How Do You Tell Where You Bought Your Tinder Subscription?

Look at the first letters of your order number. Tinder says MK means you bought in the iOS app and Apple bills you, GPA means you bought through the Google Play Store, and TNDR means you bought on Tinder.com or paid by credit card inside the Android app. For refund requests, Tinder also uses a fourth prefix, COSU, for consumable purchases.

Each prefix points to a different company holding your payment, and each one has its own cancel button.

MK: Apple. You subscribed in the Tinder app on an iPhone. To cancel, open your iPhone's Settings, tap your name at the top, tap Subscriptions, select Tinder and tap Cancel Subscription.

GPA: Google Play. You subscribed through the Google Play Store on an Android phone. To cancel, open the Google Play app, tap your profile icon in the top right, go to Payments and Subscriptions, then Subscriptions, select Tinder and tap Cancel subscription.

TNDR: Tinder. You bought on Tinder.com, or with a credit card inside the Android app. To cancel, log in at tinder.com, tap the profile icon, select Manage Payment Account, find the subscription and tap Cancel Subscription. If you paid by card or PayPal inside the Android app, the same Manage Payment Account option is in the app under the profile icon.

Tinder's refund page lists one more prefix, COSU, which it uses for consumable purchases. That one belongs to purchases rather than to a subscription, so it will not tell you where to cancel a plan.

If you are asking for your money back, the prefix on your order number matters for that too, which is why Tinder's refund page uses the same set. Have the full order number to hand before you start any request.

Cancelling only works with the company that actually bills you. Press cancel in the wrong place and nothing happens, and the charges keep coming.

The same goes for leaving Tinder. Tinder says deleting your account does not cancel an active subscription, and uninstalling the app does not cancel it either. Its Terms of Use say App Store and Google Play purchases have to be cancelled or managed in those accounts to avoid more billing, even after you delete your Tinder account. So the prefix is not a detail. It tells you the one place where cancelling counts.

The number is on the receipt from your purchase. If you cannot find the receipt, check the three places a Tinder subscription can live. Whichever one shows it is your biller.

1. Your iPhone. Settings, your name, Subscriptions. If Tinder is listed, Apple bills you.
2. Google Play. The Play app, your profile icon, Payments and Subscriptions, Subscriptions. If Tinder is listed, Google bills you.
3. Tinder.com. Log in, tap the profile icon, open Manage Payment Account. If the subscription is there, Tinder bills you directly.

A few situations make the answer less obvious than it looks.

You switched phones. A plan started on an Android phone is still a Google Play plan after you move to an iPhone. The order number starts with GPA, and your iPhone's Subscriptions list will not show it.

You used Apple Pay on an iPhone. It feels like paying Apple, but Tinder says that if you subscribed with Apple Pay or a web payment option, you follow its Tinder.com instructions to cancel.

You paid by card inside the Android app. You were on an Android phone, but Google did not take the money. That purchase carries a TNDR number and is cancelled through Tinder, not the Play Store.

Men usually go hunting for their biller because they want to cancel, and they want to cancel because the results did not justify the money. Stop for a minute first and ask whether the subscription was really what failed.

Paying for a dating app is not a weakness, and for a busy week it can be a sensible use of money. What no subscription reaches is the set of pictures and words women judge you on. If your lead photo is dim, distant or cropped from a group, women pass before they read a word. If your opener is "hey", she has nothing to answer.

So run one honest test first. Move a sharp, recent picture of your face to the front, taken outdoors, and open by asking about a detail on her page instead of saying hello. Give it steady use for the next two weeks. If replies pick up, the plan was fine and the set was not. If they stay flat after a genuine change, cancel with whoever your prefix names, and move on with a clear conscience.