The “Monthly” and “Paid Monthly” Confusion
If you are signing up for a “Monthly” subscription plan of Adobe creative cloud, be warned that a cancellation fee of 50% of the remaining balance of your contract obligation may apply when when you exit early.
Many people are not aware of the difference between “Monthly Plan” and “Annual Plan, Paid Monthly” pricing options. Both have different pricing model.
For example, If you choose “Monthly Plan”, you cancel your subscription at any time with no penalty.
But, in case of “Annual Plan, Paid Monthly” option, you are basically entering into an annual contract with Adobe, you are promising to pay a certain amount every month for 12 months. If you pull out of this contract early, you have to pay 50% of the subscription amount that you owe to Adobe.
Here’s an example, you subscribe at $52.99 (Rs.4230.30) a month for Creative Cloud. You use it for a month and then decide to cancel, which means you are exiting the contract 11 months early. Therefore, you are obligated to pay 50% of this 11 months subscription cost, that is,
50 percent of (11 months x 52.99 USD) = 291.45 USD (Rs.23,266.65)
So, basically you will end up paying 291.45 USD for one month of Creative cloud subscription.
If you plan to use Adobe CC for strictly one month, then select “Monthly”, never select “Annual Plan, Paid Monthly” in that case.
Here’s the subscription plans in for Adobe Creative Suite in USD and Indian Rupees
This is how I discovered the confusing pricing model
The other day I signed up for a 7 days trial of Adobe CC, I cancelled later. The customer representative offered me 3 free months, if I pay one month’s subscription cost. I became skeptical, how come a company like Adobe give 4 months of subscriptions at the cost of 1 month? definitely there was some caveat. And, then I randomly stumbled upon a help article of Adobe explaining the 50% penalty, which cleared up everything.
The cancellation charge could be 10% or something. 50% cancellation charge sounds absolutely unethical. As, I gone through some forums, many users have complained that they have entered into annual contract by mistake, thinking that it was a regular “Monthly” subscription just like we have on Google One or YouTube Premium.
The lesson here is, when you sign up for anything next time, make sure you give a quick glance at the “Pricing” and “Terms and Conditions” pages.
Which plan to Choose?
If you going to use Adobe all the time, it’s better to go for annual subscription instead of Paid Monthly. Here’s how much you will save f you go for Annual Prepaid Plan.
Cost of Paid Monthly, Annual Plan for 12 months = $ 635.88 (Rs.50,763.6)
Cost of Annual Prepaid Plan for 12 months = $ 599.88 (Rs.47,889.12)
Savings = $ 36 (Rs.2,874.48)
That’s a savings of 5.66 percent.
Or you can go for “Monthly Plan” if you are planning to use only for a month.
Have you ever gone through this confusing pricing model? Let us know in the comments.
