How to find and cancel your unused subscriptions

Subscriptions are out of control. I can remember a time when the monthly payouts were few: just Netflix, a couple of magazines and a mobile plan. Now we have subscriptions for music, security cameras, cloud gaming, AI chatbots, meal kits, LinkedIn, DoorDash, Uber, Photoshop — the list is long. Basically, if there’s an app for something, there’s likely an associated subscription available, too. This guide was put together to help you locate and cancel the subscriptions that are no longer serving you. That way, you won’t end up paying for something you don’t use. Every time I go through this process, I’m always amazed at what random stuff I’ve signed up for — and cancelling always feels good. It’s true that signing up for something is far easier than canceling — that’s by design. The FTC tried to pass a rule requiring companies to make cancelling a subscription as easy as it was to sign up for it. But that solution died before it ever went into effect. That means it will still take some effort to get rid of the services you don’t use, but there are a couple of tactics that might make your efforts more effective. Here’s our advice on finding and cancelling your unneeded subscriptions. First things first: Find out what subscriptions you have Before putting this post together, I had no idea how many subscriptions I was paying for. Surprises included a coding game for my kid (that he no longer plays) and a British streaming app I’d gotten for one show (that I finished nearly a year ago). You, too, may not know what subscriptions are stealthily subtracting dollars from your accounts. One of the most comprehensive ways to see what you’re paying for is to look at your bank and credit card transactions, generating a search that includes every transaction in the previous full month. It may be a lot to scroll through, but each monthly subscription will appear at least once in that time frame. Annual subscriptions can be tricker to track down. I was able to find most by searching for introductory emails, since most services send out an initial message confirming a new subscription. You can use the advanced search with the words “welcome” or “thank you” in the subject field, plus variations on the words “annual” “subscribing” and “membership” in the general or keyword search fields. You should get a decent idea of the things you’ve signed up for, but may have to wade through lots of promotional emails before you find the services you actually subscribed to. It could save you some time over searching through a year of bank statements. Sometimes it’s helpful to simply see a list of common subscriptions people pay for (and often forget about). Here are a few: Entertainment• YouTube Premium• Amazon Prime Video (or Prime in general)• Netflix• Disney+• Pandora Premium• Twitch Subscriber• Crunchyroll• Peacock Gaming• PlayStation Plus• Xbox Game Pass• Nintendo Switch Online Work/Productivity• LinkedIn Premium• Adobe Creative Cloud• Microsoft 365• ToDo• Evernote Dating• Tinder• Grindr• Bumble• Hinge• Raya Food• Hello Fresh• Green Chef• Blue Apron• Doordash DashPass• Uber Eats Uber One• Monthly coffee, hot sauce and jerky boxes How to cancel subscriptions For the most part, the way you sign up for a subscription is the way you’ll cancel it. If you signed up for Strava or Minecraft Realms from your iOS device, you’ll need to cancel it through your Apple account. If you signed up for Netflix through its website, you’ll cancel there. Sometimes even the device you use matters. For example, if you signed up for Paramount Plus via your Fire TV Stick, you’ll go through your TV to cancel instead of through the Amazon mobile app. Once you’ve determined where to go, the cancellation processes will nearly always involve logging in to your account and navigating to your profile, then your account settings so you can view and end your subscription. Here are steps to cancel a few of the most popular subs. From the Apple App Store or Google Play Store When you pay for a subscription through an app store, the transaction will likely be listed as a payment to either Apple or Google, so it’s harder to see what you’re paying for using the banking suggestion above. Here’s how to see what you’ve subscribed to using the two major app marketplaces, plus how to cancel. How to cancel subscriptions through Apple’s App Store1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.2. Tap your profile box at the top.3. Tap on Subscriptions. Here, you’ll see your active and inactive subscriptions listed.4. Tap the one you want to cancel and follow the prompts. How to cancel subscriptions through Google’s Play Store1. Open the Google Play app.2. Tap your profile circle in the upper right.3. Tap on Payments & Subscriptions.4. Tap on Subscriptions.4. You’ll see your active subscriptions and can decide which ones you no longer want. How to cancel Amazon Prime Amazon Amazon most recently raised the price of a Prime membership in 2022, bringing it to $15 per month or $139 per year. A membership gets you things like free shipping and access to Prime Video — though as of 2024, you’ll pay an additional $3 per month if you want to stream ad-free. If Prime isn’t worth it for you any longer, here’s how to cancel. Through the Amazon app:1. Tap the person icon at the bottom of the screen.2. Tap on the Your Account button at the top of the screen.3. Scroll down to and tap Memberships and Subscriptions.4. You’ll be taken to a Prime page; tap Manage Membership in the drop-down menu at the top.5. Select the Update, Cancel and More option, and tap End Membership. Here, you can also opt for a reminder to be sent three days before your next renewal if you don’t want to cancel right away. Via a web browser:1. Sign in to Amazon.2. Hover over Accounts & Lists to the right of the search bar up top.3. Click on Memberships & Subscriptions under Your Account.4. Click the Cancel Subscription button. How to cancel Paramount Plus Paramount Plus is one of the cheaper video streaming subscriptions out there, going for $9 per month for the ad-supported version or $14 monthly for the ad-free version with Showtime. But if you finished Starfleet Academy and want to cancel, here’s how. Remember, if you signed up for Paramount Plus through Prime Video or through the App Store, you’ll need to cancel through the same platform. 1. Log in to your Paramount Plus account on a web browser.2. Select the username in the upper right corner.3. Click on Account and scroll down to Cancel Subscription.4. Click on Cancel Subscription. How to cancel Apple TV Apple Probably the best thing about Apple TV is how lean it is. Sure, you may not want to watch everything on there, but the ratio of really good stuff to so-so fluff is far better than on most other services. But once you’ve gotten through Severance and Pluribus you may decide to save yourself the $13 per month. Apple TV + requires an Apple ID to sign up, so the easiest way to cancel is through the Settings app on your Apple device. If you didn’t sign up through a Mac, iPad or iPhone or don’t have an Apple TV box, follow the PC instructions. On an iPhone or iPad:1. Open the Settings app.2. Tap your profile box at the top.3. Tap on Subscriptions.4. Tap either Apple TV+ or Apple One membership, depending on how you first signed up.5. Select the subscription you want to cancel, then click the Cancel Subscription button. On a Mac:1. Open the App Store app.2. Click on your name and profile image at the bottom left.3. Click on Account Settings at the top of the screen.4. In the pop-up window, scroll down to the Manage section and click the Manage link to the right of the word Subscriptions.5. Select the Edit link next to the subscription you want to cancel, then click the Cancel Subscription button. On an Apple TV box:1. Open the Settings app from the home page.2. Click on Users & Accounts.3. Click on Subscriptions.4. Find the subscription you want to cancel and follow the prompts. On a PC:1. Go to tv.apple.com and sign in.2. Click on the account icon at the top of the page.3. Click on Settings and scroll down to Subscriptions, then click Manage4. Choose Cancel Subscription. How to cancel an Audible membership If you downloaded Audible as part of a free trial or grabbed it for a 12-hour road trip but haven’t used it much since, here’s how to stop paying $15 per month. If you didn’t sign up via Amazon or Audible and instead went through Apple’s App Store or Google Play, follow the instructions for how to cancel subscriptions through Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play store above. Through Amazon:1. Sign in to your Amazon account.2. Hover over Accounts & Lists to the right of the search bar.3. Click on Memberships & Subscriptions under YourAccount.4. You’ll see your Audible membership listed; click the Audible Settings button.5. Scroll down to Membership Options & Help and click on Cancel Membership. Through Audible (on a browser):1. Sign in to your Audible account.2. Hover over the link that says Hi [your name] and select Account Details from the menu.3. You’ll see a box with your membership details; click on Cancel Membership.4. Answer the “reason for canceling” question and follow the prompts. How to cancel Spotify Premium Spotify Spotify only gets more expensive. If you just want to go back to the free version, here's how. You can change which tier you pay for through the app. But to cancel, you’ll need to go through a web browser. You can technically cancel through the app, but that involves deleting your account and all its data. If you want to preserve your playlists and just switch to the free version, do so with a mobile or desktop browser. 1. Head to Spotify on a web browser and log in.2. If you haven’t logged in via the web before, you’ll see a button for Web Player or Account Overview; select Account Overview.3. If you’re already in the Web Player, click either the gear icon (mobile browser) or your profile image (desktop browser) in the upper right corner and select Account.4. Your subscription will appear in a box labeled Your Plan; click that box or scroll down to Manage Your Plan and click.5. You’ll see your plan details, click the Cancel subscription button. How to cancel YouTube TV Pretty much every live TV streaming service has raised its prices over the past couple years. YouTube TV is no different. After starting at $35 per month at launch, it went up nearly every year to finally land at $83 with the latest price hike in December of 2024. If that’s edging too close to cable pricing, you can always cancel (after all, not requiring a contract is still one of streaming’s major advantages). And YouTube TV actually lets you cancel through the app. On an Android device:1. Open the YouTube TV app.2. Tap your profile circle at the top right.3. Tap on Settings, then tap on Membership.4. Under your membership details, tap Manage.5. Click on Cancel Membership and follow the prompts. Via a web browser:1. Head to YouTubeTV.2. Log in and click your profile circle in the top right.3. Tap on Settings, then tap on Membership.4. Under your membership details, tap on Manage next to Base Plan.5. Click on Cancel Membership and follow the prompts. Apps that can help Some finance apps will track and manage your subscriptions for you. We looked into the bigger ones to see how they can help. One of our previous recommendations, Mint, shut down, but ones from Experian and Monarch Money have cropped up to take its pace. We tried out Rocket Money to see how the process works and detailed it below. Just note that these apps cost money to handle subscription cancellation on your behalf — and adding another paid service to your life can feel absurd when you’re trying to do the opposite. You’ll also need to give the apps your banking information and your data may, in turn, be sold or shared with third parties for marketing. A couple of other apps we tried don’t ask for your banking info. Instead you manually enter your subscription details. That’s certainly more private, but might not be saving you much effort in the long run. Rocket Money Owned by the same company as Rocket Mortgages, Rocket Money is a finance app that connects with your bank account and offers to help you budget and track your overall spending, in addition to managing your subscriptions. You’ll pay for the app using a sliding scale from $3 to $14 per month for the premium version, which includes automated cancellation and other features. To access the free version at sign-up, move the slider to the left until you reach $0. Once you’ve linked your account, navigating to the Recurring tab gives you an overview of your subscriptions. I liked that you can access this using either the mobile or desktop app. After linking my accounts, it reminded me of an upcoming renewal for a magazine I don’t read and hosting fees for a website I no longer need. Canceling both of those would save me nearly $200 in a year. Unfortunately, my monthly Apple One payment and the Max access that I pay for through my Samsung TV didn’t show up as recurring subscriptions. That could be due to how my bank lists the transaction, but I’d like to have seen those on the list, too. Next to each transaction is a three dot menu, which includes an option to “cancel this for me” for Premium subscribers. Click and you’ll see contact methods to handle it yourself or a button to have Rocket Money do it. After you provide your username and password for the service, you’ll get an email confirmation that tells you the process could take up to ten days to complete. When I had Rocket Money cancel Paramount Plus for me, I got an email later that night saying the cancellation was complete. While it’s not a magic program that zaps your subscriptions away, Rocket Money could save you a few steps. Seeing (most of) your recurring charges together is also helpful for staying on top of things. It’s up to you whether the Premium charge (and taking on another subscription) is worth the cancellation service. Reminder apps There are other apps, like Bobby (iOS) and Tilla (Android), that don’t connect with your bank account. Instead, you enter the details of the subscriptions you already have and add new ones as you go. The apps will remind you about upcoming renewals and let you quickly see what you’re paying for, all in one place. Both are free to use but limit the number of subscriptions you can track until you upgrade, which costs a flat $4 for Bobby and $2 for Tilla. I feel like if you possess the diligence to keep apps like these up to date, you could just as easily use a spreadsheet or native apps like Apple or Google’s Reminders, though these are more colorful. Check out more from our spring cleaning guide.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/how-to-find-and-cancel-your-unused-subscriptions-130036314.html?src=rss