Times Newspapers Ltd Reviews 

1,074
TrustScore 1 out of 5

1.1

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Considering 159 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Consumers frequently complain about unexpected charges and sudden price increases occurring immediately after trial periods end without any prior notification from the company. People note that canceling active memberships is extremely frustrating and difficult, requiring lengthy phone calls, enduring long waiting times, and dealing with unhelpful customer support representatives. Some reviewers were happy with initial promotional offers and occasionally found staff members to be courteous and helpful during direct phone interactions. Others also mentioned successfully navigating the early cancellation process before any unexpected monthly fees were applied to their personal bank accounts.

What people talk about most

Subscription

Reviewers mention negative feedback about subscription services, particularly highlighting unexpected high... See more

Cancellation

Consumers find cancellation to be a frustrating and difficult process due to the lack of online options.... See more

Customer service

Customers had negative experiences with customer service, often citing frustrating interactions and... See more

Payment

Reviewers highlight negative aspects of payment, expressing frustration over unexpected charges after trial... See more

Customer communications

Users describe negative interactions with contact due to frustrating communication hurdles. Consumers... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Joining the chorus of other reviewers here. Fan of the paper but the practices employed when it comes to subscription renewal options are underhand. I agreed a 12 month package to then be auto renewed... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Woeful customer service. 4 times I've contacted them, 3 times on chat funcrion, get left hanging for 35 minutes and then drops off. Then get fobbed off with non answers. Called customer service and my... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

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 readi... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Really poor experience dealing with customer service on what was initially a payment issue. This needed to be resolved by phoning their helpline after an extended period owing to delayed responses b... See more


Company details

  1. Newspaper Publisher

Written by the company

Thetimes.co.uk hosts the digital edition of The Times, Britain’s oldest national daily newspaper, and its sister title The Sunday Times. The Times was founded in 1785 by the editor and publisher John Walter I, “to record the principal occurrences of the times” for the service of the public. It was called the Daily Universal Register for the first three years, until it rebranded as The Times in 1788 – the first newspaper in the world to use the Times name. In his first edition, John Walter I explained that “like a well-covered table, it should contain something suited to every palate” including politics, foreign affairs, matters of trade, legal trials, advertisements and “amusements”. In its tone and political neutrality, Walter reserved the right of the newspaper “to censure or applaud either [political party]” and to cover contending issues with respectful “fair argument”. More than 200 years on, these founding principles hold true today. The Times has supported both New Labour and the Conservatives in recent times and supported Remain in the 2016 EU referendum. The titles are currently the biggest selling quality print newspapers in the UK and in 2018 The Times was named Britain’s most trusted national newspaper by the Reuters Institute for Journalism at Oxford University. In 2019 The Times and The Sunday Times won the Daily and Sunday newspaper of the year categories at the British Press Awards among several other prizes for their writing, reporting, investigations and campaigns. Both papers are committed to driving digital innovation in all areas of their world-class journalism.


Contact info

1.1

Bad

TrustScore 1 out of 5

1K reviews

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1.1

All reviews

(1,074)

157 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Subscription trap

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.

May 26, 2026
Unprompted review
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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I do not have a subscription, but expect an acknowledgement of my comments.

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!

May 28, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Nefarious practice

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

May 21, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Zero stars!

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!

May 17, 2026
Unprompted review
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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Scam

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!

May 11, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

The race to the bottom

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.

May 6, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Subscription scam!!!!

Do not be fooled into signing up for the subscription service! I cancelled via email only to be told that I have to telephone to cancel. I cannot think of another company that allows cancellations via telephone, they usually insist that you put a cancellation in writing. Apparently though, if you live outside of the UK, you can cancel via email but if you live in Britain and try to cancel your subscription with this British company you can’t and have to suffer the inconvenience of queuing on a call. Appalling service. Feels like a scam

May 7, 2026
Unprompted review
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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Avoid trial subscriptions!

Took out a trial subscription in February. Yesterday Times Newspapers grabbed £30 from my account without informing me that my trial subscription was about to end. Managed to talk to two agents in customer services who couldn't help but escalated my complaint. Today received an email saying they wouldn't refund me ('read the small print' is their cry!) but would cancel my subscription from next month. Won't fall for it again, Mr Murdoch!

May 2, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Scam merchants

Like (apparently) everyone else here, signed up for a free trial, read one article which was enough to see that the quality of journalism here has gone through the floor, got charged £30 at the end of the trial with no notification or reminder, refused to refund. There's new legislation coming which will render such behaviour completely illegal.

April 30, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Predatory subscription practice

Predatory subscription practice. You would be well advised to avoid accepting their £1 for 3 months offer. You will regret being seduced by this seemingly attractive offer. The website is extremely clunky and prone to crashes and delayed loading. I don't recall a cancellation process as archaic and unpleasant since AOL was still a market leader. You don't have to call, send an email stating you are cancelling and do not require or need a 'discussion'. Ensure you receive an confirmation email. Don't engage!

April 29, 2026
Unprompted review
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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Zero stars!

Zero stars!
Like everyone else (£1, cancelled, £30 taken, won’t refund) OUTRAGEOUS, shoddy, useless, deceitful …
How are they allowed to get away with it?!

April 27, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Deceiptful cancelation process

Very bad cancelation process designed to trick the customer where they force you to call in. I provided cancelation notice via email but they refused to carry it out and charged my card £30 after a free trial.

April 19, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Dark ages

Dark ages. These people live in the dark ages. Comments rejected every time on Times & Sunday Times for no apparent reason.

Customer service? What a joke. We have escalated and will be back in touch. Never a reply nor an update. No wonder subscriptions fall and your business model is under threat. You need to wake up and raise the bar.

April 24, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Signed up for a trial subscription

Signed up for a trial subscription and automatically renewed on to a higher price, called up the same day (why do you have to ring them?) to cancel and request refund, to be told you have to request at least 2 days before and it's embedded into their Terms and Conditions???

This unscrupulous predatory practise is now having to be written into law against requiring companies to adhere to a 14 day cooling off period when trial periods end.

No notification from the company to say the trial was ending.

I do not get why companies do this, yes you get a short term gain, but I would never ever touch a Times product again and nor will anyone else who has been subjected to this.

April 22, 2026
Unprompted review
Advertisement
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Read this before starting trial subscription of the Times Newspaper

Same experience as most reviewers here. Trial subscription at £1 but the it keep charging £10 per month without any notification or reminder email. It is very unethical and not UK practice for subscription services. After blindly direct debit paying 3.5 years, total £420, today I called their hotline to cancel it which is the only way. Hope anyone read this experience before starting their trial.

April 22, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

A con

I understand how subscriptions work but after doing the 3 month £1 trial and then a £30 payment coming out, I thought that was £30 for the year and decided to leave it. I’m the horrified to have another £30 come out again the next month with no email in advance to say a payment would be coming out. I cannot believe that anyone would be £30 for digital only. I called and requested the refund and the person on the phone had a terrible attitude and manner, I look after customer service teams so know how to handle calls. As the payment was only taken yesterday, I would have expected them to still be able to refund me. I will never read the times again (and had this happened, I would have). What’s even worse is that I only looked at it a handful of times anyway. They are clearly doing this knowingly to rip people off

April 21, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely horrendous

The Times’ subscription cancellation and refund policies are completely predatory, immoral, and unethical.

You can sign up digitally, but the only way to cancel is to call up by phone. There are no reminders for when a trial or discount period is about to end and when you will be charged full price. And they will absolutely not refund you even if you are just a few days late and haven’t read a single article.

The new laws surrounding subscriptions and cancellation policies can’t come soon enough.

Really hope The Times enjoys that £20 they’ve got from me! They won’t ever receive another penny from me.

April 17, 2026
Unprompted review

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