How to find all your subscriptions (and the ones you forgot)

Why subscriptions are so easy to lose track of

Subscriptions are built to fade into the background after the first payment. Three things make them hard to find. They’re billed by different companies: a game on your phone is charged by Apple or Google, not by the developer. Yearly plans charge once and then disappear for eleven months. And small amounts blend in: a €2.99 storage plan rarely stands out on a statement full of groceries.

That’s why one place is never enough. Your bank sees every card payment but often shows APPLE.COM/BILL instead of the app’s name. The app stores know the app names but not the plans you pay for on a website. Your inbox has the receipts, buried under newsletters. Check all five and you have the complete picture.

Bank and card statements: look for repeating charges

Start here, because almost every subscription eventually lands on a card or bank account. Download the last three months for every card you use online: credit cards, debit cards and any virtual cards in your banking app.

What to look for

• The same merchant on roughly the same day each month
• The same amount repeating, even if it’s tiny
• Store names such as Apple, Google, PayPal or Amazon, which hide the real service behind them
• Charges in another currency, which usually mean a service billed from abroad
• Direct debits, which some banks list separately from card payments

A name you can’t place, such as PADDLE.NET* or FS* followed by a word you don’t know, is usually a payment company selling software for someone else. Here’s how to decode cryptic statement names.

Where to find subscriptions on iPhone

Anything you subscribe to inside an iPhone or iPad app is billed by Apple, so your statement shows Apple rather than the app. This list is the only place you’ll see the app names.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap your name at the top.
3. Tap Subscriptions.

You’ll see your active subscriptions with their renewal dates, and an inactive list of ones that have ended. You can get to the same screen from the App Store: tap your profile picture in the top corner, then Subscriptions. If you pay for other people through Family Sharing, remember that their own subscriptions sit on their accounts, so check those too.

Where to find subscriptions on Android

Apps you subscribe to on an Android phone are usually billed through Google Play.

1. Open the Google Play Store app.
2. Tap your profile icon in the top right.
3. Tap Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions.

If you use more than one Google account, switch accounts and check each one. Subscriptions belong to the account that started them, not to the phone.

How to find subscriptions on PayPal

PayPal keeps its own list of merchants you’ve allowed to charge you automatically, and it’s often the oldest list you have. Services you signed up for years ago can still be on it.

1. Log in to PayPal and open Settings (the gear icon).
2. Go to Payments.
3. Select Manage automatic payments.

Each merchant shows when it last charged you. One thing to know before you tidy up: removing a merchant here stops PayPal paying it, but it doesn’t always cancel your account with the service. Read how to cancel properly so you don’t swap a subscription for an unpaid bill.

Gmail search for subscription receipts

Your inbox is the best place to find yearly plans, because they charge once and leave a receipt behind. Paste these into the Gmail search bar one at a time:

newer_than:1y limits the results to the last year. Change it to 2y if you suspect older yearly plans. Other email apps use different search rules, so if a search there comes back empty, try the single words receipt, renewal, invoice and trial instead.

Places people forget to check

• Amazon: open Your Account, then Memberships & Subscriptions, to see Prime, channels and other plans billed through Amazon.
• Your phone bill: some games and services charge through your mobile operator, so they appear on the phone bill instead of a card.
• Someone else’s card: a plan you use that your partner pays for still costs your household money.
• Work cards: tools you expense still renew, and someone has to cancel them when you leave.
• Gift card balances: Apple uses your Apple Account balance before your card, and Google Play can bill a Play balance, so a subscription may stay off your statement until the balance runs out.

What a 20-minute search usually turns up

Here’s a realistic result for one person after checking all five places. Notice how the two yearly plans hide: they only charge once, so a three-month statement would have missed both.

Common mistakes

• Checking only one card. Most people pay for things from at least two, plus PayPal.
• Stopping at the bank statement. Store charges just say Apple or Google. You need the store’s own list to know what they’re for.
• Forgetting yearly plans. Look back three months only and a yearly renewal can be nine months away and invisible.
• Assuming a deleted app is a cancelled one. Removing an app never cancels its subscription.
• Keeping the list in your head. If you don’t write it down, you’ll be doing this search again in six months.

Keep the list in one place

Once you’ve found everything, the hard part is keeping it current. A list that updates itself and tells you before things renew is worth more than a perfect search done once.

That’s what Billbase is for. Type each subscription in, or drop a bank statement PDF or CSV in and check what it finds before anything is saved. Every currency works, with the amount you’re billed kept beside the converted total. You see your monthly and yearly number, and you get a reminder before each renewal and before free trials end.

From here, a short quarterly subscription audit keeps the list honest, and logging free trials on day one stops new ones from slipping through.