InterNations Reviews 1,125

I signed up for a free trial, and didn't realise that Internations had set up an automatic payment in my PayPal. I got billed €95 for an entire year's worth of subscription, and have absolutely no use for the platform. Not even a rolling month; an entire year!!

I contacted them via their website submission, and after about a week (and following up via Facebook) I received;

"You had the chance to cancel your free trial at any time before the 30 days ended... we can't offer you a refund".

Absolutely zero cares given for goodwill or accidental product purchase. There might well have been a time in the future where I'd use this platform, but their business model is to latch onto money from people that accidentally carried over their free trial, which will not benefit them in the long run. Probably indicative of why their Trustpilot rating is 2.3 / 5

Been trying to get a hold of them re an invoice and have not received a reply. It’s been days. I’ve tried to email them again but still no reply. Horrible service.

DO NOT TRUST your data to InterNation.

Once singed up exploring a good idea of connecting people, the app itself turned out to be absolutely useless with no people around.

Instead, I keep receiving SPAM emails regularly, and It is impossible to unsubscribe, so I just keep marking them as "spam" in my inbox.

Today I received a marketing email with "offers from partners". Bizarre and outrageous!

I deleted my InterNations account yesterday after being a basic member for 6 years, and the following is the overall experience I'm leaving with:

InterNations sells a false sense of community to vulnerable expats who seek a sense of belonging in their new homelands.

P.s. I never gave them my credit card information to be scammed like many other expats unfortunately have.

(Comment on InterNations reply: The right to host events and thus shape a community are exclusively reserved for those who, if neither a Consul, nor a Ambassador of InterNations, have a paid subscription as an Albatross member. So, the adage "a community is shaped by its members" does not apply to the InterNations platform if you happen to be just a Basic member.

Horrible company !
I had a 30 days membership and I cancelled it and they tried to take money of my card, kept sending emails threating me with legal action and debt collection agencies, even though I had cancelled my subcription and did not use it anymore.
I wrote multiple emails in which I asked them to remove the fee as I cancelled and did not use but they kept replying about their terms and conditions etc, then just ignoring my emails.
Do not make the mistake to buy any subscription from these scammers or you will end up having your money stolen !

Application for membership denied without giving any reason as to why and even though all the basic requirements to become a member are fulfilled. One can be forgiven to suspect that they are discriminating based on ethnic origins.

GOOD: All local meetings, which I attended were good or great - but that was the doing of the local organizer, not the work of the website as such.
BAD: I have paid for the membership and still cannot access the online events due to their programming. In addition the support does not support but lectures about why it is my fault that their website does not work. This is going on for months - I have had enough!
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I corrected my review from 2 to 1 star:
Writing that they cannot fix the error based on the information provided is non-sense: I reported the issue multiple times incl. screenshots. Via Trustpilot, they got my email. They COULD look it up in the support forum or contact me via email, but they did neither.

Won't let me join for undisclosed reason.

I had a paid membership for awhile but found them mostly a useless organization. They're not necessary when numerous Facebook groups exist for foreigners to meet one another and organize events. I would certainly not pay them anything again, and I can well imagine that they bait people with free trials and then refuse to cancel the subscription after the 30 days have finished.

Eventually, Internations will most likely go out of business. No time like the present to start sending them on their way.

As a "Albatross" member for several years, within Belgian Internations Community, I was literally shocked, to realize that my paid membership (cost 120 euros) and online profile were suddenly cancelled, without any notice, explanation or even refund(!!). The Customer service, is not reachable by phone and has not, to this day, responded to my submitted queries and emails. Not only, since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a decrease in in-person events and the shift to virtual interactions, but in recent months, I (and many fellow members) have also encountered unpleasant behaviors, from some event organizers which seem to profit from their position solely for social networking. This is particularly troubling in a space that should foster international understanding and friendship.

It is very difficult to open an account with them. I tried many times and did not succeed

they are scammers!!!! i canceled my freetrial and they tried charging me which my bank alerted me and blocked, somehow they found a way to charge me!! i have been sending countless emails and they keep refusing to respond, in summary, they are scammers!!!!!

As a fairly new member of InterNations, I am pleased to share that my experience has been positive so far. When I signed up, I accidentally selected the paid (Albatross) membership and realised shortly after that I had been charged for the entire year upfront.

Upon noticing this, I promptly emailed the support team to explain the situation and request a refund. Honestly, I didn't expect much since the mistake was on my part, and it's rare for organisations to accommodate such requests.

To my surprise, I received a quick and sincere response from a support team member who understood my issue and accepted my refund request. The refund was processed promptly.

Overall, my experience with InterNations has been great, thanks to their efficient and empathetic customer service.

Met many interesting people from all walks of life

Editing this review after I have received a partial refund. I was charged for 3 months membership, but when I complained, 2 months was refunded. This being resolved, I am happy to be able to endorse Internations, because I believe the idea as such is great, and I have had some good experiences at their events. But be aware that once you sign up, it is a subscription that is charged automatically when it expires.

The internations.org website is a really excellent, very well thought out website. Unfortunately, the support and management are extremely snooty and unbearable. I was a member of Internations 15 years ago for several years and was also a consul and organized many events. After a while I was mobbed out because I was too successful and the old consuls were jealous. The management covered up this behavior despite many letters from me. Now, after 15 years, some of these old consuls are no longer with Internations, but the mopping has not stopped at Internations. Even new registrations are immediately deleted after a few days. The support does not respond. But that doesn't matter because I still go to events or official events with other existing Internations members from time to time. And here you can see that Internations is obviously doing something wrong with its policy. Even the official events with more than 300 registrations are hardly attended anymore. Most recently in Vienna on June 24th, over 350 people registered and perhaps just under 50 people came. This organization has become a tragedy. Here you can see how a really good idea can be ruined. Incomprehensible actions by the support team and a truly misanthropic attitude are preventing the further development of this organization. The exercise of power over members and their censorship are the order of the day. Arguments are not taken into account, but accounts are immediately closed for 14 days or deleted without notice. There is no hearing - no, you are immediately denounced. Apparently only arrogant people without compassion do what they want here. There is no loyalty and human understanding. Apparently the owner has been overwhelmed by the enormous amounts of income. It is claimed that there are 1 million members. If we assume that only half are paying members, that is 60,000,000.00 euros = 60 million euros in membership fees per year. Well, you can certainly be as cheeky as you like towards members. It doesn't matter - one more or one less.
People, think about whether you want to be part of the club. Unfortunately, I can't say anything good about internations.org anymore.

I will join the club with the negative review!
If you claim you have such a community…. Why you have 65% negative!
I was rejected on base of i don't know what….
Probably nationality Im born Bulgarian living 20 years out of my native lands speaking 6 languages in digital marketing ex spa therapist been in 50 countries… that probably in not enough for this community of what in fact 😆🤦🏼‍♀️

I am currently being charged for a subscription I don't even want to use anymore (technically 2-3 months, then I ended up not using it anymore cause I've been busy with other affairs). I have only used it for one year. I canceled the subscription before the expiration date but they charged my credit card again after cancelation. Luckily that credit card expired and I wasn't charged. But they've been threatening to take legal action against me if I don't pay for a subscription that I've ALREADY canceled.
I've tried to contact them on multiple occasions but they've only replied twice. Once they lied that they could not find my registered email address on their servers, and now they told me that they could verify my account cancellation but that I need to pay for the outstanding payment for a service I don't even use. So I threatened them back with legal action. I am tired of companies with unethical practices.

SCAM! Charged me after I cancelled the free trial, did not respond to my ticket for a month and then sent me an email saying "sorry we took too long to respond so we closed your case, let us know if you want to reopen it again", which I did, and then they didn't reply again!
Useless scamming con artists, do not give them your bank details.

To apply, you need to enter your nationality, name and languages that you speak, and with this information, I got a reply, that after careful evaluation my membership has been declined, well, the company is discriminating against people based on their nationalities and languages that they speak, amazing practice in 2024!