How to do a subscription audit in 15 minutes
- Collect the charges. Open your last three months of card and bank statements. Every repeating charge from the same company is a subscription, even if you don't think of it as one: phone insurance, cloud storage, a delivery membership.
- Check the app stores. Subscriptions bought in an app are billed by Apple or Google, so the statement shows "Apple.com/bill" or "Google" rather than the app's name. Your phone's subscriptions screen lists them properly.
- Enter what you actually pay. Prices differ by plan, region and promotion, so type the amount from your statement, and pick how often it's billed.
- Decide: keep, not sure, or cancel. Be honest about the last time you used it. The totals update as you go.
- Cancel, then track the rest. Cancel from the service's account page or your app store. Then send the ones you keep to the bill tracker and set each renewal date, so you get a reminder before the next charge.
Why small subscriptions add up
A single subscription rarely feels expensive because it's quoted per month. The yearly and five-year totals are the honest numbers: a service at a few dollars a month is a few dozen dollars a year, and half a dozen of them together can match a utility bill. That's also why price increases matter; the bill increase calculator shows what a rise costs you over a year.
Annual plans, free trials and shared accounts
- Annual plans are often cheaper per month but easy to forget. Add them as yearly and put the renewal date in your tracker with a reminder a week before.
- Free trials turn into paid plans automatically. Add them at their full price with a reminder the day before the trial ends.
- Shared or family plans: enter only your share if someone pays you back; the split bill calculator works out fair shares.
Want the full walk-through, including where to cancel on iPhone and Android? Read how to find and cancel subscriptions you forgot about.