InterNations GmbH Reviews

Name: InterNations GmbH
Rating: 1.24

1.2 Rating 147 Reviews

6 %

of reviewers recommend InterNations GmbH

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1.2

Based on 147 reviews

Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week

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InterNations GmbH 1 star review on 30th March 2025

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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“Devious Billing Practice Just like others, I signed up for their 1 month free Albatros membership. Without any warning, this free membership got auto renewed to a year. If InterNations wants, they can very easily send an automated email reminder about renewal to all its consumers. But InterNations will not send ANY reminder. Their response is: 1- "information is available in Terms & Conditions" 2- YOU agreed to the Terms & Conditions 3- So it is your responsibility and because you failed to remember, you have to pay up now! Frankly for me, this is a very MEDIEVAL and DEVIOUS billing practice. InterNation's business model is to trick and abuse innocent & busy consumers. Today, consumers are used to trusting "ethical websites". Other ethical websites that work on subscription, send reminders about membership renewal and also freely offer refunds incase their is any confusion! For such ethical websites, CONSUMER IS KING. But InterNations just wants to trick and abuse innocent consumers with "legal arguments". FOR InterNations, CONSUMER IS AN ILLITERATE WHO SHOULD BE ROBBED. For a social network site that depends on consumers to survive, InterNations is destroying their consumer trust. Why are they doing this? Who knows! It is disgusting and gives other online websites a bad name. I hope someone makes an example of this devious company. STAY AWAY!!!”

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Posted 4 years ago

“They will continue to bill you even after your yearly membership has expired. They threaten you with legal action if you do not pay the whole yearly amount even if you do not want to be part of it. They are a scam.”

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Posted 4 years ago

“basically the same most of the review writers have written already. No meeting since 10 months. Sure they hide behind Covid, but this also mean they didn't honour their part of the promises they made. Luckily my Credit Card expired and now they are threatening me for payment and asking for giving them my new credit card details. Because of their many unfriendly mails , I was nearly about to give in , untilI read the reviews of other people who feel cheated by their organisation. Don't ever give them your credit card details or they will charge with whatever forever .”

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Posted 4 years ago

“I am very dissapointed and disgraced by the messages I received from some guys on internations. I thought this social network is to connect with expats, attend some quality events and all not to receive twinkles and hook up mesages. Just because of this reason I had to change my profile picture from formal to show that I am in a relationship. Then I realised when I send friend requests to people that sends me twinkles I receive messages from them like ' I only accept friends that I personally know them and met them. I hope I can add you one day' after I changed my profile picture. Internations has turned in dating site unfortunately. I will post all of them on instagram and not recommend this website to anyone as It does not provide anything quality but disgust. And seriously wtf with twinkles, what is it all about?”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Do NOT sign up with InterNations! I have downgraded and cancelled the annual renewal services through the InterNation App, but I have still been charged for renewal without my knowledge, consent, against my will. I explained the situations repeatedly to their Customer Support team and request for refund as it is the issue with InterNation App and I do not wish to continue with the membership. InterNation App is bad and often crashes and do not record cancellation and downgrading correctly. The Customer Support team wouldn’t listen to me, refused to refund and blamed me for not sending them the error messages about App issue earlier. Unpleasant, unhelpful and unreasonable customer services. Total waste of my time and effort. Would not recommend this to anyone.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Do NOT sign up with InterNations! I have downgraded and cancelled the annual renewal services through the InterNation App, but I have still been charged for renewal without my knowledge, consent, against my will. I explained the situations repeatedly to their Customer Support team and request for refund as it is the issue with InterNation App and I do not wish to continue with the membership. InterNation App is bad and often crashes and do not record cancellation and downgrading correctly. The Customer Support team wouldn’t listen to me and blame me for not sending them the error messages about App issue earlier. Unpleasant, unhelpful and unreasonable customer services. Total waste of my time and effort. Would not recommend this to anyone.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Unethical company. I agree with all the bad ratings below. Same experience.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Hi all, I see all those bad reviews here and I have to say this looks like a joke. I mean the membership allows you to go to a lot of events and usually you get a reduced entry or a free drink or both. Visiting one event means you almost got your money back. It comes for 8,95 Euro a month. A while ago I used to go there myself in Düsseldorf/Germany. I mean you are alone in a foreign city and the they offered me the opportunity to get to know scores of persons and I made friends there. You go to the event they introduce you and you talk to people till you find somebody you like. They offer so many activities you can join in. It is a difference whether you say Internations is not good or whether you expect it to be free. Just to say, none of you works for free right? Consider this the next time please. I also see people saying they did not recognise they were joining into a paid scheme. Well, since you have to leave your credit card data this is difficult to imagine.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I signed up for an Albatross membership a few years ago, I had no problem with cancelling/not extending it after reading the fine print, but the whole deal was bogus. They 'organised' some 'events' in various bars that anyone could walk in for free, they just were very keen on taking my money for nothing. Met some unfriendly people as well, got emailed and contacted by people I neither wanted to get to know or who served some other scammy purpose of their own. I decided to just take my losses and bail out. Out of sheer curiosity I 'signed up' recently again, looks like the same deal. Not worth the effort/trouble.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Paid for a subscription to this website while I was traveling, looking for some meetups and to meet some other travelers. Thought nothing of it. It was a relatively nice experience In 2019, after my subscription ran out. I wasn't allowed to access the content again until I paid to renew my subscription. That seems fair. I still wanted to use the content so I paid. I barely used the website since then and when they repeatedly told me my subscription was going to end, I didn't care, because I no longer wanted to use the product in 2020 with the pandemic. Anyway, without my permission, they extended my subscription and sent me a ridiculous email, trying to threaten me and saying I owed them money, even though I had no current credit card in their system. That's not how things work. You cut off someone's access to content when they don't pay. Seems they got extra sketchy during the Corona pandemic and just started trying to hustle people. Sounds like a criminal to me Now they are basically trying to extort me for something I didn't want. The weak minded people that work for them aren't allowed to say anything non PC when you contact them, so the conversation got nowhere. They just kept trying to talk about the Terms and Conditions. I'm not paying thieves and they can shove their terms and conditions up their ***. I read several reviews and it seems I'm far from the only one they tried to steal from. Looking forward to this criminal enterprise going out of business”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Unethical company that deserves a negative rating if there was an option. German regulators should take a good hard look at such organisations. The ethical framework and liberal contractual policies allow these companies to blatantly violate customer rights and rip them off!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“This service might be interesting for some people but they conduct their business in a very shady way. They give you one month free but they make you provide your billing information. Then they don't send you any alert and when you forget to downgrade they take 80€ from your account, even if you didn't use the service at all! I tried to contact both them and paypal but I couldn't get any refund. Even though I've basically never used the platform at all!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“cheat on subscriptions--shady, shady Can't cancel How did I even get signed up...”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“THIS WEBSITE IS SUCH A SCAM. NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THEY WON'T REPLY TO EMAILS.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Hi, Last year, I recently moved to Asia from the states and decided to join InterNations as an Albatross member (1-year subscription). Early on I attended a few events. They were pretty disorganized and pointless since no one greeted you as an InterNations representative. I would have had the same luck just going into any random venue and striking up a conversation with a stranger. Based on these initial lackluster experiences I quickly forgot about InterNations and settled into my new life abroad. Right after COVID-19 became a global pandemic I received an email notification from InterNations stating how they couldn't charge my credit card (it had expired during the interim) for my auto-renewal. I sent them a quick e-mail telling them not to worry about it and that I don't want to renew. Well, as I found out, they don't take "no" for an answer. Instead their policy, no doubt designed from their ex-McKinsey CEO, was to escalate the situation and threaten me with debt collectors over US$100. I was a bit shocked to be treated like a deadbeat and a criminal. After all, I was technically still a member. I never received an e-mail notification that a charge was imminent, which is standard for practically every business. I guess it's my fault for not devoting to memory their T&C. I mean, it's not like anything happened over the past year. I asked them how could this be legal? It certainly wasn't where I lived. Their response: "InterNations is a German company based in Munich. We are therefore governed by and operate according to German law, rather than the laws of your country of residence." I admit...again it's my fault I didn't read up on German law before initially signing up for the Albatross membership. But fair enough, I did some reading and paid them back in their own coin (apologies for the length of the e-mail below, but worth the read): "Thank you for clarifying that your company is governed by and operates according to German law. According to the German Civil Code “Einführungsgesetz zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuche § 1 Moratorium”, a consumer has the right to refuse a claim related to a consumer contract until June 30 due to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19 pandemic). As it is Monday, June 29 in Germany, I am exercising my right to refuse your claim. Let this email serve as notice that I want my subscription canceled and my account deleted effective immediately. According to your company’s mission statement, InterNations is “a place where international people like you meet, connect, and exchange information” and “network and find friends who will explore your new surroundings with you”. Do you reasonably expect people to “meet” and “explore” their surroundings during a global pandemic? According to German law, the answer is Nein. Lastly, I never received a notice of re-enrollment from InterNations and therefore had no reasonable expectation that you would be charging my credit card for anything over the agreed upon one-year period. It appears that InterNations cares more about its short-term profitability than it does about its subscribers’ economic and physical wellbeing. I am confident others will share this sentiment once I forward this and your previous emails to my colleagues in the media." This e-mail elicited their standard response that ends with their company motto: "We reserve the right to escalate this matter further to a debt collection agency, which may result in additional costs for you." So did InterNations break a German law that was meant to protect consumers during COVID-19? Seems that way to me, but I don't have a German law degree. To end this review, please avoid InterNations, they are the worst. Stay safe everyone :)”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Thank you for rejecting my request... Submitted a membership request and was declined (really?). I am in the process of preparing to set up a business in Vietnam until the pandemic prevented foreigners to travel there. While I am waiting for everything to reopen I decided to research other professional like minded individuals who may have share some of their knowledge or experience and came across the InterNations website which looked both professional and inviting. So glad the reviews here saved me time and money and I'll do it the old fashioned way and build my own connections. Thank you all for your contributions :)”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Even during these times in 2020 when so many are trying to catch up after no work for 2 or 3 months and business still very slow, internations wont cancel my membership and insists I pay for the next year regardless of whether I plan to use it or not. The automatic renewal is practically a scam. Very little empathy”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Yet another victim of their unethical business practices. InterNations uses dark patterns to lure unsuspecting subscribers into recurring bills. Basically they employ “forced continuity”, a type of dark pattern, in their consent obtaining mechanism to repeatedly charge its subscribers despite their objections. Organizing a boycott of this duplicitous company @BInternations (twitter) also at www dot InterNations dot us I would encourage all those who have been victimized by InterNations to add their voice to the boycott. As individuals we are easy to ignore, but as a collective we have a real opportunity to shine a spotlight on this company’s deceptive and unethical business practices.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“STAY AWAY! The Auto-renewal process is a SCAM for the lack of a better word. It is an exploitation of the legal system as they will say you signed up for it after having read their terms and conditions. So you are stuck. I contacted the European Consumer Contact Network and their advise was ' You can try to argue that this is an unfair term, but ultimately only a judge in court can make this decision. '. I hope someone can be bothered enough to go this far. if needed I can assist and provide more information. They successfully took payment for two years membership from me, although I only attended one of their events after a friend told me about them. The event I attended was actually very rubbish. There was no organisation and I absolutely did not feel like I attended as a member of internations. I could have just walked into a random bar by myself. There are better ways of meeting people online that would not cost you so much money and threats of court actions for something you should be able to easily opt in for and opt out from. I had tried to cancel my membership, last year but the process was not intuitive and since they had also auto renewed I just left it and removed my credit card details. This year, I received an email to update my credit card information so they can take payment for the auto-renewal that they had already done for me. I immediately responded that I am not interested in auto-renewal and would not want to pay. They refused to cancel my membership and forced me to honour the renewal after many threats and nagging emails. STAY AWAY!! It is not worth it. Even if you moved to a new city, it is not worth it. There are better ways and better apps for meeting new people. Easier for you to walk into a bar or a social gathering or just say hello to someone. I am writing this review at 5am in the morning after I have paid for two years of unused and unwanted membership. I do not want that to be you. Apologies, I know I have ranted for long enough, but it is to ensure someone else does not make the same mistake as I did.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I read the reviews and it is true that there is no way to opt out of the membership with InterNations. I would advise the easiest way is to call the credit card company and say you lost the credit card that you used for membership. They will send you a new card and InterNations cannot automatically renew the membership. Another concern about this organization is the scammers that try to message you. The scammers create a profile with a picture of a CEO looking guy and they always put that they work for an oil company. I complained to InterNations and never heard a word from Customer Service. It is a scam because they charge you $86 snd they make no effort to provide any type of service or discounts to access travel. So why join? Since the pandemic nothing happens except virtual events and you don’t have to pay to do that.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

InterNations GmbH is rated 1.2 based on 147 reviews