AARP Hearing Center
How Can I Find and Cancel Unwanted Subscriptions?
You may not even remember subscribing to some products and services. Here’s how to trim your expenses
7-minute read
Find the subscriptions you forgot you had, uncover recurring charges, and cancel services you no longer use.
AARP (Getty Images,2)
Key takeaways
- Review bank, credit and debit card statements regularly to spot recurring charges, price increases and services you no longer use.
- Check subscription settings on your mobile device and search your emails for terms such as renewals, memberships and free trials.
- Avoid duplicate services and use bundles only when they save you money. Check whether your cellphone plan already includes streaming perks.
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I’ve heard people underestimate how many things they subscribe to online. In my case, I am seeing subscription charges but I don’t even remember signing up for them. Is there an easy way to check and cancel some of these?
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I wouldn’t blame anyone these days for thinking subscription overload has reached epidemic proportions, and you’re correct that many people have more subscriptions than they realize.
Perhaps you signed up for a newsletter, an online publication, a streaming service or a club membership back in the day but have since lost interest. Or you were seduced by a too-good-to-be-true deal or a free or low-cost trial offer that turned out to be anything but. Now it’s costing you real money.
According to a 2026 CNET study, adults in the U.S. are shelling out more than $1,330 a year on subscriptions. More than $250 of that is spent annually on subscriptions these folks no longer use.
Streaming video is the number one subscription type, CNET found, followed by membership/retail platforms, music, cloud storage, health and fitness, and gaming.
What’s more, some companies have been practicing what has come to be known as “negative option orders” or “negative option marketing,” a business practice where a customer’s silence or failure to reply or take action is treated as consent to be charged for goods or services.
In the fall of 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) attempted to implement a “click to cancel” rule that would have required sellers to make it as easy to cancel enrollment as it was for consumers to sign up. The rule was vacated in July 2025 by a Federal Appeals Court, citing procedural deficiencies.
Some 30 states and local municipalities, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York State (and, separately, New York City) and Virginia, have enacted their own laws aimed at making it easier to cancel, according to the Jones Day law firm.
Meanwhile, the FTC has continued to go after subscription services it perceives as dealing unfairly with consumers. It recently sued JustAnswer for allegedly deceiving customers into costly monthly subscriptions. JustAnswer claims to help customers solve problems via a team of experts.
It all reminds me of the classic line from the Eagles’ Hotel California: “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”
What to do before you even subscribe
The best advice, of course, is to scrutinize the terms and conditions of any subscription deal or trial before you click on anything or agree to buy. Be careful to uncheck any boxes that are pre-checked by default and to prevent companies from charging you past a certain date or signing you up for other products. If you agree to “auto-renew” when you sign up, at least request notices reminding you when the subscription is about to lapse, in case you change your mind. And if you say yes, mark your own calendar or use a reminder app with the due dates so you have ample time to cancel.
That’s great, but I’m already past that
Now let’s assume you’ve already got a pile of online subscriptions you intentionally or mistakenly signed up for or that you’re no longer interested in. Here are some of your options:
Pore through financial statements. Try to determine what you’re paying for by routinely examining your banking, credit and debit card statements. You may find charges you unwittingly authorized or prices that have soared since the original offering. If there’s no easy online option to cancel after you log in, you may have to call customer service.
Check your mobile. Next, turn to your smartphone. On an iPhone, go to Settings | Your Name | Subscriptions. You will see a list of active subscriptions and what you’re paying for them. (You may see some inactive subscriptions listed, too, which you shouldn’t be paying for.) If you no longer want to subscribe, tap the listing and Cancel Subscription.
It’s also a good idea to tap the Renewal Receipt Email switch in Settings, which will schedule those renewal emails to be sent when the time comes. Alternatively, check out renewal receipts by tapping Settings | Your Name | Media & Purchases | Purchase History.
If you have an Android device, visit the Google Play Store and tap your profile in the upper-right corner of the screen, which often shows your photo. Tap Payment & Subscriptions | Subscriptions. You will see a listing of active and inactive subscriptions. If active, you’ll see the next payment due date and amount. To sever the relationship, tap the listing name | Cancel subscription.
Consult your inbox
Your email provider may also assist. Google’s Gmail has been rolling out a Manage Subscriptions feature on the web and mobile that can help you uncover active email subscriptions.
Be Prepared for Whatever Life Brings
Whether you’re helping aging parents, planning your estate, preparing for an emergency or protecting against fraud, the AARP Digital Vault keeps your most important information secure and within reach. It’s just $20 a year as an add-on AARP membership benefit.
On both iOS and Android, launch the Gmail app and tap the three horizontal lines at the upper left corner of the screen. Tap Manage Subscriptions off the menu, tap the Unsubscribe icon | Unsubscribe. Google unsubscribes you from all active mailing lists associated with the sender, so review all messages before proceeding. In some cases, a pop-up will direct you to a sender’s website to unsubscribe. In that instance, tap either Go to website or Block instead. Choosing the latter option doesn’t necessarily unsubscribe you from the company’s mailing list, Google says, but future emails from the sender are whisked off to spam.
Meanwhile, whichever email provider you use, search your inbox using terms such as subscriptions, memberships, renewals and free trials to spot subscriptions you no longer find relevant.
Avoid redundancies and duplicates
If you’re anything like me, you may subscribe to multiple streaming services. It doesn’t always make economic sense. If there are redundancies, decide which service is disposable. Do you really need to subscribe to, say, Apple Music and Spotify?
The same goes for online versions of newspapers and magazines you once paid for as standalone publications but are now getting through an “aggregator” like Apple News, Flipboard or Google News.
If you subscribe to individual streaming services, you may save money by bundling them. For example, Disney has a bundle plan that includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Unlimited. A bundle like this only works best if you regularly use all three.
You may also have subscribed to specialized channels offered à la carte on major streaming platforms, including Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Roku and YouTube TV. Look for any overlapping or duplicate channels you may be watching or paying for elsewhere, and cancel the duplicates.
Similarly, if you receive a streaming subscription as a perk tied to your cellular plan, make sure you’re not paying for it separately.
And if you haven’t cut the cord and are still subscribing to cable TV, make sure you are not paying separately for channels you are already getting from your cable provider.
Lean on third parties to help you cancel
If canceling subscriptions is too much of a hassle, you can enlist third-party budgeting and tracker services to handle it for you. There are three primary types. Automated scanners and cancelers like Rocket Money, Hiatus and OneMain MyMoney securely link to your bank accounts and credit cards to comb through your transaction history, flag recurring bills and identify redundant subscriptions. If you want the big picture, try a comprehensive financial manager, such as Quicken Simplifi or Pocket Tracker. If you do not want to link your bank account, opt for privacy-first manual trackers, such as Bobby, Subtle and Supli. Because they aren’t connected to your bank, you’ll have to enter information manually, and they won’t automatically find “forgotten” hidden fees. But they may help show the big picture in your total spending, so you can better track your subscription spending.
While some are free, you may have to accept ads or pay a monthly or yearly fee. (For sure, there’s a bit of irony here: You’re subscribing to or paying for a service to get rid of all those pesky subscriptions.) And be sure to check the privacy settings for those you’re handing your bank information over to.
Bonus tip: Report fraud or potential scams to the government
If you are still having trouble canceling a subscription or think you are being victimized by fraud, reach out to your state attorney general. Or file a complaint with the FTC.
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy.
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