Guide
How to Find Forgotten Subscriptions (and Recurring Payments)
· By Sahil Shriwardhankar · PennyLume
You can find every subscription and recurring payment for free in about 30 minutes by checking five places: your app stores, your inbox, your card or bank statements, PayPal, and the websites you sign in to. You do not need to link your bank to anything.
Where do you look for recurring payments?
| Where | What to check |
|---|---|
| Google Play | Open Play, tap your profile, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions. |
| Apple | On an iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. |
| Your inbox | Search for "receipt", "renewal", "trial", "invoice" and "your subscription". |
| Card or bank statements | Look for the same amount appearing every month or every year. Scan the last 12 months, because yearly charges hide easily. |
| PayPal | Check the automatic payments (pre-approved payments) listed in your PayPal payment settings. |
| The websites themselves | Streaming, software, news, gym and cloud-storage services often bill outside the app stores, so check each account page. |
Menus move around, so if a path differs on your phone, search the settings for "subscriptions".
How do you find forgotten subscriptions?
Forgotten ones are usually one of three kinds:
- A free trial that turned into a bill. Search your inbox for "trial" and "welcome".
- A yearly plan. It shows up once a year on your statement, so scan 12 months, not 1.
- A small monthly charge that you stopped noticing. Sort a statement by amount and read the small ones.
What should you write down?
For each subscription, record the name, the price, how often it renews, the next renewal date, and where you cancel. That is all you need to see your real monthly and yearly total.
How do you stop it happening again?
Set a reminder a few days before every renewal, and especially before a free trial ends. Then cancel with the provider or your app store before the charge, not after.
Can a free app do the reminders?
Dues is a free, open-source Android app that keeps this list on your phone and reminds you before every renewal and trial charge. It does not scan your bank or email, so you add each subscription yourself, which is what the audit above gives you. It does not cancel anything for you either: you cancel with the provider, then mark it cancelled in Dues. There is no account and there are no ads. For more on the no-bank-login approach, read track subscriptions without giving away your bank login.
Related
Sources
Last checked 2026-10-26.
- US Federal Trade Commission: Getting In and Out of Free Trials, Auto-Renewals, and Negative Option Subscriptions — how auto-renewals and free trials work, and how to end them.
- The audit steps in this guide are our own method; nothing in it requires giving a third party access to your bank or email.
