The Subscription Audit: Find and Cancel What You Forgot About
A 20-minute audit that typically uncovers three to five live subscriptions nobody remembers signing up for.
Why subscriptions hide
They are small, they are monthly, and they arrive between larger transactions. A $12 charge does not trigger any alarm — but eight of them is nearly $1,200 a year.
The 20-minute audit
- Pull three months of transactions. One month misses quarterly and annual charges.
- Flag anything that repeats with a similar amount and a similar date.
- Sort by annual cost, not monthly. A "$9.99" streaming service reads differently as "$120 a year".
- Put each into one of three buckets: keep, downgrade, cancel.
The question that decides it
Not "do I like this?" but "would I re-subscribe today at this price?" If the answer is no, it is a cancellation.
Cancel properly
Cancelling inside an app store, on the merchant's website, or by email are all different paths, and picking the wrong one leaves the charge alive. Confirm the cancellation email, then check next month's statement to be sure the charge stopped.
Prevent the next round
- Use one payment method for subscriptions so they are easy to spot.
- Set a reminder a week before any annual renewal.
- Re-run the audit every six months.
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