How to cancel Checkatrade without paying for another year

How to cancel Checkatrade comes down to one phone call, made inside a window that opens 35 days before your renewal date. Everything else, the emails, the Direct Debit, the account settings, will not end the contract on its own.

This guide is for tradespeople leaving a paid membership. Every rule below is from Checkatrade's master service terms, last updated 4 October 2025 and checked on 15 September 2026, with the clause named so you can look it up yourself. It is not legal advice, and your own confirmation email is what sets your dates.

The three dates that decide what you pay

Find these before you do anything else. They are in your sign-up confirmation email and on your invoices.

Date	What it means
Your commencement date	The day your agreement started. You had 2 business days from it to cancel without paying anything further (clause 8)
Your renewal date	Twelve months on. The agreement renews automatically for another 12 months unless one side gives notice (clause 10a)
35 days before your renewal date	The day your cancellation window opens. You cannot give notice earlier than this (clause 10a(ii))

That window is the whole game. Miss it and you are into another 12 months, at a price Checkatrade can raise with 30 days' notice before the renewal date (clause 10c).

How to cancel Checkatrade, step by step

1. Check who is calling. Only the business owner can end the agreement. A partner, an office manager or an employee ringing on your behalf is not valid notice (clause 65).
2. Wait for the window, then phone. No earlier than 35 days before your renewal date. The terms name 0333 014 6190; your renewal letter or email may give a different number for the renewals team, so use whichever appears in the communication Checkatrade sent you.
3. Say plainly that you are giving notice of non-renewal, and give your membership number.
4. Write down the date, the time and the name of the person you spoke to.
5. Ask for written confirmation of the cancellation and of your final invoice.
6. Keep paying until that final invoice clears. Only then stop the Direct Debit.

An email on its own does not do it. Neither does replying to the renewal email, nor unticking something in your account.

Cancelling the Direct Debit does not cancel the contract

This is where people lose money.

Checkatrade's terms are explicit: cancelling the Direct Debit or revoking card authority is not a valid termination by you. You remain liable for the full fees for the rest of the term, and Checkatrade may suspend or terminate the agreement immediately (clause 34). Fees stay payable while you are suspended, so a suspended profile is not a paused bill (clause 43).

So the order matters: phone first, get the confirmation, settle the final invoice, then stop the payment.

Refunds, and the fee you can still be charged

Fees already paid are non-refundable unless the agreement says otherwise (clause 43).

You are entitled to a pro-rated refund of fees paid in advance in two cases (clauses 64, 67 and 70):

• you end the agreement because Checkatrade has seriously broken it, because a change to the terms materially and adversely affects your business, or because fees went up in a way the agreement does not permit, and you give notice within 30 days;
• Checkatrade ends the agreement on 30 days' notice for a reason of its own.

You get nothing back if Checkatrade terminates for cause, for example unpaid fees, information that turns out to be false, or abusive behaviour (clauses 66 and 71).

Two fees to know about. If you fail the vetting checks, Checkatrade can charge an application fee of £250 excluding VAT (clauses 17 and 19). If you ask to be reactivated after a suspension or termination, it can charge an application fee and ask for a deposit (clause 42).

There is one more clause worth knowing while you are still a member: Checkatrade can vary fees at any time with reasonable notice, and if you object you must phone no later than 14 days before the next billing period, or the change counts as accepted (clause 36).

What you keep, and what you stop getting

When the paid membership ends, the profile drops back to a Free profile: it still collects and shows reviews, but it does not put you in trade and area searches, which needs a Fixed Plan (Checkatrade's Approved product terms, last updated 8 May 2026).

The reviews stay on Checkatrade's platform. You cannot take them with you, and that is the part most trades underestimate. Years of five-star work sits on a page that stops sending you enquiries the day you leave.

The practical answer is to build the proof somewhere you control, starting before you cancel:

• ask every customer for a Google review, because your Google Business Profile is free and yours;
• keep your own photographs of finished jobs, with the town and the work named;
• get the accreditations you hold on to a website that belongs to you.

What to have in place before the enquiries stop

Cancelling removes a lead source. Decide what replaces it before the renewal date, not after.

• A Google Business Profile, filled in properly. It is free, it is what appears in the map results, and reviews on it are yours.
• A website you own, with a page for each job you want more of and your phone number in reach on a mobile.
• A note of where your work actually came from over the last year. Most trades find the directory accounted for less than the invoice suggested, and word of mouth accounted for more.

If the sums are what is making you hesitate, our Checkatrade cost guide sets out what the tiers cost and how lead plans are priced, and the worth-it guide has the break-even maths. If you want to compare the other directories before you decide, the alternatives guide puts them side by side with their prices.