How to find every recurring subscription you pay for, and cancel the ones you do not use

Step 1: the 12-month statement sweep

Download 12 months of statements, or transaction CSVs, for every place a subscription can bill: each credit and debit card, each checking account, PayPal or similar wallets, and the Apple App Store and Google Play subscription lists. Charges billed through an app store can appear on your card under the store's name, not the service's, so check the store's own subscription list.

Sort transactions by merchant and look for repeats: the same merchant at roughly the same amount on a regular cadence, monthly, quarterly or yearly. Also search for words that often appear in recurring descriptors, such as membership, subscription, renewal, premium, plus, pro and auto-pay. Flag free trials that converted to paid.

This guide is research from official sources and an invented example. We have not tested any subscription-detection feature hands-on.

Step 2: let an app do the finding

If you already use a budgeting app with bank sync, its recurring-detection feature can produce the first list for you. Treat it as a draft: detection depends on clear patterns, and anything paid in cash, through a family member's card or on an irregular schedule may be missed.

Monarch's help center says that whenever accounts sync new transactions, Monarch scans them to detect new recurring items, and you can also ask it to find recurring merchants or add one manually. Bills and subscriptions appear on a calendar or a list. Lunch Money's help center says that with bank syncing or CSV imports, it detects recurring transactions when there is a clear pattern of payee and amount repeating on a regular cadence, and shows them on a separate Suggested Recurring Items page for you to review. Lunch Money's CSV route is useful if your bank does not connect.

Step 3: annualize every charge

Monthly prices look small; annual totals drive decisions. Multiply monthly charges by 12 and weekly charges by 52. In this invented example, seven subscriptions total $1,326.52 a year. The household has not used three of them in the last month, worth $831.88 a year.

Step 4: cancel, and stop the payment if needed

Cancel with the company first, through its account settings, the app store, or by phone or email, and keep a confirmation screenshot or email with the date. For in-app subscriptions, cancel in the Apple or Google subscription list. Monarch's help center, for example, notes that uninstalling its app does not cancel an app store subscription.

If a company keeps debiting your bank account, the CFPB's guidance is to tell the company you are revoking permission for automatic payments and follow up in writing, then tell your bank that you have revoked the company's authorization, also in writing. Some banks recommend a stop payment order, and the CFPB notes banks generally charge a fee for it. If payments continue after you revoke authorization, the CFPB says those payments would be errors and you can contact your bank for a refund. Keep records of every request and its date.

Remember the CFPB's caution: stopping a payment does not cancel the contract or a debt. If you stop automatic loan payments, you still owe the loan.

Where click-to-cancel stands

The FTC announced a final click-to-cancel rule, amending its Negative Option Rule, on 16 October 2024. On 8 July 2025, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in Custom Communications, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, granted petitions for review and vacated the rule. The FTC's rule page lists a February 2026 Federal Register notice revising the rule to conform to federal court decisions, and an advance notice of proposed rulemaking published on 13 March 2026 seeking public comment.

In practice, there is no federal requirement in force from that rule that cancelling must be as easy as signing up. Cancellation terms depend on the company's own policies and on whatever other federal or state law applies to your situation. Check back on the FTC's rule page if you are relying on it.

Keep it from creeping back

• Put every annual renewal date in a calendar a week early, with the price.
• When you start a free trial, set the cancellation reminder the same minute.
• Use one card for subscriptions so a single statement shows them all.
• Repeat the sweep every six months, or let your budgeting app's recurring list do a monthly check.
• Treat price increase emails as a prompt to re-decide, not as noise.