Id daresay that what you asked isn't philosophical, but legal. And from what I gather, yes, it is a sale. And if you don't pay, they ding your credit. Hard.

And low/no credit people can't even use these services.

But to the larger point, there's a lot of things that claim to be a sale, but aren't really. I'm especially thinking of DRM music, movies, software, and generally copyrighted goods like that. Those folks are sure addicted to using the language of "sale" and then removing as they choose whatever they wish.