Paidwings AG cancellation — how to stop the charges
Charges from PWA *PW AG, WWW.PWINGS.CH or CHE PAIDWINGS.AG on your bank or credit-card statement? You are almost certainly dealing with Paidwings AG, a Swiss company based in Cham that operates hundreds of dating sites worldwide. This article explains what Paidwings AG is, what the typical debt-collection chain looks like, and how to cancel your subscription in a way that holds up in writing.
Looking for the German version of this article? Read it here: Paidwings AG kündigen.
What is Paidwings AG?
Paidwings AG, based in Cham in the canton of Zug (Switzerland), runs several hundred dating websites worldwide. The pages are all structured very similarly. The example below shows the registration flow of uk-mums.com, but the pattern is the same on every Paidwings site.
You can register on the start page free of charge — gender, date of birth, e-mail address. The site advertises with phrases like “Find a date in your area” and “Manually reviewed members for real contacts”. Once your e-mail is confirmed, you can fill in your profile and look around.
What you cannot do for free is what most users actually want to do: see other members’ photos or send messages. For that, the site asks you to take out a Premium Membership.
Paidwings AG offers several contract terms. On uk-mums.com, for instance, a three-month membership is advertised at £34.90 per month. Payment is by credit card, direct debit or Klarna. The decisive — and often overlooked — detail sits at the very bottom of the order page:
The price shown is not a one-off cost. If you do not cancel on time, the subscription rolls over and the same amount is debited again, sometimes for many months.
“PWA *PW AG” and the other charges from Paidwings AG
The nasty surprise usually comes weeks or months later, when amounts keep appearing on your bank statement or credit-card bill. The descriptor is rarely the obvious name “Paidwings AG” — instead, you often see one of the following labels:
- WWW.PWINGS.CH PAIDW AG
- PWA *PW AG
- PWFAQ.COM
- CHE PAIDWINGS.AG
- WWW.PDWS.CH PAIDW AG CH
All of these descriptors trace back to the same company — Paidwings AG (sometimes shortened to PW AG) in Cham, Switzerland. The support address used across most of their dating sites is support@pwfaq.com. Many users write to that address hoping to cancel quickly. In practice, a short e-mail to support@pwfaq.com is not a watertight cancellation: if Paidwings later disputes that the message arrived, you have no proof of receipt and can be billed for further months.
If you stop paying, you will usually receive e-mails from Paidwings AG saying something like: “There was a problem with your payment. Please pay the outstanding amount and we will unblock your account.”
Debt-collection reminders from Fairmount GmbH
If you simply have the amounts reversed by your bank, you will often receive letters or e-mails from Fairmount GmbH, a registered debt-collection agency in Germany.
Reminders from a registered debt-collection agency should be taken seriously, but that does not mean the underlying claim is automatically valid. In many cases, the websites on which a paid offer was allegedly accepted do not comply with applicable consumer-protection rules — and some clients have reported reminders even though they cannot recall signing up for anything paid at all.
If you do not respond to the first letter, a second, more aggressive payment demand usually follows. It threatens a court-issued default summons (Mahnbescheid) and warns of additional “costs and inconvenience”. In some cases, the letter even invites you to file charges against unknown persons. In short: the pressure goes up, but the legal substance of the claim does not change.
Letters from Auer Witte Thiel
If Fairmount’s reminders fail, the matter is sometimes passed on to the German law firm Auer Witte Thiel, which then demands payment on behalf of Paidwings AG.
Auer Witte Thiel typically adds bank and reminder fees plus lawyers’ fees to the original amount, offers installment plans and — in some cases — threatens legal action. Once again: this changes the wrapping, not necessarily the substance.
How to cancel Paidwings effectively
Paidwings AG’s general terms and conditions require any cancellation to be made in text form. In theory, an e-mail to the support address of the relevant site is enough. In practice, three problems get in the way:
- E-mail. If Paidwings later disputes that your e-mail arrived, you have almost no way to prove it. So-called cancellation services often only send a single e-mail and run into exactly this problem.
- Fax. Faxing the cancellation is also accepted, but few people still have a fax machine, and many users have reported that the fax to Paidwings simply never went through.
- Registered letter. The most reliable route. Send a written cancellation to Paidwings AG’s address in Cham as a registered letter with return receipt. That gives you proof of when the cancellation was received — which is exactly what you need if the company later claims they never got it.
The cancellation letter should not only end the contract. It should also state — clearly and in writing — why you consider the contract void or unenforceable, and demand repayment of any amounts already debited.
Dating sites operated by Paidwings AG
Paidwings AG runs several hundred dating sites that all share the same registration and billing flow. Among the better-known ones are:
If the site you registered on is on this list, the charges and reminders you are receiving very likely come from Paidwings AG — even if the website name itself doesn’t mention the company.
Affected by Paidwings charges?
Wherever you live — Germany, the UK, or anywhere else — if you were charged by Paidwings AG, my office can help you stop the debits and defend against reminders from Fairmount GmbH or Auer Witte Thiel. Send a short message — in English — with the amount, the date of the debit and a screenshot or PDF of the charge.
We reply in English.
Please note: this article describes the typical pattern based on cases handled by Rechtsanwalt Dr. Christian Hoffmann, Kiel (Germany). It is general information, not legal advice for your specific situation.