Subscriptions are designed to be easy to start and easy to forget. A free trial here, a streaming service there, an app you used once — each is small enough to ignore, but together they can quietly drain hundreds of pounds a year from people who would never knowingly waste it.
Find them all first
You cannot cancel what you cannot see. Go through the last few months of bank and card statements and list every recurring payment. Do not forget the ones billed annually — they are the easiest to miss and often the largest. Many banking apps now flag recurring payments for you, which speeds this up.
Sort them ruthlessly
- Keep — things you genuinely use and value.
- Cancel — anything you have not touched in a month or cannot even remember signing up for.
- Downgrade — services where a cheaper tier would do, or where you are paying for features you never use.
The free-trial trap
Most forgotten subscriptions start as a free trial that quietly rolls into a paid one. When you start a trial, set a reminder a day or two before it ends, and cancel immediately if you are unsure. You can always resubscribe; getting a refund for months of unused payments is far harder.
Stop them creeping back
Do a subscription audit every few months — put it in the calendar. Consider rotating services rather than paying for several at once: keep one streaming platform for a couple of months, then switch. And be wary of bundling deals that add subscriptions you would not choose alone. A single afternoon of cancelling is often one of the best-paid hours of admin you will ever do.