Subscription reminder notices: what they must say and when (with example wording)

Which payments need a reminder

Section 258 of the Act decides which payments need a reminder. It talks about "renewal payments": any payment the customer could avoid by ending the subscription.

Rolling subscriptions with no trial or offer

Think in six-month blocks. The first block starts the day after the customer signs up. You must send a reminder before the last renewal payment in each block (or, if no payment falls in a block, before the first one after it). The next block starts the day after that reminded payment.

Free trials and introductory prices

You must send a reminder before the first renewal payment. For a free trial, that is the first paid payment. Under draft regulation 33, where a fixed lower price runs over several payments, the reminder goes before the first payment at the higher price instead. After that, the six-month blocks start from the day after that payment. See free trials and introductory offers.

Examples from the draft guidance

Annual plans need two reminders

If the next payment is due 12 months or more after this one, or there is no further payment but the contract runs on beyond 12 months, you must also send an additional, earlier reminder before the standard one, at a time that is reasonable for that extra notice (section 259). In practice, customers on annual plans get two reminders before each renewal. The Act counts the 12 months from the day before the payment, so an annual plan billed on the same date each year qualifies. No number of days is set for either reminder.

How far ahead to send it

The Act, the draft regulations and the draft guidance set no fixed number of days. Instead, under section 259:

• at sign-up, you tell the customer the period in which you will send reminders (it is part of the key information);
• each reminder must be sent within that period;
• the period must end before the "last cancellation date", the last day the customer can end the subscription and avoid the payment;
• the period must be reasonable for letting the customer know the payment is coming, and for letting them decide and act before they have to pay.

If your terms need notice to cancel (say, 7 days), the reminder has to arrive early enough to leave room for that too. A period that is not reasonable is itself a breach, which can let the customer cancel and claim a refund.

As a starting point, FairRenew sends reminders between 14 and 7 days before the payment, and the early annual reminder between 45 and 30 days before. These are our defaults, not numbers from the law, and sellers can change them. Whether a period is reasonable depends on your product and your notice terms, and no one can yet say for certain what a court or the CMA will accept.

What a reminder must say

Schedule 23 Part 3 to the Act lists what goes in a reminder. In plain English:

Where an amount cannot be known in advance, for example with usage-based pricing, the Schedule lets you explain how it is worked out instead.

The three rows about further payments come from paragraphs 34 to 36. Paragraph 34 talks about further payments "ignoring any subsequent renewal payment", and the draft guidance does not explain how these items apply to a plain rolling plan, or exactly which payment counts as the "previous renewal payment". To be safe, FairRenew includes them whenever more payments follow automatically, counting from the previous reminder (or from sign-up). This is a point worth checking with an adviser.

How to send it

• In writing, in a lasting form. Draft regulation 34 requires a "durable medium". Email counts. The draft guidance says push notifications and in-app pop-ups that cannot be kept and found again do not.
• All together, and most prominent. The required facts must be given all together and be more prominent than anything else in the message (section 259). The draft guidance suggests that putting them first is one way to do this.
• Obviously a reminder. It must be readily apparent that the message is telling the customer a payment is coming, so they can decide whether to end the subscription (draft regulation 34). The draft guidance says the email subject line could make this clear.
• Never combined with a cooling-off notice. Cooling-off notices must be sent separately from any other information (section 266), so keep the two apart.

The rules do not require a reminder to be sent on its own: other content may go in the same message if the required information is more prominent. A plain, dedicated email is the simplest way to meet the prominence and "readily apparent" tests.

Example reminder email

Here is an example for a monthly subscription that started on 1 January 2027 and costs £12 a month. The first six-month block runs to 1 July 2027, so the 1 July payment needs a reminder. In this example the business takes payment early on the renewal day, so its terms say customers must cancel by the end of the day before.

Subject: Important: your Coffee Club subscription will renew on 1 July 2027 (£12.00)

Hi Sam,

This is a reminder that your Coffee Club subscription with Hilltop Coffee Club will renew soon.

Unless you take steps to end your subscription, you will have to pay £12.00 on 1 July 2027.

Your previous payment, on 1 June 2027, was £12.00.

After that, unless you end your subscription, you will pay £12.00 every month.

Since 1 January 2027 you have paid £72.00 in 6 payments.

If you do not end your subscription before 1 July 2027, the least you will have to pay is £12.00.

Your next payment after that is due on 1 August 2027.

To avoid this payment, end your subscription by 11:59pm on 30 June 2027.
You can end it online in a few steps here: https://hilltop.example/cancel
You can also email hello@hilltop.example saying you want to end your subscription.

If you want to keep your subscription, you do not need to do anything.

This is a service message about your contract with Hilltop Coffee Club. It is not marketing.

For a trial or introductory offer, the opening line changes (for example, "your free trial is ending, and paid billing will start"). If the payment, or the payments after it, are higher than before, the reminder must also say so and by how much. You can read every notice FairRenew sends, in full, in our demo.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Relying on a generic "your payment is coming up" email that leaves out required facts, such as the cancellation deadline or the least the customer will pay.
• Forgetting the end of a discount. A coupon such as "50% off for 3 months" is an introductory offer, so the first full-price payment needs a reminder.
• Sending only one reminder before an annual renewal.
• Sending outside the period you promised at sign-up, for example because a scheduled job stopped running.
• Putting the reminder below promotions, or sending it only as a push notification.
• Not keeping a copy. If a customer disputes it, you must be able to show you sent it (section 272).

Sources

We link to the law itself wherever we can. Section and regulation links in the text go to legislation.gov.uk.

• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 4 Chapter 2 (subscription contracts) Law, not yet in force (a few provisions only so regulations can be made)
• DMCC Act 2024, Schedule 23 (pre-contract information and reminder content) Law, not yet in force (a few provisions only so regulations can be made)
• The Consumer Subscription Contracts (Cancellation and Information) Regulations 2026 Draft, awaiting approval by Parliament
• Guidance on the subscription contracts rules (GOV.UK, 19 October 2026) Draft (the PDF cover says "Draft Guidance")