A small charge with an unfamiliar merchant name is easy to miss, and a handful of them can add up to real money over a year. Don’t rely on memory to find your subscriptions. Go through the records.

Find every subscription in your statements

Working through these sources in order catches most subscriptions:

  • The last three months of bank and credit card statements, plus PayPal or other payment apps
  • The subscriptions page in your phone’s app store (Apple ID or Google Play)
  • Payment receipts and “your plan renews soon” emails
  • Annual plans: they charge once a year and are the easiest to forget

Make a short subscription list

For each one, note the name, price, billing cycle, next renewal date and who bills you, plus when you last used it. Don’t put card numbers or passwords in the list, especially one you share.

If you don’t recognise a charge, find out what it is before treating it as something to cancel. Some services hold your files or backups, or are shared with family or colleagues. Check what you would lose, and export what you need first.

Cancel where you are actually billed

Deleting the app does not stop the charges. Cancel where you pay: subscriptions bought through an app store are cancelled in the app store; ones paid on the website are cancelled in your account there. Menus change often, so follow the current official instructions from Apple or Google Play rather than memory.

Before you confirm, check two things: when the cancellation takes effect, and whether you keep access until the end of the period. Cancelling and getting a refund are separate; cancelling doesn’t mean money already paid comes back.

Keep the confirmation

Save a screenshot or the confirmation email and note when the charges should stop. If you are charged again, that record is your evidence. For subscriptions you keep, set a reminder a few days before the next renewal and decide again then.

Try one round with the timer

Twenty minutes in three parts:

  • 5 minutes find charges: statements, app stores and receipts.
  • 10 minutes check and decide: usage, renewal date and who bills you; keep or cancel.
  • 5 minutes wrap up: save confirmations and list anything unresolved.

Decisions about accounts and payments deserve care. Pause the timer whenever you need to.

Next

Copy the subscription and auto-renewal checklist and tick items off as you go, or open the 20-minute subscription audit timer full screen. Once a quarter is usually enough; you can add it to your weekly review.

Sources

Partly adapted from HowToLiveBetter by eternity4719 and contributors (14 October 2026 snapshot), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Todo & Timer rewrote the steps and examples.

Book entries used: chapter 5, “Don’t waste money”: 5.1 · 5.4 · 5.21.