The $165 Billion "Annoyance Economy" — Why Canceling Subscriptions Is So Hard

The Numbers Are Staggering

Americans lose $165 billion every year to what researchers call the "annoyance economy" — the maze of junk fees, impossible cancellations, and deliberate corporate friction designed to drain your wallet and your patience.

That's according to a February 2026 report from the Groundwork Collaborative, a policy research organization that broke down exactly where that money goes:

• $90 billion in junk fees — concert ticket surcharges, hotel "resort fees," food delivery markups, rental application fees
• $21.6 billion in lost worker time dealing with healthcare administration
• $53+ billion in subscription friction — dark patterns, phone-only cancellations, and retention departments designed to talk you out of leaving

Why Companies Make Canceling So Hard

It's not incompetence. It's strategy.

The Groundwork report found that making cancellations more difficult can boost a company's revenue by 14% to over 200%. Every obstacle — every phone tree, every "are you sure?" screen, every 45-minute hold — prevents a percentage of customers from following through.

Americans now spend 60% longer on customer service calls than they did twenty years ago. That's not because the problems are more complex. It's because the friction is by design.

Here's how companies do it:

• Easy to subscribe, impossible to cancel: One-click sign-up, but canceling requires a phone call during business hours
• Retention departments: Trained agents whose job is to convince you to stay, offering discounts and "pausing" instead of canceling
• Dark patterns: Confusing UI that hides cancel buttons, uses guilt-tripping copy ("Are you sure? You'll lose everything!"), or requires navigating 7+ screens
• Annual billing traps: Monthly-sounding pricing that locks you into a year, with cancellation fees that negate any savings
• Zombie subscriptions: Auto-renewing free trials and charges that appear under different names on your statement

The Worst Offenders

Based on our data from 440+ cancel guides, here are the services with the hardest cancellation processes:

• Planet Fitness — Requires certified letter or in-person visit. Cannot cancel online or by phone.
• SiriusXM — Must call during business hours. Average hold time: 30+ minutes. Agents trained to offer 3+ retention deals.
• Adobe Creative Cloud — 50% of remaining contract charged as "early termination fee" on annual plans.
• Xfinity — Phone-only cancellation with aggressive retention scripts. Equipment return required within 10 days.
• NYT — Chat-only cancellation. Agents trained to offer multiple discounts before processing.
• AAA — Phone or mail only. Auto-renews without reminder. Prorated refunds not guaranteed.

See our full Dark Patterns Hall of Shame for the 15 worst companies ranked by cancellation difficulty.

The Government Was Trying to Help (Then Stopped)

In 2024, the FTC finalized its "Click-to-Cancel" rule — requiring companies to make cancellation as easy as sign-up. If you subscribed with one click, you should be able to cancel with one click.

But enforcement has been paused under the current administration. The Groundwork report notes that recent executive actions have rolled back consumer protections, leaving Americans to navigate the annoyance economy on their own.

This isn't a partisan issue — 87% of Americans across party lines support banning junk fees and making cancellations easier. But corporate lobbying has kept the status quo intact.

How to Fight Back

You can't change corporate policy overnight, but you can stop paying for subscriptions you don't use. Here's the playbook:

1. Audit your subscriptions: The average American has 12 active subscriptions and underestimates their total spending by 2.5x. Upload your bank statement to Just Cancel to find every recurring charge in under 60 seconds.
2. Use our cancel guides: We have step-by-step instructions for 200+ services, including direct cancel URLs, difficulty ratings, and workarounds for the worst offenders.
3. Know your rights: In many states, if you cancel during a free trial, they legally cannot charge you. If a company makes cancellation unreasonably difficult, file a complaint with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
4. Check your bank statement monthly: Set a calendar reminder. Most people discover unwanted charges 3-6 months after they start. Use our subscription calculator to see how much you're really spending.
5. Use virtual cards: Services like Privacy.com let you create single-use card numbers for free trials. When the trial ends, the card declines automatically.

The Bottom Line

The annoyance economy isn't going away. Companies make too much money from it. But you don't have to be a passive victim. Every subscription you cancel is money back in your pocket — and the average person saves $200-400/year just by doing a proper audit.

The first step is knowing what you're paying for. Upload your bank statement →