How to cancel McAfee VPN before the renewal charge

McAfee sells the VPN inside its McAfee+ and Total Protection packages (Basic, Essential, Advanced), so cancelling means cancelling the whole package. You do this in the My Account section on the McAfee website. If you bought the package through the App Store or Google Play, you need to turn off renewal in the store's subscription settings.

The main trap: 31 days before the end of the term

Auto-renewal is on by default. There is one exception: for residents of Vermont, McAfee enables it only with their consent. The charge for the next year is taken 30 days before the current term ends, so McAfee asks you to cancel the subscription no later than 31 days before the end of the term. If your year ends on March 1, the charge will come around January 30, and you need to cancel by January 29. McAfee does not say whether the service sends a reminder before the charge, so it is better to put the date in your calendar right after the purchase.

Missing the deadline is expensive. The first year of Basic costs $29.99, and the renewal costs $89.99. With Essential, $39.99 turns into $119.99, and with Advanced, $89.99 turns into $199.99. That is roughly a threefold increase, and for a jump like this McAfee gets the maximum penalty in the price part of our score.

If the charge has already gone through

Under McAfee's terms, you can get a full refund for a renewal within 60 days after the charge, and for a first purchase within 30 days. Monthly subscriptions are not covered by the refund. The procedure and the fine print are on the page about McAfee VPN refunds.

How to avoid this next time?

The simplest way is to pick a service whose renewal costs the same as the first term. We have collected such services in the roundup VPNs with no renewal price hike.