It’s easy to rack up streaming subscriptions and other monthly services with just a few taps or clicks. Cancelling them, however, can be a bit trickier.
The Federal Trade Commission’s «click to cancel» rule would have made it easy to cancel unwanted subscriptions. However, this rule, was blocked by the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on July 8, a week before it was set to go into effect.
«While we certainly do not endorse the use of unfair and deceptive practices in negative option marketing, the procedural deficiencies of the Commission’s rulemaking process are fatal here,» the court’s ruling stated. The court ruling went on to explain that the FTC failed to conduct a preliminary regulatory analysis, which is required for rules that could impact the US economy by more than $1 million.
As CNET’s consumer insights editor and someone with quite a few subscriptions, I was looking forward to this rule being finalized. Last month, I shared that most of us spend over $1,000 a year on subscriptions and waste around $200 a year on unwanted apps. Yet, companies don’t always make it easy to cancel. Some hide their cancellation buttons or require you to call or visit an office location just to cancel.
If you’re struggling to identify all of your subscriptions or need help canceling them, here’s what CNET experts recommend.
How to find and cancel unwanted subscriptions
Before you can cancel your subscriptions, you’ll want to do an audit to make sure you flag any services you no longer want to pay for.
You can spot unwanted subscriptions by combing through your bank account and credit card statements from the past month and looking for recurring charges. If you spot any unwanted subscriptions, log in to your service account and cancel or pause the service. If you’re struggling to find an option to cancel, call the service’s customer service phone number to end your account. In some cases, like with certain gym memberships, you may be required to cancel in person.
This app can cancel subscriptions for you
If that sounds like too much work, CNET Money editor Kelly Ernst has an easier solution. «The budgeting app I use, Rocket Money, can help you find subscriptions you’re not using and cancel them for you. It saved me $400 in 15 minutes.»
Rocket Money is CNET’s pick for best budgeting app, and it comes with both a free and a paid tier. You can have the app look for recurring subscriptions for free. If you’d like it to cancel on your behalf, you’ll need to sign up for the paid tier, which starts at just $6 a month.
You can also find and cancel some subscriptions from your phone
If you pay for subscriptions using Apple Pay or Google Pay, you may be able to cancel them from your phone.
For Apple devices, navigate to your settings and click on your Apple account. From there, click «Subscriptions» and you’ll see which ones you’re paying for, the amount and when it will renew. From there, you can see other plans or cancel your subscription.
If you have an Android device, you can cancel your subscriptions by opening the Google Play store and tapping your profile icon. From there, you’ll navigate to «Payments and Subscriptions» to click on «Subscriptions.» You can then see which subscriptions you’re paying for, but which you’ll need to cancel through the servicer’s app or website — like Netflix or Hulu, for example.
