If you’re tempted to sign up for a free trial, you might be thinking: what’s the catch?
Yes, you really can trial products and services for free, but not all trials are as “free” as they seem: you’ll likely be automatically signed up for the paid version of whatever you’re testing as soon as the trial is over—and you’ll have to hand over your personal data and anticipate the barrage of marketing to your phone or email that’s inevitably going to come your way.
Giving out your phone number to every free trial you sign up for doesn’t only rack up the number of marketing lists you end up on; it’ll also put you at higher risk of your personal data falling into the wrong hands. If you still want to take advantage of free trials but don’t want to hand out your own number in the process, here’s what you can do instead.
Why do Free Trials Ask for Your Phone Number
Before we look at solutions, why exactly do free trials require your number in the first place?
Usually, this is so the company you’re signing up with can send a one-time verification code. It’s supposed to stop bots and fake signups, but, of course, it also gives the company direct access to your personal number, which they can then use for marketing purposes.
Even if you unsubscribe, your number can end up on lists you never agreed to, and these companies are counting on you to be too busy (or lazy) to unsubscribe, so you can become another potential customer receiving free exposure to their brand.
You can see why so many companies are happy to give out their product for free for a few weeks: it’s one of the easiest ways to grow their marketing lists, annoying as it might be for you.
The Best Alternative to Using Your Own Number For Free Trial Signups
Given everything your phone number is tied to—your identity, your bank logins, all your accounts—you should do everything in your control to keep it private. But how can you still take advantage of free trials when they demand you to share a phone number to verify your identity?
No, the solution isn’t just to use an unwilling family member’s number. Instead, you’ll want to take advantage of a service like SMSPool, which offers temporary non-VoIP numbers to receive SMS verification codes on your behalf. Click here to learn how to get a temporary number online, which you can then type in when you sign up for a trial.
The benefits of a service like this are obvious: you don’t have to register with a number that links back to you, so you can keep your personal data to yourself.
Takeaway
Free trials aren’t technically free if they keep tracking your personal data and barraging you with marketing messages after you cancel.
If you’re tired of marketing spam or just want to minimize who has access to your data online, using a temporary non-VoIP just makes sense. It keeps your personal number where it should be: off every list you never signed up for.
