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Most subscription traps do not look like traps at all.
They usually look like harmless buttons.
Start free trial
Try for 7 days
Continue for just £1
You click.
You mean well.
You think you will remember to cancel.
You do not remember to cancel.
And suddenly you are paying for something you do not use, do not want, or did not even realise you agreed to. It is one of the oldest tricks in online payments, and somehow it has only become worse.
Why subscription traps work
There is nothing clever about the psychology behind them. It is simple.
They hide the real price.
They make it hard to cancel.
They hope you forget.
They rely on the fact that your card is permanently attached to the merchant.
Once your card details are in their system, they can take money whenever their terms allow. A lot of companies quietly count on this passive revenue and they are very good at designing systems that make cancellation inconvenient.
You are not lazy. The system is designed to win.
The bigger problem: merchants holding your identity
The moment you hand over your main card details, you give them more than permission to bill you. You give them:
• your card number
• your name
• your billing address
• your device info
• often your email and IP address
It becomes a little identity package attached to a subscription you no longer want. And if they get hacked, or quietly sell data to partners, you become part of a much bigger problem.
How GhostCard breaks the trap
GhostCard works like a digital version of cash.
You create a burner card for each merchant.
It only works where you choose and you can delete it any time.
This means:
1. Free trials stay free
If a trial ends and you do not want it, you just delete the card.
The merchant cannot charge a card that no longer exists.
2. You control the rules
You can cap the card, pause it, or lock it to one merchant.
There is no ongoing access to your main money.
3. No more endless “how to cancel” pages
You do not need to go through five menus, a chatbot, and a guilt-trip email.
You just remove the burner card.
4. They never see your real payment identity
No permanent card number.
No long-term profile.
No future charges you did not authorise.
5. Subscription traps stop being traps
When you have control, the whole trick falls apart.
Want to stay one step ahead?
GhostCard is designed to put you back in control of your money and your privacy.
No tracking, no profiling, no selling your data.
Join the waitlist if you want early access to burner cards and more no-nonsense features built around your needs.
