If you’re tired of wasting money on streaming services or other subscriptions, and ready to cancel subscriptions you no longer need, you’ve come to the right place. It will take you just 5 minutes to check and delete any unwanted subscriptions, and save money right away.
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Here’s how to find and cancel unwanted subscriptions and save money
The workouts you stream, the music you enjoy, cloud storage services, the comics you read, streaming your favorite shows and movies online, and the video games you play. Every piece of consumable content has its own subscription service that will bill you on a monthly (or yearly) basis.
It’s easy to simply forget about digital subscriptions you signed up for, especially ones started as free trials. Months can go by before you realize the provider is charging your credit card. Things get expensive pretty fast.
Subscription services keep raising their prices, so unless you examine your statement each month, a small bump in price can be easy to miss. You should be paying attention to what you’re knowingly paying for.
So, this begs the question: Are you paying attention? Let’s start finding every single recurring charge and decide if it stays or goes.
Cancel unwanted monthly subscriptions
In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a “click-to-cancel” law that would require companies to let you cancel subscriptions as easily as you were able to sign up, and stop them from charging automatically at the end of a free trial.
In the meantime, we have tips to help you find them and cancel them.
Pull Up Your Bank Statement
Firstly, take a close look at your banking or credit card app, maybe you’ll find a few surprises in the form of forgotten monthly subscriptions. If you’re tired of paying for those you no longer use but can’t quite figure out how to cancel, you’re not alone.
Scroll through your last 30 days of transactions. Divide and conquer! Identify all your subscriptions, and don’t overthink it. You’re just looking for the sneaky little charges that happen every month.
Look for anything with the word “Monthly” or “Membership” in it, and weirdly specific amounts that you kinda-sorta don’t recognize. Just make a quick note of all of them.
For an Even Easier Way, you can use an App
There are apps and websites that will notify you when a service hikes its prices, and help you cancel any services you’re not using. It might seem counterproductive to add yet another subscription to the pile in order to keep those subscriptions organized, but some of these apps are free.
They will take the guesswork out of when and how much you’ll be charged for your music, movies, or other subscriptions. So, if you’re feeling a bit lazy (no judgment, I get it) or you use a lot of different cards, let a robot do the work, like subscription management apps like Rocket Money.
These apps find and then help you cancel subscriptions you no longer want. You may need to grant these tools limited access to your accounts, so read their privacy policies carefully.
You connect them to your accounts, and they instantly sniff out all your recurring subscriptions and put them on one simple list. It’s the ultimate easy button.
Decide what to delete
When you’ve got your list of subscriptions in front of you, ask yourself this for every single one: “Did I use this and love it in the last month?” It’s decision time, and you need to be honest with yourself.
Keep what you use all the time, delete everything that you forgot you had and didn’t use at all. If you’re not sure or in doubt, this means it has to go! Yes, it does. That meditation app you used twice? Delete it. This is the moment to save a lot of money every month.
Maybe you use it every day, but do you really need the “Plus Plan”? Can you switch to a cheaper tier? Then you can downgrade it and save money there.
Now, Go Cancel Them
Let’s be real, companies love to hide the cancel button. They make it a pain on purpose. They want your money; don’t let them win.
You can manage your subscriptions directly from the App Store or the Play Store on your phone, if it’s a phone subscription. Go to your App Store or Google Play Store settings, find “Subscriptions,” and you can usually cancel it right there. This is the easiest way.
If you can’t find it on your phone, log in to their website on a desktop. You can almost always find the “cancel” option buried under “My Account” or “Billing.” If you are stuck? Just Google it. A quick search for “[Company Name] how to cancel” will usually give you a direct link or step-by-step instructions to cancel the subscription.
If you are unable to cancel online, contact the subscription provider directly.
“Don’t Go…”
When you hit “cancel” on a subscription, it’s common for services to offer you a “don’t go!” free extension or discount for a limited amount of time. If you decide to take them up on it, set a calendar alert for a week before the end date of the promotion to remind you to take action and stop the subscription.
Also, keep track of discounted or free trial periods. Any free trial subscriptions you may sign up for.
And you’re done!
This is how to Better Track and Manage Paid Subscriptions
Congratulations! You just took back control of your money in just a few minutes. This simple audit is your new secret weapon against the “subscription creep” that quietly drains so many bank accounts.
Now you know what you’re spending each month on subscriptions, and how to save the most money.
You’ve plugged the leaks, so you can spend your money on things you really want and enjoy!
