Do a full subscription audit every three months, and skim your statements once a month for new recurring charges. For the first audit, go through the last 12 months of bank and card statements so annual renewals show up, then check Apple, Google Play, PayPal, and your phone bill, because a lot of subscriptions bill through those instead of directly.
The monthly skim takes five minutes and catches the trial that just converted to paid. The quarterly audit is where you decide what stays. Do an extra check before any big annual renewal and whenever you get a new card number, since some services will quietly fail to bill and others will keep charging through the card update.
How to find every subscription#
- Download 12 months of statements for every card and bank account. Sort or search by merchant and look for the same name appearing every month, quarter, or year. Small charges are the easiest to miss.
- Open your app store subscriptions. On an iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. On Android, open Google Play and find the subscriptions page under your profile icon.
- Check PayPal's automatic payments list, and any other wallet you use for online shopping.
- Read your phone and internet bills line by line. Streaming add-ons and device insurance often sit there.
- Search your email for "receipt", "renewal", "your subscription", and "trial". This finds annual charges you'd otherwise forget until they hit. If your inbox is too buried to search, an email inbox cleanup first will help.
If a charge doesn't match any product you know, look up the billing name before you assume fraud. Merchants often bill under a parent company or a payment processor's name.
Where subscriptions hide#
| Where you see the charge |
Where you usually cancel |
| Apple on your card statement |
iPhone Settings or Apple's website, not the app itself |
| Google Play |
The Play Store's subscriptions page |
| PayPal |
The merchant's account page, then cancel the automatic payment in PayPal |
| Phone or internet bill |
The carrier or provider |
| Merchant name directly |
The merchant's own website or account settings |
Keep, downgrade, or cancel?#
Write each subscription down with the monthly cost (divide annual plans by 12), then ask:
- When did anyone in the house last use it?
- Do you have the same thing somewhere else? Two music services, cloud storage from both your phone maker and your email provider, a streaming service bundled with your phone plan that you also pay for separately.
- Would a cheaper tier do? Ad-supported streaming, a smaller storage plan, a single-user plan instead of family.
- Would you sign up today at the current price? If not, cancel. You can always come back.
Don't cancel by gut feel alone. A backup service you never open may be one of the most important things you pay for. A gym membership used once since January probably isn't.
Before you cancel cloud storage, a photo service, or any software that holds your files, export what you need first. Some services delete your data soon after the account lapses.
How to cancel a subscription properly#
Cancel with whoever bills you. That's often not the app you use. Deleting an app does not cancel it: Google's help page on cancelling Google Play subscriptions states that uninstalling won't cancel your subscription, and Apple's guide to cancelling a subscription from Apple has you do it from your account's Subscriptions list, not from the app.
- Find the cancellation page in the account settings of the service, app store, or carrier that bills you.
- Cancel, then screenshot or save the confirmation showing the date and when access ends.
- Check whether "cancel" means access stops now or at the end of the paid period. These are different, and some services treat "pause" differently from both.
- Look at your next statement to make sure the charge is gone.
The FTC's guide to free trials and auto-renewing subscriptions recommends keeping a copy of your cancellation request, plus notes on any calls about it, and checking your statements afterward.
What if you're still charged after cancelling?#
Contact the company first through its official support page, with your cancellation confirmation. Most of the time this fixes it.
If they keep charging you, the FTC says you can dispute the charge with your credit or debit card company. Call the number on the back of your card, say you cancelled on a specific date, and send your proof. Do this quickly, because dispute deadlines depend on the type of card and where you live.
Getting a new card number does not necessarily cancel the contract, and some merchants receive your updated card details automatically. Cancel the subscription itself.
If a company makes cancelling deliberately hard, you can report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov (in the US) or to your state attorney general.
Free trials and annual renewals#
The day you start a free trial, set a reminder for two or three days before it converts. An hour before is too late if the service needs a phone call to cancel.
Annual billing usually costs less over a year than paying monthly, but you're committed for 12 months and the renewal arrives as one big charge you've forgotten about. If you go annual, put the renewal date in your calendar with a week's warning.
Watch for promotional prices that end. Decide based on the price you'll pay after the promotion, and if you call to negotiate a lower rate, ask whether accepting it starts a new minimum term.
Keep a running list#
A simple spreadsheet with service, who uses it, cost, billing frequency, next renewal date, how it's paid, and how to cancel is enough. Don't put card numbers or passwords in it. Those belong in your password manager, and each account you keep should get a unique password like any other (our guide on when to change passwords covers why).
At the end of each audit, add up three numbers: monthly commitments, annual renewals coming in the next quarter, and what you've cancelled. Update your monthly budget only once the cancellations have actually shown up on a statement.
A quarterly reminder keeps this from slipping. ChoreLists.com can repeat it every three months and assign shared services to whoever controls the account.