Trim the Fat: How to Better Track and Manage Paid Subscriptions
Are you wasting money on streaming services or other subscriptions? Here’s how to see what you’re spending each month and how to save the most money.
By Jason Cohen & Stephanie Mlot
Cord cutting has long been touted as the answer to costly monthly cable bills. Don’t pay for channels you never watch; just stream your favorite shows and movies online.
That was the dream. But TV and cable execs have caught on. If you want all the popular originals- Heartstopper on Netflix, Andor on Disney+, Star Trek: Discovery on Paramount+, Ted Lasso on Apple TV+-as well as exclusive access to deep movie catalogues on Max and Amazon Prime Video, things get expensive pretty fast.
Then there’s the music you enjoy, the workouts you stream, the comics you read, and the video games you play. Every piece of consumable content has its own subscription service that will bill you on a monthly (or yearly) basis. So this begs the question: Are you paying attention?
Mastercard in 2019 implemented a policy requiring merchants to get a cardholder’s approval at the end of a trial before they start billing. But you still need to do most of the work yourself. Unless you meticulously examine your statement each month, a small bump in price-or a free trial automatically converting-is easy to miss.
There are apps and websites that will notify you when a service hikes its prices, help you cancel any services you’re not using, and-in some cases-provide financial aid services. You can also manage your subscriptions directly from the App Store or Google Play store on your phone.
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