The catches to Apple TV+’s free trial

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

Apple is giving away a lot of free trials to its new Apple TV+ streaming service — but there’s some big catches people should be aware of.

• The free trials are available to anyone who has bought an eligible new iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac or Apple TV box recently.
• News has also surfaced that if you subscribe to the free trial and then cancel it thinking that you’ll avoid being billed for it after a year you not only lose access to Apple TV+ immediately, but there’s no way to get your trial “back.”
• Also, the service ties into your Apple account, which requires a credit card to be kept on file and Apple says on its website that you’ll start to be billed monthly once your free trial expires.
• Apple also says that you should cancel any recurring subscriptions, including Apple TV+, at least one day prior to it renewing.
• So, if you’re trying out Apple TV+ and don’t want to get stuck paying, it’s probably a good idea to put a reminder in your calendar for around Oct. 28, 29 or 30, 2020 (though the renewal date will obviously depend on when you activated your offer).
• The sort of good news is, if you forget to cancel, Apple TV+ is only $4.99 a month and you’re only charged for one month at a time.
• Apple has also found a way to keep people and households with multiple new Apple devices from “stacking” free trials for years into the future.
• If you have Family Sharing set up, only one free trial can be used per group. Each Apple ID can also only activate one trial.
• In addition, the initial free trial offer expires three months after an eligible device is purchased and activated.
• In theory, this means you could stretch your free Apple TV+ subscription to a maximum of one year and three months by letting it run out on one account and then activating it another device with a separate Apple account outside of any family sharing groups three months later.