Times Newspapers Ltd Reviews 

I subscribed to The Times' digital offer for £1 a month for three months simply to read a single article. I completely forgot about the subscription until I noticed a £30 renewal charge.
As soon as I realised what had happened, I contacted customer services, explained the situation honestly, and asked for a goodwill refund. I also explained that I had not intentionally used the renewed subscription.
Despite multiple emails and an escalation, every response was essentially a template quoting the terms and conditions. There was no willingness whatsoever to exercise any discretion or consider the individual circumstances. Instead, I was repeatedly told that because the payment had already been taken, no refund would be considered.
What concerns me most is that after looking on here, I discovered many other customers describing exactly the same experience. That suggests this isn't an isolated incident but a recurring issue with their introductory offers and automatic renewals.
To make matters worse, they repeatedly told me to phone to cancel my subscription, despite me making it clear in writing that I wanted it cancelled immediately. Email should be perfectly adequate for cancelling a subscription.
For a national newspaper, I'd have expected far better customer service and a little common sense. Instead, they've chosen to lose a customer and damage their reputation over a £30 charge.
I certainly won't be subscribing again, and I would urge anyone considering one of their introductory offers to set a reminder to cancel well before the renewal date—or better still DON'T SUBSCRIBE AT ALL!

Absolutely shocking! Trying to escape their subscription service is like a labyrinth. They make it hard as possible to cancel and even when you do you get bombarded with comms to re-join. No self service options and everything done by phone. Its all smoke and mirrors to keep you paying. Never again!

Like everyone else here. Issues with The Times subscription scam.
Rejecting law about 14-day cooling period , I contacted the next day.

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA), companies are legally required to ensure that exiting a contract is straightforward and free of unnecessary hurdles . They do not follow
According to gov.uk
A company cannot force you to phone a call center, wait in endless live-chat queues, or navigate a maze of hidden menus just because you clicked a single button to subscribe.
Painful call centre and rude agent telling you you were too stupid to not read all the tiny T&Cs

Would not believe a single word written in the paper or on online . From a once great paper to fall so low . Shame

Same as everyone else they are charging me and every time I call I’m first in the line wait half an hour it gives me the option to call me back and they never call. It’s impossible to cancel and they just take my money.

All cos I wanted to read a click bait article and thought 1 pound was fine. Actual con artists

After 30 years of buying the paper every weekend (Sat and Sunday) and most week days I will never buy a single copy again. Ever.

I went abroad 7+ months ago and couldn’t get a copy anywhere so I paid £1 for T 3 month trial and thought I’d cancelled it. Seems £30 has been coming out of my account for last 4 months (via PayPal ) so updates are harder to track/manage etc.

I phoned today and after a short period I was greeted by what I can only sense as someone working from home or in some public place of sorts. The guy almost had the response engraved in his brain “Sorry Sir, if you don’t phone and cancel then we keep billing”. So £10 every weekend spent on the paper edition doubled up with £30 online equates to £70 alone! Madness.

The online content is appalling. It’s repetitive, dull, padded out and not fit for purpose as previous posters have said.

Real let down of what used to be a pleasure reading and enjoying.

Don’t subscribe- you’ll never get out of it!
I am awaiting callback from The Times- this will be my 5th call trying to cancel a very high subscription.
The first advisor said that the subscription would be cancelled and no payment would be taken- it was.
Second call cancelled again- payment was not returned.
My access to the app has now been blocked- but the payment has not been returned…..
Wish I’d never got involved…..

This company intentionally makes it difficult for people to cancel and is very sneaky by increasing fees back up after low initial price without any warning
- monthly fee increased with no warning email from £5 to £20. Realised 3 months later
- impossible to cancel online, they force you to call them
- they insist 2 days notice required to cancel subscription, refused to cancel my payment on the day I rang up (payment had not yet been taken)
In this day and age its completely unacceptable to trap customers like this. This must be against the rules. I will never have anything to do with this paper again.

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.