Subscriptions

Cover of Subscriptions, Frontier Report No. 15

Frontier Report No. 15 · 21 pages · 31 sources

Why do people keep paying for subscriptions they rarely use?

Renewal is a default, so continuing needs no action and stopping needs one. People also tend to overestimate how much they will use what they pay for, and small monthly payments made out of sight are easy to overlook. In payment card data, cancellations rose sharply in months when people had to act to keep paying.

What the report found

  1. Subscriptions are a mainstream way to buy. In a 2024 survey, 91 per cent of UAE adults held at least one subscription, with about three each at roughly 90 dirhams a month apiece.
  2. Flat fees feel good even when they cost more. Many people choose a flat rate when paying per use would be cheaper. In one study of health clubs, members on monthly contracts paid more than 17 dollars per visit when a ten visit pass would have cost 10.
  3. Inertia keeps payments running. In payment card data, cancellations rose sharply in months when cards were replaced and people had to act; the researchers estimated that the effort of cancelling roughly doubles seller revenue on average.
  4. Many people see it coming. In a field experiment with about two million newspaper readers, a quarter to a third of potential subscribers turned down offers that renewed automatically.
  5. Good design is easy to leave. UAE consumers named easy cancellation and refunds among the top reasons to stay loyal, and rules on clear information and reminders point the same way.

What is inside

  1. What is new
  2. What older research tells us
  3. What early studies suggest
  4. What nobody knows yet
  5. Questions worth watching

Plus an evidence maturity map, a scenario grid, a list of signals to watch and a renewal checklist.

Who it is for

For product, pricing and retention teams, marketers, designers and anyone who pays for, or sells, something by the month.

How we work

Frontier Reports separate what is established from what is emerging and what remains untested. Every claim is graded, and where researchers disagree, as they do on whether subscription inertia is a cost or a convenience, both sides are set out before we say where we stand.

Cite this report

The Why We Project (2026) Subscriptions: Paying for everything, cancelling nothing. Frontier Report No. 15. Dubai: Why We Tech Ltd. Available at: thewhyweproject.com