Find and cancel subscriptions you forgot about

Hunt down every recurring charge in your bank export, email and phone, then decide what to keep.

The problem

Streaming services, apps, free trials that turned paid, memberships and cloud storage add up quietly. Many people pay for several things they no longer use because no single charge looks big enough to notice.

Step by step

1. 1Phone: on iPhone open Settings → tap your name → Subscriptions. On Android open the Google Play Store → tap your profile picture → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions. Write down each one and its price.
2. 2Email: in Gmail search for subscription OR renewal OR "your receipt" OR "free trial" and scan the results for recurring charges.
3. 3Bank: download the last 3 months of transactions (see the personal budget use case) and remove account numbers.
4. 4Upload the bank file to ChatGPT or paste the list, and use the prompt below to find repeating charges and build one combined list.
5. 5Cancel what you don't need directly in the app, on the company's website, or in your phone's subscription settings. Avoid "cancel for you" services that ask for your bank login.

Copy-paste prompt

Here are my transactions for the last 3 months [attach or paste], plus subscriptions I found on my phone and in my email: [list]. Find every charge that looks recurring (same company, similar amount, monthly or yearly). Make one table with: service, how often, amount, yearly cost, and where it is billed (card, Apple, Google Play, PayPal). Mark possible duplicates (e.g., two music services) and anything that looks like a free trial that turned paid. Add the total monthly and yearly cost at the bottom. Do not guess company names you cannot tell from the description; mark them "unknown".

Tips and watch-outs

• Cancel through the app, the company's site or your phone's subscription settings; avoid third-party services that want your bank login.
• Remove account numbers from bank exports before uploading.
• Some yearly plans don't refund the unused part; cancel near the renewal date instead.

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