The main reason for making it easier for members to opt out of your site is to avoid getting charge backs. If a member requests for cancellation of his subscription or applies for a refund, such a person has the option of contacting the payment processor you are using like pay pal and lodging a complaint. Incase they fail to get back their money using this method, they can request fro a chargeback from the bank or credit card company to forcefully get their money back as well as cancel the subscription. Due to this expediting the exit of members wishing to do so is beneficial for you in the long run. Holding on to say $20 is not worth the bad reputation you will get from the affair.
What should you do to avoid getting yourself in such a situation? Just act normally, encourage your members to stay to stay by improving the quality of the content. Show them the value of staying. Have a list of content that is going to be availed to them in the near future like next month or week. This is so that they don’t get worried about what the future will spring.
Lastly, be honest and inform them beforehand what they stand to lose incase they decide to cancel, and they and to gain if they stay. Make it clear that access to the content will be denied in the event of cancellation, but if they stick around until the completion they will graduate, access all available videos forever without having to make any further payments. On my membership site I have even uploaded some videos that I avail to anyone who has successfully finished the course. You can even provide bonus courses for people who have gone through with the course. This will keep them on your site since they will feel that they are having a complete experience on your site. They want to complete the course and graduate so why not make it more interesting?
This is how easy it is to let your member go. Make it as simple as process as you can if you do not want to deal with charge backs that may result in bad reputation. Inform them of the good things you are going to introduce after they have left. My thinking is that if you correctly apply the above three things you will be surprised at the number of people you will be able to maintain on your membership site. Find out many other things that may be useful about member retention right now at: http://www.membershipcube.com