How to Find Every Subscription You Forgot You Had
Five places hold almost every subscription you pay for. Check them in this order and you end up with one list.
To find all your subscriptions, check five places: a year of bank and card statements, your email receipts, Apple Subscriptions, Google Play subscriptions and PayPal automatic payments. Statements show what is billed, the other four show who bills it and where to cancel. Do them in that order and write everything into one list.
If you are asking how to find all my subscriptions, you probably just saw a charge you do not recognize, or you added up a few and the number felt wrong. Subscriptions hide because they are billed by different companies, through different stores, on different accounts.
No single screen lists them all. Five places together get you close, and each one below works on its own if you only have ten minutes.
1. Bank and card statements
Start here, because this is where the money actually leaves. Download or scroll through a full twelve months. A monthly charge shows up every time, but an annual renewal appears once a year and is the one most people forget.
Look for the same merchant on the same day of the month, and for small round amounts. Subscriptions bought through an app store are billed by Apple or Google, so the statement may name the store instead of the app. The next steps tell you which one. Note every recurring line with its amount and date.
2. Your email receipts
Companies send a receipt or a renewal notice for most charges. In Gmail, search for {subject:receipt subject:renewal subject:subscription} newer_than:1y to see a year of them at once. The curly braces mean "any of these", a search operator Gmail's help documents. If you use inbox categories, category:purchases narrows it further.
For anything billed by Apple, Apple's own help suggests searching your email for "receipt from Apple" or "invoice from Apple". Repeat the search in every inbox you have. A trial started with an old address only ever writes to that address.
3. Apple Subscriptions
On an iPhone or iPad, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. If a charge from Apple is not on that list, Apple says to check which Apple Account appears on the receipt. It may be another account of yours, or a family member's, and you cannot cancel a family member's subscription for them.
If you find no Apple receipt at all, Apple notes that another company may be billing you directly. Go back to your statement to find out which one.
4. Google Play subscriptions
Sign in to the Google Account that has your subscriptions, then open subscriptions in Google Play. Google Play's help points out two things worth knowing here. Uninstalling an app does not cancel its subscription. And if you cannot find a subscription, it may be on a different account, so switch accounts and check again.
5. PayPal automatic payments
PayPal keeps its own list. On the PayPal website, go to Settings, then Payments, then Subscriptions and saved businesses or Automatic Payments, depending on what your account shows. Select a merchant to see the terms. You can cancel the automatic payment there, which is separate from canceling with the company.
Turn what you found into one list
Small amounts add up over a year: a $4.99 app is $59.88, a $9.99 plan is $119.88 and a $14.99 tool is $179.88. By now you have notes from five places. Merge them, and mark anything that appears twice. Same service in the App Store and on the company site is a real double charge. Then sort by next charge date, because the next renewal is the one you can still act on.
Keeping the list current is the hard part. With dEssence you can send screenshots of each subscriptions screen, or forward the renewal emails. Tracy pulls out names, amounts and dates into one list, and you ask her to remind you before the renewals you are unsure about. She comes back before the date with what it costs. Turning documents into dates and reminders is part of the Pro plan, $10 a month. She does not log into your bank or your app stores, so the list is only as complete as what you send.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an app that finds all your subscriptions?
There are subscription trackers that look for them in your statements, but they need access to your bank account first. Rocket Money, for example, says in its help center that it detects subscriptions by analyzing transactions from the bank accounts and credit cards you connect, and that anything paid from an account you have not linked has to be added by hand. If you would rather not link a bank, go through the five places above once. With dEssence you then send in what you found, and Tracy keeps it in one list and reminds you before renewals. It does not connect to your bank or your email.
Why can't I find a subscription that keeps charging me?
Usually it sits on another account. Check other Apple Accounts and Google accounts you use, other email addresses, and PayPal. If no store shows it, the company bills you directly and you cancel on its website.
Does deleting an app cancel the subscription?
No. Google Play's help says uninstalling an app does not cancel its subscription. Cancel in the store or with the company.
What about subscriptions billed through my phone carrier?
Some services are bundled with a phone or internet plan and billed by the carrier. Apple's help says that for a subscription you received through a wireless carrier or another provider, you contact that provider. They will not show up in the App Store list.
Should I cancel everything I find?
Not in the same sitting. Finding and deciding are separate jobs, and mixing them makes both slower. Finish the list first, then give each line one of four decisions: keep, downgrade, pause or cancel. A subscription audit with a simple template takes about half an hour once the list exists.
How far back should I look?
Twelve months. Annual renewals only appear once a year, so a single month of statements misses them. If you changed cards during the year, check the old card too.