Guide
How to find and cancel subscriptions you forgot about
A streaming service you tried for one series, a cloud storage plan from an old phone, an app that renewed itself after a free trial. Forgotten subscriptions are rarely expensive on their own, but together they often add up to a hundred euros a year or more. Here is how to find all of them and cancel the ones you do not use.
Step 1: search your inbox for receipts
Almost every subscription emails you when it renews. In Gmail, run these searches and look at the last twelve months:
- subject:(receipt OR invoice) newer_than:1y finds payment confirmations.
- subject:(renewal OR "will renew" OR "renews on") finds the reminders sent before a renewal.
- subject:("your subscription" OR "your plan" OR membership) finds plan changes and welcome emails.
- "free trial" newer_than:2y finds trials that may have turned into paid plans.
Note each service with its price and how often it charges. A sender that emails you every month on the same day is almost certainly billing you.
Step 2: check the places that bill on behalf of others
Some subscriptions are paid through a third party and never email you directly:
- Google Play: open play.google.com, click your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions.
- Apple: on an iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions.
- PayPal: in Settings, open Payments, then Manage automatic payments.
- Amazon: open Your Account, then Memberships & subscriptions.
Step 3: compare with your bank statement
Go through the last three months of card payments and look for small recurring amounts. Anything you cannot match to a receipt from step 1 or 2 deserves a search in your inbox by the name on the statement. Your bank app may also have a section that groups recurring payments for you.
Step 4: cancel, and keep the proof
Cancel from the account settings of the service, or from the store that bills you. Look for Cancel subscription, Turn off auto-renew or Manage plan. Then:
- Keep the cancellation confirmation email. It is your proof if you are charged again.
- Cancel before the renewal date. Most services let you use the plan until the end of the period you paid for.
- Remove your saved card from services you no longer use, in case the cancellation does not go through.
If a service makes cancelling hard, the law may be on your side. In France, any subscription you can take out online must be cancellable online in a few clicks since June 2023. Elsewhere in the EU, contact your bank if a merchant keeps charging after you cancelled.
Step 5: make it a yearly habit
New subscriptions pile up quietly. Put a reminder in your calendar to repeat the audit once a year, or right after any month where your card statement looks higher than usual.
Skip the manual searches. HealthInbox reads only the headers of your Gmail receipts to list your recurring payments and their yearly cost, privately and on your device.
See how it finds subscriptions