How do I cancel automatic subscription renewals?

Dear Liz: I paid for several magazine subscriptions online. At the end of the transaction, I received notice that I had also been signed up for automatic renewal. While I will be notified prior to the end of the current subscription period and given the opportunity to cancel the subscription, this seems like an underhanded way of subscriptions being renewed.

Answer: Many companies in recent years have adopted automatic renewal as a way to take advantage of customers’ inertia. Some companies have even made it difficult to cancel subscriptions as a way of further boosting profits.

Research led by the Stanford Graduate School of Business has found that this may be a short-sighted strategy. The researchers found that subscriptions that automatically cancel attract more customers than tho