How to Cancel Checkatrade: Steps, Notice and What You Lose

To cancel Checkatrade you need three things: your contract end date, written notice to the membership team, and a plan for the enquiries that stop when the profile comes down. Fixed Plan memberships run for 12 months, so for most members the real question is not “how do I cancel” but “how do I stop this renewing, and what do I put in its place”. This guide covers both, in order. Terms were checked on 22 July 2026.

The Six Steps, in Order

1. Find your contract end date

Check your original sign-up email or invoice, or ask your account contact to confirm the term end date in writing. Fixed Plans are 12-month commitments, and members posting in 2026 describe being held to the full term, so this date drives everything else.

2. Read the notice and renewal clauses on your plan

The published small print confirms the 12-month term but notice periods and renewal mechanics sit in the membership terms you accepted at sign-up, and they change over time. Find the notice period, how notice must be given, and whether the membership renews automatically. Do not rely on what a phone call tells you; rely on the document.

3. Give notice in writing, ahead of the deadline

Email the membership team stating your business name, membership number and that you are cancelling at the end of the current term. Ask for written confirmation of the cancellation and the final billing date. Keep the thread. If a retention offer arrives, judge it on cost per won job, not the discount percentage. The cost breakdown shows how to run that calculation.

4. Bank your reputation before the profile comes down

Your Checkatrade reviews are not portable. Before the end date, screenshot the profile and review history for your records, and ask your best recent customers to leave a Google review too. Ten fresh Google reviews will do more for you next year than two hundred reviews on a profile that no longer exists.

5. Replace the lead flow before it stops

Whatever Checkatrade was sending, it stops the day the membership ends. Line up the replacement first: a complete Google Business Profile in your trading area, a website that ranks for your trade and town, and a habit of asking every finished job for a review. Unlike the membership, none of it switches off.

6. Confirm the money has stopped

After the final billing date, check the bank and cancel any card authority or direct debit that survives the contract. Keep the written cancellation confirmation for a year in case of billing disputes.

Is There a Checkatrade Cooling-Off Period?

Not automatically. The 14-day cooling-off period people have in mind comes from consumer law, and a trade membership is a business-to-business contract, so those rights do not apply. If your plan offers a cancellation window, it will be written into the membership terms you accepted at sign-up. Check that document, not the general advice.

That catches people out most often in the first fortnight, when the leads have not started arriving and the instinct is to unwind the whole thing. Signing up as a sole trader does not make you a consumer in the eyes of the contract.

There is one route worth trying if you are early into a term and the service is not what was sold. Put the complaint in writing, with evidence: what the sales call promised on lead volume, what has actually arrived, and the dates. Some members report negotiated exits on that basis. Nothing in the published terms entitles you to one, so treat it as a negotiation rather than a right.

Can You Downgrade Instead of Cancelling?

Often, yes, and it is the option most people forget. If the problem is the size of the bill rather than the platform itself, ask what moving to the Approved tier costs, currently £30/month (+VAT) for a listing without a lead stream.

You keep the profile and the review history, which is the part you cannot take with you. You stop paying Growth-plan money for shared leads that are not converting.

Ask two things in writing before agreeing. Whether the downgrade starts a fresh 12-month term, because on some plans it does, and what happens to the reviews and profile ranking on the lower tier. A downgrade that resets the clock is not a way out, it is another year.

Cancelling a Job, Not Your Membership

Different problem, different process. If you have accepted a job through Checkatrade and need to pull out, that is handled between you and the customer first, then with Checkatrade if the listing needs removing or a fee is in dispute.

Tell the homeowner as early as you can and in writing. A cancelled job that leaves a customer waiting is how you collect the review that follows you around for years, and that review stays on the profile whether or not you eventually leave the platform.

None of this affects your membership term. Cancelling jobs does not cancel the contract, and the monthly fee carries on regardless.

Before You Cancel, Check the Maths Once More

Some members are right to stay. If Checkatrade wins you jobs at a cost per won job below your gross profit, it is a working channel, and the full review covers who tends to get that result. The members who should leave are the ones paying £150 to £500 a month (member-reported range, 2024–2026) for shared leads that rarely convert. Run your own figures through the break-even calculator on the lead cost tracker before the retention call, so you negotiate with a number instead of a feeling.

Some leavers switch to pay-as-you-go instead of committing to another contract; the MyBuilder cost guide breaks down what shortlist fees actually run to before you jump.

Replacing the leads is the hard part. It’s also my job: I build websites and local SEO for UK trades leaving the directories. See where you rank and I’ll show you what your patch looks like on Google before you hand in your notice.