How To: Hide Your Information and Prevent Getting Charged for Subscriptions You Don't Use!

One of my largest pet peeves in this world is the rise of subscription services. No matter what it is, the companies now always want you to sign up for their SaaS (Software as a Service), pay the premium, and then subscribe. If they're really diabolical they'll hide the ability to cancel your account by making it more difficult to do so, or they'll just throw it up in their terms of service that you need to cancel X months before renewal to avoid being charged.

This recently happened to me with Adobe. I pay for Adobe, the full suite, because I am a cuck. I've made freelance clients pay for that subscription of $52 a month in the past, but in times of nobody to push that cost on, I get stuck with it (even when I don't use it). It really adds up! I found that in trying to pause or cancel my subscription, I couldn't. There was no clear information on why, but after a few clicks (and some last minute "are you sure" offers) they informed me that in order to get out of my subscription, I could either:
1. Pay the full amount of the remaining months in the subscription I signed up for.
2. Keep my subscription and take a $10 discount.
3. Change my subscription to have less services.

As you can see, none of those options are financially feasible, especially for someone not making money with that very product to offset the costs.

Why Mask Your Info?
Enter Blur by Abine.

Nobody needs to know what you spend your money on. Landlords will request bank statements that reveal that you have a subscription to "My Little Pony Annual", or requesting a Visa to a new country could show that you partake in "Bongs Dot Com" as a frequent buyer.

Or...you get audited by the IRS and they want to know where all the crypto you bought is.

Well, if you buy any of these things with a masked credit card, nobody can know. The purchases will just show up as:

BLUR MASKE* ABINE BL www.IRONVEST. NY DATE

For your own private records you can absolute go ahead and discern between your purchases, but to any prying eyes, these are just recurring charges in varying amounts.

It's a good idea to make sure that the only people who know what you're up to are the people you want to know, regardless of whether or not you have something to hide.

In addition to masked cards, you will also get masked emails. So you can sign up for a service with a masked email, pay for it with a masked card, then just simply delete both and never have to worry about deleting the account. 

It also opens you up to being able to take advantage of introductory offers over and over again. It may be tedious to have to have to sign up for a service multiple times (especially if you can't migrate data, but you can absolutely save money by just being a new user every single time. 

It's literally impossible to lock you into a contract if nobody knows who you are.

Protecting yourself between email and purchasing is without a doubt the best way to protect your information from being leaked. We are constantly asked by companies to trust them with our info, but who protects us when they fail? Nobody. We are told to change our passwords and do our own due diligence - so then why should these businesses be entitled to our info? They shouldn't, no matter what their track record is.

Benefits of Masking Your Info

• It doesn't matter if you cancel or not. They can't charge you.
• You will never need to unsubscribe from a pesky newsletter. Just delete the masked email.
• Take advantage of introductory offers on subscriptions multiple times.
• Don't get caught off guard with charges you can't afford.
• Have multiple accounts anywhere. No limits.
• Avoid being locked into contracts you don't want to read the ToS for.
• Treat subscriptions as purchases rather than contracts. Buy the service, but don't get stuck with it.
• Hide what you buy. It's nobody else's business. Not even your bank's.
• Be in control of your information.

Pair all of this with a VPN and you'll be able to dominate any user signup process or subscription with ease. Of course, this will NOT avoid the singular point of failure in masking your info: you need to trust Abine with your information.

They have a great track record, and even created the DeleteMe service (also recommended), but anyone with access to your Blur account could take advantage of your info. It would be wisest to make TWO blur accounts, so you can fund one with the other (I don't personally know if it's possible), but it may also be overkill.

Don't leave anything you wouldn't want anyone to see in plain sight.

You can also use Blur's password manager. This can be used as an extension in Chrome/Firefox/Brave and there's also an app on mobile that will let you use Blur for autofill. I don't necessarily recommend putting your logins, credit cards, and emails all in one place, but that's up to you.

With that being said, let's dig in HOW to use Blur to mask your info and take advantage of everything above.

How To:

1. Sign up for Blur. Pay for the Premium service ($99)
2. Link an email you want to funnel your masked info to. I chose not to use my main email.
3. Connect your card to Blur. If you connect your bank account you can avoid paying a $2 fee on every card, but they don't work with JP Morgan so keep that in mind.
4. Get the Blur extension for Firefox/Chrome.
5. Get the Blur app for Android/iOS.
6. Make a few basic emails to get yourself organized. Like: socialmedia@xxx.xx or shopping@xxx.xx. This will make sorting through emails you do get so much easier.
7. Change any existing subscriptions to new cards. Boom, now you're out of the contract (as long as it doesn't have your personal info).
8. Change any existing services you're signed up with to new emails.
9. Export your new login information to your preferred password manager.
10. Rinse, repeat, and start new. You're in control of your info now!