Finding the Hidden Money in Your Monthly Bills
By Steve
Learn how to audit your subscriptions and stop paying for services you no longer use.
Have you ever signed up for a free trial, only to forget to cancel it before the monthly charges began? Or subscribed to a streaming service to watch one specific show, and then realized six months later that you're still paying for it? It's a modern problem many of us face: the slow, quiet drain of "subscription creep."
These small, recurring charges for services we no longer use can add up to a surprising amount of money over a year. It's a source of frustration and confusion for many, as we heard from one of our readers when she was trying to figure out the subscription for her security camera. Today, let's conduct a simple "app audit" to find and cancel these forgotten charges, and also discuss an important, hidden benefit of the subscription model.
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Managing Subscriptions: “Stop Paying for Services You Forgot!”
Your Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Recurring Charges
The first step is to figure out what you're actually paying for. Here are the three main places to look:
On Your iPhone or iPad: Go to the Settings app, tap your name at the very top, then tap "Subscriptions." This will show you a neat list of all the active subscriptions that are billed through your Apple account, making it easy to see and cancel them.
On Your Android Phone or Tablet: Open the Google Play Store app. Tap your profile icon in the top-right corner, then select "Payments & subscriptions," followed by "Subscriptions." This is where you'll find all the services billed through Google.
On Your Credit Card Statement: For subscriptions you signed up for directly on a website, the charge will appear on your credit card bill. Log in to your credit card's website and look through the last couple of months of statements. Look for small, repeating charges from companies you don't recognize or services you no longer use. Many banks now have a feature that automatically identifies and flags recurring payments for you!
The Automated Helpers: Rocket Money and Trim
If checking multiple places feels like too much work, there are secure apps designed to be your financial assistant. Services like Rocket Money or Trim can be securely linked to your bank and credit card accounts. They automatically scan your spending, identify all your recurring subscriptions in one convenient list, and can even help you cancel them on your behalf.
A Different Perspective: The Hidden Benefit of Paying for a Service
It can feel like everything requires a subscription these days, but there's a hidden benefit to this model that speaks directly to the privacy concerns we know many of you have. It comes down to a simple trade-off: you can either pay for a service with your money, or you pay for it with your data.
The "Free" Ad-Supported Model: When a service is "free" (like many social media sites or search engines), their business model is to make money by collecting your data like your interests, your habits, your location; and selling targeted advertisements back to you. In this model, you are the product.
The Subscription Model: When you pay a monthly fee for a service, you are the customer. The company's primary incentive is to provide a great product so that you continue to subscribe. Because they are being paid directly by you, they have much less need to collect and sell your personal data. So, while it may seem counterintuitive, choosing to pay for a service can be a powerful way to protect your privacy and ensure you are treated as a valued customer, not as data to be sold.
Quick Tech Tip
Many services make it easy to sign up but intentionally make it difficult to cancel. Before subscribing to something new, it's a good habit to do a quick web search for the phrase "[Service Name] cancel subscription" to see what the process is like. A trustworthy and customer-friendly service will make it just as easy to leave as it is to join.
Tech Term Demystified: 'Freemium'
You'll often see the word "Freemium," which is a combination of the words "free" and "premium." It's a popular business model where a company offers a basic version of its service for free, hoping you'll enjoy it enough to upgrade to a paid, "premium" version that has more features and no ads. This is a perfect example of the "pay with your data vs. pay with your money" trade-off in action.
Good News Byte
In response to consumer frustration, some governments are now enacting "easy cancellation" laws. These laws require companies that allow you to sign up for a service online to also provide an equally simple and clear way to cancel online, without forcing you to make a phone call or navigate a confusing maze of menus. It's a positive legislative trend that aims to make subscription management more transparent and fair for all consumers.
Did You Know?
One of the earliest and most successful subscription models in American history was the "Book of the Month Club," founded in 1926. For a monthly fee, members would receive a curated new hardcover book delivered to their door, chosen by a panel of literary judges. The model of recurring payments for a curated product has exploded in the digital age, but its roots in providing convenient value are nearly a century old!
Your Turn to Audit!
This week, pick just one of the methods we described. Either check your phone's subscription settings or log in to your credit card's website and look for recurring charges. Your goal is just to find one subscription you recognize. Just seeing where these lists live is a great first step to feeling in control of your monthly spending.
Wishing you a week of found money,
Steve