The Economist Reviews 

This company has no support. If you subscribe to their podcast and then cancel, you forever be on their mail list. Even if you unsubscribe. And unsubscribe again. And even again. You'll never get off their list and they send a lot of emails. And then when you try to get support, there is no support. You will have to find your login, if you even have it, to send an email that won't get addressed because you have tried that a few times too. Just don't give any of your information to this company because they are like a germ you won't be able to shake. If you do want their news, use privacy.com to purchase and Proton's simple login with an email address that you can easily delete once you are done. Or else you'll be stuck with them for life.

I tried to cancel my subscription to the Espresso service. It was unclear how to do it and I thought I had. However I was then charged a further month - I thought it would be a simple matter of requesting a refund but no, I was informed that this was not their policy. So I was forced to pay for a thing that I did not consent to, that I told them I couldn't afford and there was nothing I could do about it. This is a complete and utter con, I thought it was a statutory right to ask for a refund, how is this acceptable? Terrible ai customer service as well, so so frustrating I would give no stars if it were possible.
Furthermore the useless trial for Espresso proved worthless, hardly any articles worth reading, everything interesting behind their main paywall. Scam company, avoid like the plague

EDIT They did eventually refund me - but I stand by my assessment of the customer service. Incredibly poor experience all round and a colossal waste of time given that the outcome was otherwise than they pretended.

Extremely hard to cancel any membership with The Economist

I am a subscriber since 2 years and I think that the annual subscription worth the price.
The Economist give me a wide view about what is happening in the whole world, with reports not only concerning economic topics but even social ones.
The app is appreciated to be used over a flight or into the airplanes.
Moreover I would ubderline the great customer support service received for 2 issues not received (for local delivery issue) and they sent me as soon as I reported that.
I will definitely continue of being a subscriber!

Just came here after a horrible experience, to find out it’s not an anomaly but a business practice. They should be ashamed!! Namely, selling free trials and then a “technical issue” makes it impossible to cancel. After contacting customer service, they acknowledged the problem but initially refused a refund. Just like I’m reading happened to more people. Then I said that’s unfair and got the refund and the chat was immediately closed. What a shamful way of treating customers.
Used to love The Economist, but now I’d advise DON’T GET A SUBSCRIPTION!

Due to excessive price increases, I cancelled early last year. Yet I was surprised to see yet another charge at the full rate for an annual subscription on my credit card. I had to call customer services yet again, who acknowledged for some reason the cancellation had not gone through. The call handler at least apologised stating this charge should not have happened. It's hard enough to cancel anyway... good journalism, but awful business practices.

The magazine continued to charge me for a subscription I had previously cancelled and refused to issue a refund.

I signed up for a free trial and decided not to continue the subscription, but encountered an issue trying to cancel - the "manage subscription" section of the Economist's website appears without any options. So unfortunately I was charged for a month I did not want to pay for. On a second attempt to cancel I had to contact customer services as this error on their website persisted. In my chat with customer services they admitted this error is a known error, but they were unwilling to issue a refund for their error. Now reading other customers' experiences, I must say it seems that this company is intentionally scamming people by making it time-consuming and difficult to cancel subscriptions after signing up for a free trial. How shameful.

After I subscribed to the Economist I received no email notification of acceptance. I can log in and see my account but can't get newsletters and haven't received the code for the NYT subscription that was supposed to be part of the price. I have phoned, emailed and used their live chat. Two months later, all I've been told is that there is an error at that end. They do not know what. They can't tell me who is looking into it or how long it will take. They basically know nothing. Each person I speak to starts off telling me to look in my spam folder despite there being a note on my account saying this is under investigation. Each person says they will escalate it again. Nothing happens. The people I speak to are clearly not trained or competent enough to do anything other than tell me someone will get back to me. And of course no-one does. And of course they don't ask for feedback on their customer service because no doubt they know it will be negative. It's just one of those organisations that have cut costs to the bone and don't care how they're perceived. It's a shame, they used to have decent management and I knew many of them. They've all left and it's gone to the dogs.
Btw, "Date of Experience" would cover every single day that you've failed to contact me, starting from the date that my subscription started.

edited to add, after The Economiost asked for my account details so they could investigate, look at their feeble reply. Still no solution from them, in fact no contact at all despite promises of a call back from their "team" several weeks ago. Pathetic.

I had the full subscription and enjoyed the articles. Though unfortunately short on detail in most cases, they cover a broad non-US centric set of topics. Then I switched to their lower cost digital subscription, Espresso. Dear god. They miscount the 4 articles you are allowed a month, so you basically get ZERO value for the money. Horrifyingly, they make you pay for a year in advance to find this out. Don't do it.

Particularly if you're on a PC as I am. They seem only to support their app.

As with many Chatham House inspired controlled ops, the Economist is willing to sacrifice any credible attempts at journalism to the alter of Empire. Here's Robert Guest on Iran: 'Iran’s theocrats and securocrats have ordered their heavies to shoot into unarmed crowds, with snipers deliberately aiming at faces and genitals'.
Not according to reports from those in Iran - including hospitals: “Based on medical examiner reports, a significant portion of the deceased were killed with cold weapons and knife strikes... in cases where gunfire was involved, the shooting distance was very close, which indicates that these actions were not carried out by security forces, but by trained and guided elements”.
Considering Mike Pompeo has already alluded on Twitter/X that agitators controlled by Mossad (aka MI6 and CIA proxies) are active (there is huge compensation for anyone burning an ambulance or disabling members of the protest who have come out in support of the 'regime'), this is at best sloppy journalism and at worst (likely) lying to support Establishment interests. Be wary all those willing to bend over for the Establishment. Shills masquerading as journalists have been held to account in the past - legally.

I tried to cancel a subscription I had taken out for my son, Oliver. The Economist refused to refund the subscription. So, I attempted to cancel my subscription (at a discounted rate) in protest and requested a refund. The Economist refused to do so during this billing period (2026). My son never received a printed version of the magazine anyway and now lives abroad. The Economist has just advised me by email that I will not receive the printed version of the magazine even though my online account states that I will receive it until the end of the current billing period (the final year). The quality of the magazine is not matched by the customer subscription experience, the result for me being that I have been charged £403.50 for a digital service only for 2026, £239 for my son and £164.50 for myself. On the Economist website, it states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. This is not true, as I tried to cancel my son's subscription now that he has moved abroad and continue mine for 2026. In addition, I was advised by email from the subscriptions team that my print version of The Economist would cease on 17th January, 2026 whereas on My Account it states that I will receive a print version throughout 2026. The fact that I am unable to cancel my son's subscription for 2026 and that I will not receive a print version this year means that I am paying £403.50 for a digital only subscription for 2026. My customer ID number is 09454123.

I signed up to the economist expecting a premium experience to match the quality of its journalism and price. Unfortunately, the service side fell well short.

Two editions not delivered, and customer service was unhelpful and rigid. When I requested a refund within the 14-day cooling-off period, this was initially refused based on internal policy, which is incorrect under UK law.

Only after escalating the matter with a letter before action to their legal team was a refund eventually issued.

I’m told the journalism is good, but the customer experience feels transactional and inflexible, and in this instance there was no service delivery, without apology.
Far from what you’d expect from a premium subscription. Worth being aware of if you’re considering signing up.

I subscribed to The Economist with a digital + print package, expecting timely delivery of a weekly news magazine. Unfortunately, the print delivery has been consistently unreliable.

A December issue (dated Dec 13–18) was never delivered. After contacting support, I received vague explanations blaming holidays and was offered either to “wait” for an outdated copy weeks later or accept a €5 refund. Sending time-sensitive news magazines long after publication is not a real solution.

More disappointing than the logistics was the unprofessional tone of customer support. The response was dismissive (“it’s up to you if you prefer to cancel”), rather than focused on resolving a clear service failure or offering a proper remedy.

For a premium publication that positions itself as serious, global, and professional, the customer experience does not match the brand promise — at least when it comes to print subscriptions and customer care.

Digital content is excellent. Print delivery and customer handling are not.

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING!!!
Dramatic change in cancellation terms, with no email or other attempts to inform autorenewed subscribers.

After subscribing to the Economist for almost 25yrs, it became too expensive in our retirement. But that’s not my complaint.

We missed the autorenewal by two weeks and just found out they changed the terms of subscription: no refunds on yearly subscriptions.

I am sure these changes were buried in a link to the terms somewhere, but the real problem was that I still naively trusted the Economist! They never notified us of this dramatic change in their terms. And that is just plain slimy! Lesson learned!

There was no email reminding me of the upcoming renewal for £239 and cancellations are not allowed. I contacted customer support 2 minutes after I'd seen the charge. A joke.

If you would like to think like a person with high socio-economic background, uni educated, radically left wing, this is your newspaper.

If you would like a balanced view with truth, challenging opinions and real stories, look elsewhere.

To my surprise I noticed yesterday that my Mastercard invoice of November charges me twice for my Economist subscription, once directly and once through apple services.
1) The Economist renwal is already very expensive.
2) Charging twice is a scam
3) Not wanting to correct this (the service rep said this is not their problem) basically makes this a scam.
Consumers are being sent from The Economist to Mastercard to Apple, nobody solves it.
Even worse, I now see also last year I have been charged twice. This is theft in my opinion.

I have been a loyal subscriber to The Economist for nearly 20 years, ever since finishing university. Throughout my career building businesses, working internationally, and growing in my industry the magazine has been a consistently valuable source of insight.

My concern is not the price increases themselves, but the pricing model that places long-standing subscribers at a disadvantage. After reviewing my household subscriptions, I discovered that new subscribers are being offered rates up to 60% lower than what I have been paying for years.

I have no interest in negotiating or chasing promotional prices, nor do I appreciate feeling penalized for my loyalty. For that reason, I have decided to cancel my subscription.