How to Find and Cancel Subscriptions You Forgot About

Subscriptions are designed to be easy to start and easy to forget. A $9.99 charge doesn’t feel like much, but five or six of them can top $600 a year.

Step 1: Find every subscription

• Bank and credit card statements: Scan the last three months for recurring charges. Some services bill annually, so search a full year if you can.
• App stores: Your phone’s settings show every subscription billed through Apple or Google.
• Email: Search your inbox for “receipt,” “renewal,” “subscription” and “trial.”
• Digital wallets and payment apps: Check for recurring payments set up there.

Step 2: Sort them into three groups

1. Keep: You use it weekly and would sign up again today.
2. Rotate: You like it but don’t need it every month (most streaming services fall here).
3. Cancel: You haven’t used it in a month or forgot you had it.

Step 3: Cancel the right way

• Cancel through the same place you signed up: the app store, the company’s website or account page.
• Take a screenshot of the cancellation confirmation.
• Watch your next statement to make sure the charge stopped.
• If a company refuses to cancel or keeps charging you, dispute the charge with your card issuer.

Step 4: Ask for a discount before you leave

Some services offer a lower price or a few free months when you go to cancel. If you’d stay at a lower price, it’s worth seeing what they offer. If not, cancel anyway.

Step 5: Stop new subscriptions from sneaking in

• Set a calendar reminder two days before every free trial ends.
• Use a virtual card number, if your card issuer offers one, for trials, and set it to expire.
• Review subscriptions every three months.

Do this today: Open your phone’s subscription settings. It takes two minutes and is the fastest way to find forgotten charges.

Watch for “gray charges”

Small charges like $1.99 or $4.99 can be easy to miss. They might be an app, a cloud storage plan or a service you upgraded once. Small doesn’t mean harmless; they add up.