Find every payment that renews itself
Find every subscription you are paying for, including the ones that are invisible on your bank statement, and know which of three places each one has to be canceled in.
Most people look for subscriptions in one place — the bank statement — and conclude they have four. The statement is honest, but it is not complete, because several of your subscriptions are not billed by the company whose service you use.
When you signed up for something inside an app on your phone, the phone company collects the money and passes it on. Your statement shows one line from Apple or Google covering several services at once, and the individual names never appear anywhere on it.
Key points
- A statement is honest but incomplete — phone-store billing hides names inside one combined line
- Three places collect money: the company, your phone’s store, and other services
- A subscription can only be canceled where it is collected
- Deleting the app never stops the payment
- Down a statement, look for a rhythm rather than for a large number
What to remember
- Where you signed up decides where you cancel. Anything you pressed a button for inside a phone app is being collected by the phone store.
- Deleting the app never cancels the payment. It only removes the reminder that you are paying it.
- Look for repetition, not for size. A subscription is a rhythm — same name, same amount, same week each month.
Try this
Open the subscriptions list on your phone — it is in your name at the top of Settings, then Subscriptions on an iPhone, or under Payments and subscriptions on an Android. Read it without canceling anything. Most people find at least one they had entirely forgotten, and knowing it is there is the whole job today.
Practice: Find every payment that renews itself. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.