How To Cancel Adobe Creative Cloud Without Paying Cancellation Fees

So you bought into the hype. You believed Adobe Creative Cloud would solve all your woes. With this deluxe subscription from Adobe, for a monthly fee, you had access to video, audio and photo editing programs, website design, specialty fonts, portfolio templates, animators--the works! For a time you were over the moon with excitement about your options.

Suddenly, the newest update is incompatible with your operating system. Maybe the feature you used most has been moved to the upgraded platform or discontinued. Perhaps you thought you had signed up for a free trial and were surprised when the credit card statement showed a new charge. It could be that you found a better service. Now you want to cancel your subscription.

So let’s look at how to cancel Adobe Creative Cloud without cancellation fee.

Canceling Online

If you signed up for the Monthly Plan, there’s no cancellation fee. You will be charged for the month and have access until the end of the month. And that’s that.

If you’ve signed up for the annual plan, either with the annual payment or monthly payments, it’s not quite so easy. If you cancel within the first 14 days, sure, you’ll get a full refund.

Canceling your plan online seems pretty straight forward if you are still in that 14-day period or have enrolled in the monthly plan:

When you cancel, you’ll still have access to the free Creative Cloud membership plan. With the free plan, you have 2 GB of cloud storage with a full 90 days to reduce your online storage to 2 GB. Naturally, you won’t have access to most of the services from the paid plan, but you can continue to use the Adobe XD and Premiere Rush CC free starter plans.

If you are in a country that is served by Digital River, you will not be able to cancel online. You will have to call customer service. Those areas include Russia, most of Latin America, the Asian Pacific and the Middle East.

Again, if you are within the 14-day period or have signed up for the monthly plan, you should have no difficulties canceling. Nor will you need to pay a cancellation fee.

However, if you have already had the Adobe Creative Cloud annual plan for more than 14 days and want to cancel, you will be charged 50% of your remaining contract obligation.

Not only that, but you will only have access for the rest of the month. Ouch! To figure your fee, determine how many months you have left in the 12-month contract and how much that costs, then divide it in half. In many instances, this is a hefty fine.

So what should you do if you signed up for the annual plan, payable either monthly or annually, and you aren’t in the 14-day grace period?

Well, you could wait until the end of your contract and cancel then. Doing so would cut or completely eliminate the cancellation fees depending on when you cancel. You should aim for 30 days before the end of your annual renewal date. That way, you’ll have access to all your stuff for the duration of the month and prevent the automatic renewal.

Of course, if your operating system is incompatible for instance, this seems like an expensive way to save on cancellation fees.

Contacting Customer Service

Therefore, another logical way how to cancel Adobe Creative Cloud without cancellation fee would be to switch your plan from annual to monthly then cancel your new subscription within the first 14 days. Unfortunately, there are issues with here as well. It appears that to do this, you’ll need to cancel your annual subscription before enrolling in the monthly subscription. This implies that there might still be cancellation charges incurred.

On the other hand, if you choose to upgrade from a monthly plan to the annual subscription, not only will you receive a refund on the unused time on your monthly plan, but also the cancellation fees will be waived. So maybe there is a way around this.

Your best bet would be not to go through the automated process online to make changes or cancel your plan. Instead, call the Adobe customer service phone number ((800)833-6687) or use the live chat option. That way you’ll be able to ask about cancellation fees before making any changes.

There’s a good chance a little insistence on your part could convince the customer service representative to override the cancellation fee manually. Remember, there’s no need to be rude. After all, the person on the other end of the call is only doing his or her job. Rather, be polite but firm about that dratted cancellation fee charge.

When you call customer service, make sure to have on-hand:

It might take more than a minute or two for this process, so be patient. Perhaps the customer service representative needs a supervisor’s approval. Maybe he or she has been instructed to offer you other incentives to stay, like two months free, before authorizing the fee waiver. Take a deep breath and maintain your position.

If you aren’t able to get the cancellation fee waived, ask about changing your plan to a less expensive option. Be sure to ask whether you would be able to cancel your subscription if you were unsatisfied with the plan. Also, ask how many days you have in which to cancel the plan without penalty. Then make sure to cancel within that time frame unless you really like the new plan. If that’s the case, go ahead and keep using it. Just remember, all the subscription plans are set up to automatically renew.

Suppose the customer service representative insists that you’ll still be charged the 50% cancellation fee whatever you do? Well, then it’s time for the big guns.

Canceling the Recurring Payment

Adobe allows you to pay either through Paypal or with a credit card.  Both methods will allow you to stop recurring payments. This is yet another way how to cancel Adobe Creative Cloud without cancellation fee.

If you choose to stop payment in this way, your bank, credit card company or Paypal will not allow a recurring payment for Adobe in the future. So you will not be able to resubscribe or buy a new plan by the same means if you want to get a subscription from Adobe at another time.

If you used Paypal, you could cancel automatic payment transactions up until the day before the next scheduled payment.

To do so:

A call to your credit card company or bank will often take care of the matter as well. When you call, be sure to explain that you have already attempted to cancel your subscription with Adobe and were not satisfied with their policies.

Hopefully, with the information in this article, you were able to cancel your subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud without paying cancellation fees. Adobe has made it clear what their cancelation policy is. Even though no one likes to pay for cancellation, Adobe is within its rights to levy a fine. By canceling, you have broken a contract. It doesn't matter whether you were aware that contract existed or not.

Unfortunately, sometimes there’s no way around cancellation fees. When that happens, it’s better to pay to cancel rather than continuing to pay month after month for a service or product you won't use.

Tips to Avoid Recurring Charges

Having learned your lesson the hard way, you won’t want to find yourself in the same boat again. Here are some simple tips to help you keep track of your recurring subscriptions.

If you sign up for a free-trial offer, make sure to read the fine print. Your payment information will be used to continue the service at a certain point. It could be a week, 14 days, or 6 months down the road. If you read the Terms of Service, you should find out exactly how to cancel your subscription. If you can't find that information, contact the company directly.

Keep your trial-offer and subscriptions on one card. It’s much easier to keep track of that way. Then check your billing statements. These days it’s easy to automate everything, including bill paying. Once a year renewal charges might get overlooked.

If there is a transaction that you can’t identify on your statement, contact the company that made the charge. If you don’t have the time to check your statements consider contract​​ing a company that will do it for you. Many companies will also cancel subscriptions for you as well, saving you time and effort.