How to choose subscription plan at dating service.

In our online dating secrets edition we already talked about so called free dating and free trial memberships. Today we continue our publications and today’s article theme is discounted subscription plans offered by online dating services. How to choose the most effective subscription? How to identify the hidden cost in subscription plan? How dating service sets their subscription plans to earn more on you? Read this article and find questions to all these questions.

First let’s understand why dating services offer different subscription plans. Why they don’t set the standard price set at $19.99 in example? The answer is simple: it’s a business and they want to make profit. By offering different payment plans they doing the real membership price more attractive. Here we should stop and understand very important thing: subscription plan cost you see on subscription is not a final cost usually.

What does that mean? The price you see on payment usually is just first payment sum. Dating services like Match.com, FriendFinder.com, PerfectMatch.com and eHarmony offer rebilling subscription plans. It means that when your subscription is over you credit card will be billed again, again and again until you cancel it. Dating services hold right to bill your credit card by terms and conditions which we don’t read. In the billing notice it’s also shown that this billing is recurring but for some reason we don’t read small text on the web and in our billing statements. Let your eyes down the page when you’re reading about money…yours money.

According to different surveys in average dating service customer use site about 3 month after making first payment. Sure if site is empty you would cancel the subscription (if you know that payment is rebilling) but if you did payment you’ll use site for 3 month or more. So let’s now calculate the real price of dating service in different situations. Let’s take real subscription plans listed at US Yahoo Personals:

Yahoo Personals offer 3 packages:
- $20.83/month for 6 months
- $28.32/month for 3 months
- $39.95 for 1 month

At Yahoo Personals subscription page you see per month prices. Here is significant example how dating service hide total sum of first billing. But let’s take a look at the total cost which written in the small text.

$20.83/month 6 month plan
First payment will be $124.95 (20.83õ6=124,98) and your card will be billed every 6 month with $124.95. For one year membership you’ll pay $250.

6 month plan is the most attractive looking at per month membership price. But that’s not the real price. The real is price is billing sum on your billing statement. And at this plan it will be the most expensive one - $125. It’s good for them (one customer worth 4 one-month subscribers), but not for you if you are not planning to use this site for 6 month or longer.

$28.32/month 3 month plan
$84.95 billing will be done every 3 month. For 6 month you’ll pay $170. For one year membership $340.

Second plan is a 3 month plan. $84.95 is the real price – looks solid but it is worth to pay. Why? Because you’ll have a time to decide if you like this site and subscribe to another plan or cancel it if you don’t like it. Good for you, and acceptable for them.

$39.95 per month plan
Your credit card will be billed for $40 every month. In result for 3 month you’ll pay $120, for 6 month $240 and for annual membership $480.

Remember we talked that average period paid customer spend on site is 3 month. Now multiply $40 to 3. That’s $120 per 3 month. For the same price you can purchase 6 month period subscription. Staying on this site for 2 month will cost you $80. Is there any sense to pay $80 if you can buy 3 month paying only $4.95 more? The only advantage here is low first payment price. This plan is good for you only if you plan to use this for one month, if you would not cancel this subscription that is very good for them, because it’s the most expensive plan!

So what do we see at Yahoo! Personals subscription page. There are 3 plans and Yahoo! Personals misleading potential subscribers by showing the most expensive plans more attractive. When you want to subscribe first mind in your head is how to save money and Yahoo Personals play on this. And not only the Yahoo Personals plays with your natural desire to save money - all dating services do this. Remember it.

So let’s go to the finish and list tips on how to choose most effective subscription plan at dating service.

1. Read between the lines
Before purchasing subscription read all information about subscription including small letters text and text which is going under *** marks. Dating service are eligible to provide all information about subscription plan and but they are not eligible to write this with uppercase letters. Their responsibility l is to provide this information somewhere on the page and yours one is to find & read this text.

2. Determine the time period you want to stay here.
This is the most important step on the way to find the most effective plan. You have to know why do you join this site and for what time range you join it. Usually there are 2 reasons: just to try & to start dating. If you want to just to try we recommend to buy one month subscription and cancel it immediately to avoid credit card billing at the of the period. If you want to join dating site to dating there remember about 3 month rule. There is big probability that you would not stay more than 3 month there. 3. Never start with annual memberships.
Are sure that you’ll be there for 12 month? Think twice. The same site, the same people the same features. All year long. Sound a bit boring and probably this is a reason why annual membership is not so popular. Dating services decrease the price for 12 month membership to get those singles who want to get more for less money. But will you ever bought 15 liters of milk for discounted price? Probably no, because milk will get sour after one week or less. The same is here. Don’t buy if you are not sure that you’ll be there 12 month.

4. Most effective plan is somewhere in the middle.
Usually on the subscription page dating service tries to mislead their customers and forcing to buy most profitable plan for them not for you. Remember that the cheapest one is the most expensive in long term use ($40 during 6 month) and the long term is not payback in short term use (when you pay $125 in single billing and use site only for 3 month). Usually imperceptible plan is the most effective and usually it’s 3 month membership.

5. Join pay-per-action sites.
If you have not enough time for online dating or don’t like to pay monthly for nothing try to use pay per action sites like Lava Life, Meetic or Anastasia Web. There you would pay only for actions. No rebilling subscriptions, no expired membership. You just pay for every email, for every chat and for other things. But you know what are you paying for. And only you decide how much to pay and when to pay.

That’s all for today. If you need advice on any subscription email us at webmaster@welcometodating.com and we will answer all your questions.