do this manually via your account, you have to actually phone an 0800 number. Clearly set up to make it difficult for people to cancel.

These are absolute scammers!!!! They make it impossible to cancel your account. You can’t cancel it via logging in, you can’t cancel it by cancelling with apple if it’s is the App Store! They are rude via the telephone lines which by the way aren’t always open! The bloke I spoke to was cross examining me like I was in court trying to catch me out over the phone for loopholes how he is unable to help reverse charges that I should have had! Please don’t trust signing up to these.

Can't believe a national newspaper can get away with this. They know that no one would knowingly sign up to pay them £30 A MONTH !!! So they rely on people expecting reasonable charging and not reading the small print. They don't advertise their £30/month fees anywhere...and so they are making a nice little profit knowing that people will pay for a month or 2 before they realise!
It shouldn't be allowed... hopefully their compeititor newspapers and trading standards pickup the story... i've reported them and hope others do the same. Report to your MP! It shouldn't be happening

Why is it so hard to cancel a trial in 2026?!

I had a discounted period and I wrongly assumed that they would remind me when it ws going to jump to £30 which would have given me the opportunity to cancel. When I contacted them and pointed out legislation regarding the need to inform customers, their response was that's not law yet. This is a great example of a company who puts themselves first rather than what's right and fair for the customer. I have now cancelled my membership which also is not easy as you have to ring up to cancel and I ended up having to insist on cancelling as presented with a sales rep trying to get you to stay. Really disappointed in this company.

Do not touch their digital app subscription. When their trial period came to and end they took 30 pounds from my account without any notice. They told me I should have cancelled their service and would not give refund.
Absolutely thieves!

Just found out (from PayPal, not The Times) they've taken £30 for a subscription I have not used, either during the trial period or since. Tried to cancel subscription and obtain refund. Refund refused. Apparently, notice limit is 2 days before payment taken, but of course, they don't warn anyone when they're taking the payment. Shysters, nothing more.

Why don't they send out an email beforehand, at least 2 days, warning chargeable period is starting and they'll be taking payment on date X? They just bury the detail in the small print, knowing that most people are too busy to read it.

£30, simply stolen. Will never read their newspaper again, in print or online.

I signed up for the 3 months for £1.00 trial and left myself an automatic reminder to ring up one week beforehand and cancel before they took the £30 monthly payment. It’s a nuisance they make you ring a number (albeit freephone) and that you can’t cancel online. That said, for all those on here criticising the Times when you signed up for the trial and didn’t cancel in time, I think that’s unfair as in this day and age, setting reminders on phones etc is very easy to do.

Mac took my call and was very courteous and helpful. I’d say he is an asset to their team. He did not try at all to persuade me to stay and he made no hard attempt whatsoever to upsell as others have described

I would have given 5 stars and the only reasons I didn’t are 1) first time I called I was in a queue and when I reached number one the call was picked up and immediately manually disconnected forcing me to queue again for around 5 further minutes and 2) I asked for a cancellation confirmation email and never received it although subsequently got a “sorry to see you go” feedback survey so
I am confident my plan has definitely been cancelled. In this day and age though cancellation emails should be standard so the customer has written confirmation the contractual plan has been successfully terminated.

Do not be tempted by the "3 months for £1" offer. It's designed to hook you, and the moment you try to leave, the real Times shows up.
When I decided to cancel, I discovered you cannot do it online. Not through the app, not through your account settings, not by email. You are forced to phone a call centre during specific hours — a deliberate obstacle that belongs in 2005, not today. I wasted a frustrating amount of time on hold, only to be put through a scripted retention pitch trying to talk me out of leaving. Cancelling a newspaper should take 30 seconds; instead it's an ordeal.
This is not an accident. It's a business model built on friction — make signing up effortless and cancelling painful, so people give up and keep paying. The terms and conditions are buried, vague, and clearly written to protect them, not you.
It's telling that this is exactly the kind of practice UK regulators are now clamping down on. New subscription rules under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act are coming in — including the principle that if you can sign up online, you should be able to cancel online, plus clearer trial-to-renewal protections. The Times is relying on tactics that are on borrowed time. A quality publication should stand on its journalism, not on trapping subscribers who want out.
If you're considering the £1 deal: ask yourself why a company confident in its product would make leaving this hard. Save yourself the hassle.

This is the subscription trap they make it next to impossible to cancel your subscription, they lure you in with a great offer then keep charging your card month after month after month and make it impossible to cancel.

The price has gone up by over 9% and the editorial is very biased towards Israel.
I cancelled my subscription and was offered deals to stay. Shame they do not offer discounts for loyalty before you leave.
Also, they refused to refund my recent payment of £75.66 for a paper I will not be receiving.
Have had the paper for decades and enough is now enough.

Like everyone else here, subscribed on one of their ridiculously low offers of like £1 for 3 months to read one article. Didn’t manage to cancel on time and was charged £30/month for two months.
I was abroad when I realised one month had been paid so I’ve started trying to cancel. Impossible on the app, I’ve then sent an email but that didn’t work either, as they only process cancellations over the phone.

I do not have a subscription and have avoided that route. However, I have bought and read The Times on most days. From time to time, through feedback, I have criticised some of their journalism and skewed reporting of world events. I note that they no longer acknowledge my emails. This is poor and shows a complete disregard of the views of their readers. The quiz sections are excellent and the main reason I continue to buy the paper, plus reading the views of wayward journalists! I know they hate exclamation marks, which tells me something!

Signed up for the free trial as I wanted to read one article. Went to cancel it on the app straightaway. Never read an article since or signed in therefore not used the service. As it said £1 for 3 months I presumed this was billed at £1 per month, so with no further payments presumed it had been cancelled successfully

Was then shocked to see £30 be taken from my account after 3 months! No warning that the trial was ending. Phoned them up same day, the customer service assistant admitted that there’d been some kind of bug on the app affecting cancellations, but that I ‘didn’t seem to be affected’. Doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence thst their own procedures were followed! Refused me a refund.

Followed this up with an email complaint to which a week later still no reply. Ended up requesting a chargeback through my bank. On a side note I can’t fault Chase bank who refunded my £30 straight away.

It’s very sneaky of The Times to not warn people that their subscription is ending and then to charge people £30 and refuse to refund. Their wording is also not clear. The girl on the phone told me I should’ve phoned to check my cancellation so they are not making it easy for people. There’s certain legislation coming in next year to protect consumers from these nefarious practices

Tip: use AI (eg chatGPT / Grok) to write your complaints and also in communication with your bank to strengthen your points

Would give zero stars if I could. Go through your bank for a refund.....it works and I got my money back! I cancelled my subscription through my Apple ID in the same way I manage any subscription signed up through the App Store. As I didn’t telephone through to The Times to confirm my subscription cancellation, they took money from my bank without authorisation.

I cannot access my Times account. I get a server error message when trying to (hence the cancellation). Their customer services even confirmed to me they could see I haven’t ever accessed my account. They asked me to send a screenshot of the error message which I did. They replied and told me the error message is because I didn’t phone through to cancel and this should’ve prompted me to pick up the phone and call them, therefore it’s my fault. What?!

In this digital age, what company expects a subscriber to also phone the company to double check a subscription is cancelled? They could save a fortune in man power for a start and stop ripping us off! Nowhere does it warn you that you have to call them to cancel when you sign up. They are complete con artists, desperate to make money out of people who no longer want to be their customers. Avoid The Times and don’t be duped into a free trial period, because it’s next to impossible to cancel!

With what’s going on in the world right now the Times headline story on an iPhone is Primak introducing its own delivery online system.
Honestly how DUMPED down can a newspaper get?? You are truly a pathetic editorial nowadays.

Don’t respond when you want to cancel your subscription so take £30/m after £1/6m trial

Agreed with everyone else, very nasty tactic of tricking people into expensive subscriptions. Also, if you manage to cancel, they end the subscription straight away and don't let you finish the month you paid for!

The worst of the worst of greedy, dishonest, corporate news, masquerading as 'intellectual'. It better have a plan B because its attempt at appealing to a younger more diverse audience is clutching at straws. It's also highly racist. A paper for disgruntled 'boomers' and sycophantic Royalists.