How to find and cancel subscriptions you forgot about

Subscriptions are designed to be easy to start and easy to forget. Each one looks small ($5 here, $19.99 there), but a household with several streaming services, cloud storage, a gym membership, news sites and a couple of apps can easily spend over $1,000 a year without noticing.

Where subscriptions hide

• Your bank and credit card statements: the most complete source. Look for the same payee charging a similar amount every week, month or year.
• Apple and Google accounts: subscriptions bought inside apps are billed by Apple or Google, so your statement shows "APPLE.COM/BILL" or "Google" instead of the app's name. On an iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. On Android, open the Google Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions.
• PayPal: check the automatic payments section in your PayPal settings.
• Annual renewals: yearly subscriptions are the easiest to forget because they only appear once a year. Use 12 months of statements to catch them.
• Free trials: trials that ask for your card details usually convert to a paid plan automatically.

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Decide what to keep

For each subscription, ask three questions:

1. Did I use it in the last month?
2. If I didn't have it, would I sign up for it today at this price?
3. Is there a cheaper plan, a family plan, or an ad-supported tier that would do?

A useful trick is to look at the yearly cost rather than the monthly one. $16.99 a month sounds small; $204 a year makes it easier to decide whether it's worth it.

Rotate your streaming services

You rarely need every streaming service at once. Keep one or two, cancel the rest, and switch every month or two when there's something new you want to watch. Most services let you cancel any time and keep access until the end of the period you've paid for. Rotating three services instead of holding them all can save a couple of hundred dollars a year.

How to cancel

• Cancel through the same place you signed up: the provider's website, or your Apple or Google account for app subscriptions.
• Take a screenshot of the cancellation confirmation.
• Check your next statement to make sure the charge has stopped.
• If a business keeps charging you after you've cancelled, contact them with your confirmation. If that doesn't work, your bank can help dispute card charges.

Gym and club memberships

Gyms are a classic "paying but not using" cost. Divide the monthly fee by the number of times you went last month to get your cost per visit. If it's high, ask about off-peak memberships, freezing the membership for a while, or casual passes before cancelling outright. Some memberships have minimum terms or notice periods, so check your contract.

Make it a habit

Put a reminder in your calendar to review subscriptions every six months, and when you sign up for a free trial, set a reminder for the day before it ends.

Check your own spending with MoneyLeaks →