How the Trap Works

First, something we should say out loud: cancelling is always free if you do it yourself, directly with the provider. The ACM — the Dutch consumer authority — says exactly that in its warning campaign about paid cancellation services, and the ACM is entirely right. A cancellation service is a choice you make for convenience — and you can only truly make a choice when you know what it costs.

That is precisely where the problem sits. Misleading cancellation services buy advertising space above the search results for queries such as "cancel netflix" or "cancel gym membership". The page you land on looks like a cancellation page of the provider itself. The price is there, but in the small print, where a reader in a hurry — and anyone cancelling something usually is — reads straight past it. Everything on that page points to one place: the send button. The price only follows afterwards, in the form of an invoice.

Dutch consumer television programme Kassa has warned about GoodbyeGuru.com, which charges €42 per cancellation, about Abbostop.nl and about Opzeggenbij.nl. Those who have lived here longer may remember Termination Experts, which collected hundreds of complaints about sky-high fees. The names change; the model does not.

Is it illegal? Usually not, or only just not. The price ís there, somewhere. Reprehensible and illegal are two different things — and this business model is built on exactly that difference.

Our Advice: Don't Pay

We have been receiving reports from victims for years, and in all those years we know of not a single case in which such a claim was handed over to a serious, independent debt collection agency. The "collection agency" used in the threats usually comes from the same stable as the cancellation service itself: different letterhead, same sender.

Nor do we know of a single case that was ever put before a judge. Zero. Read that again: in all those years, with all those invoices and threatening letters — zero court cases.

That is no coincidence. A judge who rules even once that the method is misleading creates instant clarity for every victim at the same time. A company that lives off this method will not take that risk. The threat of debt collectors and courtrooms is exactly that: a threat. The business model only works if you pay before anyone has looked at it.

So dispute the invoice once, in writing. Write that you never knowingly entered into a paid agreement, that — in so far as such an agreement exists at all — you withdraw from it, and that you will not pay. Keep that message. After that, you do not need to respond to anything.

Report It — It Does More Than You Think

Report the deception in two places: at Meldpunt Eerlijk, the reporting desk of the Dutch consumers' association Consumentenbond, and at ACM ConsuWijzer, the consumer desk of the Dutch regulator. Both pages are in Dutch, but a report in English is perfectly fine. And let's be honest about expectations: one report rarely triggers action. Regulators and consumer organisations move when reports pile up, not one by one.

But those piles genuinely work. The Consumentenbond received around 200 reports about Termination Experts in a single year. It formally demanded refunds and got them, in early 2026 another 64 victims got their money back and the site has since gone offline — we wrote about it at the time. So it cán be done. Every report made that pile higher.

And yet: for every company that disappears from the stage this way, a new one steps up. Same form, same small print, different name. That is because the place where victims are delivered remains, quite simply, for sale.

Yes, We Are a Cancellation Service Too

That needs saying, because otherwise someone else will say it for us. Through Moneytoring.com you also pay to have a cancellation sent, and here too: cancelling yourself is always free.

The difference is not in whát we do, but in when you find out. With us, you see the price before you send anything, right where you decide. Your cancellation goes out by registered post and you receive legally valid proof of receipt, so you never have to argue about whether you cancelled. Your right of withdrawal stays fully intact — no compulsory tick boxes. And on top of that we offer a not-satisfied-money-back guarantee, quite simply because we stand behind our service.

That is how a cancellation service should work: as a service you consciously choose, not a trap you swim into. New to the Netherlands? Our guide to cancelling a subscription in the Netherlands walks you through how cancelling here works — and you can cancel any subscription online from one place. We write this article with mixed feelings, though. Every misleading company damages trust in something that should take work off people's hands. We hope for the day this article is no longer needed.