Finding Every Subscription You Pay For

You cannot judge subscriptions you do not know you have. This chapter is a one-time, thorough search for every recurring charge in your life: where they hide, how to catch the yearly ones and the free trials, how to record what you find, and what your rights are when a charge will not stop. Set aside about two hours. It is the most valuable two hours in this book, because every later decision depends on the list you make here.

Why your first estimate is probably low

When people list their subscriptions from memory, they remember the services they use every day and the largest bills. They tend to miss four kinds of charge:

• Annual renewals, which appear once a year and are easy to forget between charges.
• Charges on a second card or account, such as an old card that still has a service attached, or a card saved in a phone wallet.
• Small app and add-on charges, billed through an app store or a phone carrier rather than by the company itself.
• Services someone else in the household started, on a shared card or a shared app store account.

A full search usually turns up at least one charge nobody remembers starting. That is not a personal failing; chapter 1 explains why the system works that way. It is simply why the audit has to be a search, not a recollection.

Where recurring charges hide

Work through each source below, and write down every charge that repeats, however small. Look back a full twelve months, not three: a shorter window misses every annual renewal.

1. Every credit and debit card. Include cards you rarely use and cards stored in online shops or phone wallets. Most card apps let you search or filter by merchant, which makes repeated charges easy to spot.
2. Every bank account. Look for automatic debits (often labelled ACH), which is how gyms, insurers, utilities and some memberships bill.
3. Payment services. Accounts such as PayPal keep their own list of automatic payments, which may draw on a card you no longer watch.
4. Your phone's app store. Both the Apple and Google app stores have a subscriptions page in account settings that lists every active and expired subscription billed through them. Check every family member's account if you share a family plan.
5. Your mobile phone bill. Carriers can bill third-party services directly, and some include "free" services that later become paid.
6. Large retailers and delivery services. Shopping memberships and subscribe-and-save orders are recurring charges too.
7. Your email. Search for words such as "receipt", "renewal", "your subscription", "trial" and "membership". This finds services you pay for through channels you might not think to check.

Annual charges and free trials

Annual plans and free trials deserve special attention because both are designed around a single moment you are likely to miss.

Annual renewals. Record the renewal date and the amount for every yearly charge. Many people find that their most expensive forgotten item is an annual one, because a single yearly charge does not create the monthly reminder that a monthly one does. Chapter 8 shows how to set money aside so these renewals are planned rather than a surprise.

Free trials. A trial that converts to a paid plan is the most common way a forgotten subscription starts.

A trial that turns into a plan of $10 a month and is noticed only two years later has cost $240. Three habits stop this from happening:

• Set the reminder before you enter your card. Put the trial's end date, minus two days, in your calendar, with a note on how to cancel.
• Cancel straight away if the service allows it. Many services let you cancel immediately and keep access until the trial ends. Check the cancellation screen to confirm that is the case before you rely on it.
• Use a separate card number. Some card issuers offer virtual card numbers that you can lock or limit. A trial attached to one of those cannot quietly bill your main card.

Build the inventory

Put everything you find in one list: a spreadsheet, a note or a notebook, whichever you will actually open again. For each subscription, record:

• the name and what it is for;
• the price, and whether it is billed monthly or yearly (for a yearly charge, also note the monthly equivalent, which is the yearly price divided by twelve);
• the next billing or renewal date;
• the card or account it is billed to;
• who in the household uses it;
• how to cancel (a link, a settings path or a phone number).

Then add up the monthly equivalents.

For example, a household whose inventory comes to $140 a month is spending $1,680 a year on recurring charges. Compare your total with the guess you wrote down in chapter 1. The gap between the two is often the most persuasive number in the whole exercise.

Do not cancel anything yet, unless it is plainly unwanted, such as a service you did not know you had. Chapter 3 shows how to decide what each remaining subscription is worth.

When a charge will not stop

Most cancellations are routine. When one is not, U.S. federal rules give you two useful tools. Neither cancels your agreement with the company, so cancel with the company as well and keep a record (a screenshot of the confirmation, or the confirmation email).

Stopping a recurring debit from a bank account. Under Regulation E, the rule that governs electronic transfers, you can stop a preauthorized recurring transfer from your bank account by notifying your bank at least three business days before the scheduled transfer. The bank may ask you to confirm in writing within 14 days. Some banks charge a fee for a stop-payment order, so ask.

Disputing a billing error on a credit card. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act and Regulation Z, you can dispute a billing error, such as a charge you did not authorize or a charge for something that was not delivered as agreed, by writing to the card issuer within 60 days of the date the first statement showing the error was sent. The issuer must investigate, and you do not have to pay the disputed amount while it does. A charge that continued after you cancelled, when you can show the cancellation, is the kind of case where a dispute helps.

For subscriptions billed through an app store, cancel and request any refund through the store itself, since it handles the billing.