Blinkist is a very useful book summary app for busy people. But if you find yourself not fully utilizing it, or if you just want to try a cheaper alternative, here is a quick guide on how to cancel your subscription.
To cancel Blinkist after you’ve signed-up via an in-app purchase, you need to go to the subscriptions page of your Apple or Google Play account. If you signed-up directly with Blinkist, go to the Blinkist website and cancel from there. To request a refund, you would need to send Blinkist an email.
This post is divided into two parts. First, we’ll look at how to cancel your Blinkist subscription, and then we’ll look at how to apply for a refund.
To cancel your subscription, start by opening the Blinkist app and clicking on the settings wheel icon, in the top right corner of the home screen. There you will see the option to Cancel Membership. What happens next depends on how you signed up to the premium plan.
If you subscribed through the app as an in-app purchase, you will be taken to the subscriptions page of your Apple or Google Play account.
You can also access your IOS app subscriptions by opening Settings, clicking on your name, and choosing subscriptions. There is a similar option in Google Play’s settings on Android.
Once on this page, simply click on the cancel button and confirm the action.
If you signed up for the premium plan directly with Blinkist, clicking the Cancel Membership button within the app will take you to Blinkist’s website. Your account page should open automatically.
But if it doesn’t, click on log in, click on You in the top, right corner of the screen, and choose Settings. Under Account, is the option to Cancel Subscription.
Confirm the process by clicking Turn off auto-renew and, if you like, you can give a reason why you’ve decided to cancel.
Regardless of whether you subscribed directly with Blinkist or through Apple or Google Play, your premium membership will not end abruptly. And your account will not be downgraded, until the end of your billing cycle.
So if you paid for a whole year and decide to cancel within the first month, you will still have premium access for another 11 months.
So, can you apply for a refund instead of running down your subscription?
Well, if you canceled within the trial period – i.e the first 7 days of an annual subscription – you won’t be charged any money, so there’s no need to request a refund. Your account will simply revert to the free plan at the end of the 7-day trial period.
If your trial period has expired but you are still within the first 14 days of your subscription, Blinkist will still refund your money.
Simply, cancel your subscription as described in the first part of this video and then send Blinkist an email using the address support@blinkist.com. Provide your account username and request your refund.
This approach works if you subscribed directly with Blinkist through their website or if you use an Android device and signed up using Google Play.
If you’ve missed the 14 days cut-off but still wish to try for a refund I would still recommend this approach. Email support@blinkist.com, provide a legitimate reason and ask for your money back.
If, however, you signed up to the in-app purchase on an Apple device, the approach I just described will not work for you. Instead, you will need to request your refund through Apple, not Blinkist.
To do this open a browser and go to reportaproblem.apple.com. Sign in using your Apple ID and password, and from the drop-down menu under What Can We Help You With, choose Request a Refund.
You’ll need to provide a reason from the list such as, “I didn’t mean to buy this” or you can click Other and provide your own reason. Having given a reason you’ll then be asked to choose the app you wish to claim a refund for.
On this screen, you will be a list of all the apps you’ve paid for. Choose Blinkist from the list and hit Submit.
And that is how to cancel your premium subscription and try to seek a refund. Hope this guide was helpful. For more tips like this, please check out my Blinkist playlist in YouTube. See you there!
P.S.
If you are looking for a free alternative to Blinkist, take a look at StoryShots.
Facts of Apps
- As of this writing, Blinkist has over 5,000 titles, with 70 new titles being added each month. The app was originally released in November 2013.
- Over 85% of their books have audio versions. These audio versions are top quality recordings, not just automatically generated voice translations.
- Blinkist offers a “Free Daily”, which are a selection of books that is only available for free for a limited time (a day). This is a good way to keep trying the app even if you have decided to cancel your subscription. The Free Daily includes notable titles such as “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey.
- Blinkist focuses only on the top non-fiction books, carefully curated by their editorial team. Blinkist doesn’t fact-check any of the individual books. They just summarize the key points and leave the verification to you.
- True to it’s promise of wanting to save you time, Blinkist is trying to be minimalistic in it’s design. It has even removed several features from previous versions in order to keep the focus on just reading and listening. This is also part of the reason why they do not offer an ad-supported free version.
- In response to a question about copyrights, and whether the app is stealing from authors, Blinkist described their work as original works of their own. Written in their own unique voice, style and format.
- Blinkist described their summaries as akin to a robust movie trailer for books.
- It currently has an average rating of 4.4 from over 66,000+ reviews in the Google Play Store, and 4.8 from over 2,300+ reviews in the Apple Store.
