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It protects you from "subscription traps": sites that charge a small amount today (often £1) and then a much bigger amount every week or month, with the details hidden in small grey text.

• Before you pay: it reads the page and shows a full-screen warning with the real cost.
• If you've already paid: it notices the payment in your bank alerts and offers a reminder to cancel.
• To get out: it writes the cancellation email for you and checks back until the company confirms.
• Scam shops: it spots the warning signs of fake shops and investment scams from social media ads.

Android phones running Android 8 or newer, which covers almost every Android phone from the last seven years. That includes Samsung, Google Pixel, Motorola, Xiaomi, OnePlus and others.

It works in Chrome, Samsung Internet, Firefox and Edge, and inside apps that open links in their own browser, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.

iPhone: not possible, sorry. Apple doesn't allow apps to read what's on the screen in other apps, which is how Small Print spots the small print.

Great idea. The people these sites catch most are the least likely to spot the small print themselves.

1. Follow the install guide on their phone, together.
2. Open the test page so they've seen the warning once and know it's a friend.
3. Tell them one rule: if the red screen appears, tap Back to safety.

After that there's nothing for them to remember. The warning appears by itself.

No. Small Print is free, with no ads and no account to create.

Red is for the classic trap: a tiny first payment, a much bigger repeating charge, and often a "your test results are ready" hook.

Orange is for an ordinary free trial that turns into a paid subscription, like a music or streaming service. It's not a scam, but it's worth knowing before you enter your card.

So nobody taps past it by accident. These sites are designed to rush you. Holding for two seconds gives you a moment to decide. If you still want to go ahead, that's completely your choice. Small Print never blocks a purchase.

Tap This site is safe – don't warn me again at the bottom of the warning. You won't be warned about that site again.

Changed your mind? Open Small Print and scroll to Safe list, then tap Remove next to the site.

Tap Back to safety, or press your phone's Back or Home button. The warning never stops you using your phone. If you go back to the same page later, it will warn you again. That's deliberate.

Cancel straight away. Don't wait until the trial ends. Most sites let you keep what you've paid for until the trial runs out, so cancelling early costs you nothing and means you can't forget.

1. Look for a welcome or receipt email from the company and use its Cancel or Manage subscription link.
2. Or use Small Print's cancellation email (below).
3. Keep the confirmation email as proof.

In Small Print go to Help › Write a cancellation email. Work down this list and stop when you get your money:

1. Cancel and ask for a refund: for a subscription you didn't knowingly agree to. It cancels, asks for the money back and gives the company 14 days.
2. Refund for an order: for a shop where the goods never arrived or weren't what was advertised. Say what went wrong in the box.
3. Chase a refund they haven't paid: a final request with a 7-day deadline, if they've ignored you or promised a refund that hasn't come.
4. Ask my bank for my money back: asks your bank for a chargeback, and for a Section 75 claim if you paid by credit card and it cost more than £100. Most banks want this through their app's chat or by phone, so use Copy the letter and paste it, or read it out.
5. Complain to my bank: if the bank says no. It asks for their "final response", which you need before the free Financial Ombudsman Service will look at it.

The other two letters, Cancel my subscription and Ask my bank to stop payments, stop future charges but don't ask for money back.

Outside the UK? See scams and the law in your country for your own reporting lines and refund routes.

Tips: add the amount and the last four digits of your card where asked, keep every email, and act quickly. Banks usually only accept a chargeback within about 120 days of the payment.

General guidance, not legal advice. Citizens Advice (0808 223 1133) can help with your situation.

1. Contact your bank and say: "Please stop all future payments to this company. I've cancelled and I withdraw my permission for them to take payments." For card payments like these, UK banks must do this when you ask. Small Print's Ask my bank to stop payments letter says it for you.
2. Ask about a chargeback for payments taken after you cancelled, or that you didn't knowingly agree to.
3. If your bank won't help, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge.
4. For advice, the Citizens Advice consumer helpline is 0808 223 1133.

This is general guidance, not legal advice.

It's the permission a company gets to take repeated payments from your debit or credit card. It isn't a Direct Debit, so it won't show in your Direct Debit list. But you can cancel it: tell your bank you're withdrawing it and they must stop the payments, even if the company won't.

Often, yes, especially if you act quickly.

• For most things you buy online, UK law gives you 14 days to cancel. The rules differ for digital content you've already started using.
• If the subscription wasn't made clear when you paid, that may be a misleading practice under UK consumer law. The Cancel and ask for a refund letter says this for you.
• If the company refuses, your bank's chargeback scheme can reverse card payments in many cases.

General guidance, not legal advice. Citizens Advice (0808 223 1133) can help with your situation.

Signing in, downloading your report or using the site after you've cancelled can count as using the service. Some sites treat that as restarting your subscription, and it can weaken a refund or chargeback claim. If you need something from them, email them instead. Small Print shows a small banner if you open a site you're cancelling.

Any bank or card app that shows payment notifications on your phone, including Monzo, Starling, Revolut, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, Nationwide, Google Wallet and PayPal. Make sure payment notifications are switched on in your bank's app.

Tap Not a trial and it won't ask about that shop again. It also learns from your normal spending: payments over £3 teach it which shops you use.

Every website address is registered, and the registration date is public. With online shop checks turned on, Small Print looks up the date for shops it's checking, using the official registration records (RDAP).

It sends only the web address, such as example-shop.store, and only for pages that are selling something. Never the page or anything you type. Turn it on in Small Print under Recommended › Turn on online shop checks.

A list of websites we have reviewed after reports or our own research, each with recorded evidence. If you visit one, Small Print shows a warning: red for the most serious, amber for a caution. Your phone downloads the whole list once a day and checks it on the phone, so nobody learns which sites you visit.

Been caught by a shop? In Small Print, open the shop's page, then tap Report a scam website in Small Print and tell us what happened.

Small, new businesses can trip a few signs, especially a new website with a big sale. The orange Careful warning means "check first", not "scam". Tap Check reviews on Trustpilot to see what other buyers say.

Happy with the shop? Tap This site is safe – don't warn me again. Big retailers like Amazon, Argos and John Lewis are never flagged for pressure wording.

1. Call your bank straight away using the number on your card. Tell them you think you've paid a scam website.
2. Paid by card? Ask for a chargeback if the goods never arrive or aren't as described. On a credit card, purchases between £100 and £30,000 are also protected by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
3. Paid by bank transfer? Tell your bank immediately. Many UK banks must reimburse victims of authorised push payment (APP) scams.
4. Report the website to the National Cyber Security Centre at ncsc.gov.uk ("report a scam website"), and report the ad in Instagram, Facebook or TikTok (tap ⋯ on the ad › Report).

General guidance, not legal advice. Citizens Advice: 0808 223 1133.

Treat it as fake. Martin Lewis has said he never does adverts, and scammers routinely use well-known faces without permission. These ads lead to "trading platforms" that take your money. Before investing anything, check the firm on the FCA register (fca.org.uk/register). If it isn't listed, don't invest. Small Print shows its red warning and an FCA warning list button on these pages.

1. Don't tap the link and don't reply.
2. Forward it to 7726. It's free and helps networks block the sender. The warning has a button for this.
3. Worried it might be real? Contact the company yourself, using its app or the number on its real website or on your card.
4. Already tapped and entered details? Call your bank straight away.

Scammers copy logos and wording exactly, so the web address is the giveaway. Small Print knows the real addresses of the UK's most copied brands (banks, Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, HMRC, DVLA, PayPal, Amazon and more). If a page uses one of those names but is on a different address, and asks you to log in or pay, you get a red warning with a button to go to the real website instead.

When you look at an app on Google Play, Small Print checks two things:

• Copycat apps: an app named after a bank or big brand with only a few thousand downloads. The real ones have hundreds of thousands or millions.
• Weekly subscriptions: "free for 3 days, then £6.99 a week" is £363 a year. Small Print shows the yearly cost before you start the trial.

Some apps can read your screen or your notifications. Small Print can too, because that's how it protects you. It's fine for apps you trust, like a password manager. But banking malware uses exactly this access to read your texts and bank codes.

If Small Print tells you a new app has this access and you didn't just switch it on yourself, tap Review and turn it off. If you trust the app, tap I trust it.

Add a family member in Small Print (Family alert › Add a family member). After a serious warning, like a scam text, a fake bank website or a subscription trap, Small Print offers a one-tap Text or Call to them: "Small Print just warned me about a fake Royal Mail website. Can you give me a call?"

Nothing is ever sent automatically. Your messaging app opens with the text ready, and you tap Send. It's offered at most once a day for the same thing.

A flag means a website matches patterns we associate with misleading subscription billing or common scam signs: for example a cheap "trial" that quietly becomes a high repeating charge, or no clear way to cancel.

It is our assessment, there to help you check before you enter card details. It is not a statement of legal fact and not an accusation against any person.

Two ways. The app checks the page in front of you, on your phone, for the wording and pricing patterns of a trap. Separately, we keep a warning list built from reports and our own research.

Nothing goes on the warning list automatically. Every entry is checked by a person, is backed by recorded evidence, and is looked at again at least every 90 days. A site that has fixed the problem comes off.

Use Report a scam site, or Report a scam website in the app. Give the website address and what happened. Please don't include card numbers, passwords or other personal details: we only need enough to look at the site.

Use the review request form and give your website address and what you'd like us to look at. A person reviews every request and we aim to reply within 14 days. If the flag is wrong or out of date, we remove it promptly. Every review is recorded.

We re-check listed websites regularly and remove entries that no longer apply. We publish how many sites are listed, how many review requests we've had and how long they took on our transparency page. If you believe an entry is wrong, tell us and we'll review it.

Android hides what you type into password boxes from apps like Small Print. And Small Print never sends what it reads anywhere by itself.

It goes online only for things you choose: online shop checks (it looks up just the web address of a shop it's checking, and downloads our warning list once a day), a report you send, anonymous totals if you switch on sharing, and a feedback email if you send one. The privacy policy lists each one.

It reads the text of pages only to look for subscription wording. Page text is never saved: only the last page it checked is held in memory, for the Diagnostics panel, until the next one.

• The names of sites it warned you about, with the prices it saw.
• Your cancel reminders and follow-ups.
• Names of shops you've paid (for bank & message checks).
• Your name and email, if you type them into a cancellation letter.

All of it stays on your phone and is deleted if you uninstall the app. Full details are in our privacy policy.

That's Android's protection for apps from outside the Play Store. Unlock it once:

1. Go to Settings › Apps › Small Print.
2. Tap ⋮ in the top corner, then Allow restricted settings, and confirm.
3. Go back and switch Small Print on again.

There are pictures of each screen in step 3 of the install guide.

1. Open Small Print. Does it say You're protected? If not, follow the setup steps it shows.
2. Scroll down so the price and the small print are on screen. Some pages only load the terms after you tap a button.
3. Try the test page. If that warns you, Small Print is working, and that site just words things in a way it doesn't recognise yet.
4. In Small Print, More › Diagnostics shows what it last read and the risk score it gave.

Some phones, especially Samsung, occasionally switch off accessibility apps after a system update. Open Small Print. If it says Protection is off, tap Turn on again.

To help it stay on, go to Settings › Apps › Small Print › Battery and choose Unrestricted.

Go to Settings › Apps › Small Print › Uninstall. Everything it stored is deleted with it.