TL;DR
An audit of one writer’s 2025 charges uncovered nearly $100 in forgotten monthly subscriptions, adding up to about $1,200 a year. The author outlines a process—bank statement review, Play Store checks, and negotiation tactics—to find and stop those recurring charges.
What happened
Expecting holiday overspend, the writer instead discovered a steady outflow from overlooked subscriptions: a $19 Hulu charge and payments for a meditation app not opened in years. After compiling all bank and credit card statements for 2025 and searching for keywords like “Recurring,” “Trial,” and “Renewal,” the author identified nearly $100 in monthly recurring costs. They then cross-checked subscriptions in the Google Play Store (Profile > Payments & subscriptions > Subscription), including both Active and Inactive lists, and found examples such as a PDF editor that had converted from a free trial to a paid plan without the author noticing. Categories driving costs included streaming services, overlapping retail memberships, and cloud storage. The author also shares practical tactics: rotating streaming services, using retention-offer leverage when cancelling, and a plan-switching method to avoid early termination fees on annual contracts.
Why it matters
- Small recurring charges compound: roughly $100 per month becomes about $1,200 per year.
- Auto-renewals and trial conversions can be charged outside app stores, so device settings alone don’t reveal the full picture.
- Subscription interfaces and retention tactics are designed to discourage cancellation, keeping consumers paying longer.
- Simple fixes—statement audits, subscription rotation, and negotiation—can recover meaningful monthly savings.
Key facts
- The author found a $19 Hulu charge among routine transactions.
- A meditation app appeared on statements but hadn’t been opened since the Biden administration.
- Total forgotten subscriptions amounted to nearly $100 per month, roughly $1,200 annually.
- The audit began by downloading bank and credit card statements for 2025 and searching for keywords such as “Recurring,” “Bill,” “Renewal,” “Trial,” and “Member.”
- To check mobile subscriptions on Android: open Google Play Store > Profile icon > Payments & subscriptions > Subscription; review both Active and Inactive lists.
- A PDF editor trial had quietly converted to a paid monthly subscription.
- Common cost drivers identified: streaming services (examples and listed prices include Netflix Premium $25/month, Disney+ Premium (No Ads) $19/month, Hulu (No Ads) $19/month, Max (Standard) $19/month), overlapping retail memberships (Amazon Prime and Walmart+), and cloud storage.
- The author paid $20/month for ChatGPT Plus and $10/month for 2TB Google Drive; switching to Google AI Pro ($20/month) would have combined 2TB storage with Google’s Gemini.
- When attempting to cancel, services often offer discounted retention deals if you cite cost as the reason.
- A workaround to avoid Adobe’s annual-plan early termination fee involved switching to a cheaper plan to trigger a new cooling-off period, then cancelling for a refund.
What to watch next
- Watch for annual renewals that charge once a year—these can be easy to miss until the bill hits.
- Monitor trial-to-paid conversions closely; they frequently appear as regular monthly charges after the trial ends.
- Pay attention to retention offers when you try to cancel—services often present discounted options to keep you.
- Not confirmed in the source: whether banks or platforms will roll out built-in, comprehensive subscription detection tools soon.
Quick glossary
- Auto-renewal: A billing setting that automatically renews a subscription at the end of each period until the user cancels.
- Trial conversion: When a free trial period ends and the service starts charging a recurring fee unless the user cancels.
- Retention offer: A discounted rate or promotion a service offers to a user who signals they intend to cancel, aimed at keeping the customer.
- Cooling-off period: A short timeframe after changing or starting a plan when you can cancel for a full refund, depending on the provider’s policy.
Reader FAQ
How did the author find the forgotten subscriptions?
They downloaded bank and credit card statements for 2025 and searched for terms like “Recurring,” then cross-checked the Play Store subscriptions list.
How much money was being wasted?
The audit found nearly $100 per month in unused subscriptions, about $1,200 per year.
Is checking the Play Store subscriptions page enough?
No. The author calls checking device settings alone a rookie mistake and recommends also reviewing bank statements for charges outside app stores.
Can you avoid early termination fees on annual plans?
The author reports a workaround used with Adobe: switch to a cheaper plan to trigger a new cooling-off period, then cancel the new plan; specific results may vary.
I audited my subscription apps for the New Year and realized I was wasting $100 a month Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police By Ben Khalesi Published 17 minutes ago Ben…
Sources
- I audited my subscription apps for the New Year and realized I was wasting $100 a month
- How to Do a Subscription Audit (+ Why You Need It …
- 9 Subscription-Audit Tricks That Recover $1,000 a Year
- I Audited My Project Expenses. Found $340K in Waste. …
Related posts
- Samsung kicks off 2026 with another One UI 8.5 beta for Galaxy S25
- Six reasons to be skeptical of five-star reviews for apps and hardware
- I Switched to eSIM and Regret It About the Loss of Physical SIMs