Do you have one or more app subscriptions on your iPhone? From now on, pay attention to the price, because developers can from now on just increase the subscription price – without your permission being required.
Price app subscription automatically higher
Now when an app builder increases the price of an auto-renewable subscription, a user must confirm that they want to continue subscribing at the new price. If they don’t, the subscription will be canceled automatically.
A new App Store policy changes that. With the new guidelines, the price increase is simply taken into account, without you as a user having to agree to this.
Apple has put in place some rules to prevent developers from abusing this feature. For example, subscribers must be notified of the change in subscription price. Also, the price increase may not take place more than once a year.
The price increase must also not exceed $5 for a monthly subscription, or $50 for an annual subscription. An increase may also not exceed 50 percent of the subscription price. If a price increase exceeds these limits, users will have to manually resubscribe to the iPhone app. If they fail to do so, the subscription will be terminated.
Why this adjustment?
On its own website, Apple explains the change of the App Store policy. Previously, all price changes had to be approved first. This would cause many subscriptions to be unintentionally terminated, for example because users missed the email and push notifications. Users then had to subscribe again.
With the new policy, Apple introduces another problem. Enough people will overlook the push notification and the subscription price increase email. They suddenly pay more, and will be unpleasantly surprised when they see the invoice.
So check the notifications and emails carefully, and check the prices of your subscriptions every now and then. This is how you do it:
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap your name at the top;
- Select ‘Subscriptions’;
- Under ‘Active’, tap one of the apps to see the price.