A personal finance expert is pushing for regulators to introduce stricter rules that stop companies from making it hard for people to exit their contracts, arguing that cancelling a service should be just as simple as signing up for one in the first place.

During his podcast covering everyday consumer concerns, the founder of Money Saving Expert drew attention to the huge imbalance between joining and leaving services such as broadband deals, subscription schemes, and energy providers.

One listener contacted him to say arranging internet access took only five minutes, yet ending it required a full hour on the telephone, being passed between different departments and enduring persuasion tactics to remain a customer. He pointed out that while sales teams tend to act immediately, the teams handling cancellations deliberately slow things down, and he believes this situation demands official intervention.

His view has remained unchanged over time. Leaving a service should work the same way as entering it. If someone signed up online, they ought to be able to leave online. If they enrolled by telephone, they should be able to cancel by telephone.

This issue carries particular weight for vulnerable populations, such as elderly people and those dealing with mental health conditions, who may find convoluted cancellation procedures especially difficult to manage.

Better times could lie ahead for consumers. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, businesses might soon be required to ensure that customers exert no greater effort when discontinuing a subscription than they did when originally signing up.

The proposed rules would clarify that:

Customers should retain the option to cancel using whichever method they originally used to subscribe

Ending a subscription might be possible through just one communication

Companies must simplify the process for customers who wish to leave

However, despite having received approval from Parliament, the precise methods for enforcing these rules have yet to be determined.

Government ministers will need to introduce additional legislation before these reforms can actually come into force.

Initially expected to arrive sooner, the timeline has slipped, with the finalised rules unlikely to be confirmed until the latter part of 2026 following a period of public consultation.

In the meantime, the expert recommends that consumers remain cautious, understanding that currently, cancelling certain services may still demand considerably more time and effort than the initial sign-up process.