Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Don’t Forget to Unsubscribe to Save Money
Sunnii-Elle
29th Jun 2020
We know that writing down, remembering and actually getting around to unsubscribe from various accounts, subscriptions and deliveries is one of the more tedious organisational tasks we face. But right now, it’s more important than ever to make a list of subscriptions you don’t need to see where you can save crucial pennies by unsubscribing.
Here’s our handy guide on how to find the subscriptions you just don’t need anymore, and save more money by cutting back unnecessary spending.
- Make a List
- Find Out What You’re Paying
- Typical Subscriptions to Check
- Unusual Subscriptions You’ve Forgotten About
- Look for old insurance products
- Check for Frozen Accounts
- More Useful Money Saving Tips
First, make a list
The first place to start is to make a list of all the subscriptions you’ve ever purchased. Look around your home and garden: your kitchen, bathroom, living room and see what products you’ve bought that you aren’t using, don’t need, or can put on hold for the time being.
Remembering the names of brands and what the actual product is will make it easier for the next step. You’ll know what to look for on your financial statements if you can remember which companies you’ve subscribed to before.
How to find what you’re paying and where from
Finding out how you’re paying for your subscriptions means combing through all your digital payments. Check your debit and credit cards, standing orders, Paypal, Klarna (or any kind of scheduling payment third party system) and go through each line item on your bank statements, apps or online banking.
It’s important to look at both monthly AND quarterly payments to see if there are any anomalies or more expensive subscriptions that you can unsubscribe from to save money. It’s worth even going as far as finding annual subscriptions that you’ve never used, and making note of the date of payment to see how long you have left to use the product.
This is the most time-consuming step, but using bank statements from pre-lockdown to calculate how much you were willing to spend before the working from home rules were introduced could be a guide to saving more efficiently and quickly.
Check your credit report
Another step is to check your credit report. It’s free to check your score with Experian. It’ll show you what accounts and credit agreements you’ve got in your name. This is a good way to make sure you’re not missing anything – and to spot any fraudulent agreements, too.
Typical subscriptions to look out for
In 2020, what we considered a ‘luxury’ has now changed. So, it’s important to look around your house and establish what comes through every month or quarter that you just don’t need. This could be anything from:
- Magazines or books
- Physical/at home gym subscriptions and plans
- Subscription/online health products (skincare, sanitary care, haircare, grooming)
- Delivery subscriptions (ASOS Next Day Delivery, or Amazon)
- Kitchen/edible products (coffee, cheese, food deliveries, kitchen equipment, meal kits or other types of luxuries, cleaning products)
- Digital media subscriptions (Music, TV, streaming, apps or programmes)
- Garden subscriptions (flowers, plants or equipment)
This changes for each person but we would recommend starting with the above list.
Unusual subscriptions you may have forgotten about
While there’s a comprehensive list above, also think about the more unusual or sporadic subscriptions that you may have forgotten about. This is where you can save decent amounts of money.
If you’ve been applying for jobs and using job sites where you have to pay to access particular listings, or you’ve been using sites such as LinkedIn Premium, don’t forget to unsubscribe and save yourself a big chunk each month.
You may have computer programmes that you don’t use anymore; this is a perfect time to cut them off. Also, remove your credit cards from video/mobile games to make sure that you’re not tempted to buy more than you can afford.
While you’re looking at your tech subscriptions, check your old mobile phone and broadband contracts, too. If you’ve moved house in the last year, you could still be paying for your old broadband! Or, your mobile phone contract could be out of the minimum term – so you’re paying hugely over the odds for what’s now, effectively, a SIM Only contract.
Consider old insurance products
Mobile phone insurance, car insurance, and home contents insurance: they’ll all auto-renew if you don’t check them each year. This means you could be paying to insure a car you no longer own – or to protect a mobile phone or laptop that’s long gone.
Turn off auto-renew whenever you sign up to a new insurance product. It’s a good way to make sure you don’t have to remember a whole year later! You’ll get reminders when it’s time to renew – giving you a chance to shop around and save money, too.
Check if your accounts have already been frozen
While many of the subscriptions depend on you cancelling them as the customer, during covid-19 many providers have offered the chance to put your accounts on a freeze to help you save money, as well as the provider.
Many physical gym subscriptions have put this in place, but some more edible/luxury subscriptions have also turned to this to help them reduce unnecessary stock, delivery and supply chain costs.
If the account has already been frozen by the provider, they should be in touch with you as to when their service should be resuming, and when payments can be scheduled should you wish to continue with their subscription.
It’s quite a task to go through this list and manage the way you’re saving money, but it’s totally worth it. Untracked subscriptions can take away hundreds of pounds each year, and by unsubscribing you’re saving yourself hassle in the long-term!
More Useful Money Saving Tips
Doing an unsubscribe marathon is just one way to save lots of money. Read these articles next to keep more of your cash!
- 15 Frugal Living Tips To Save £5000 a Year
- Beat Boredom and Save Money With Streaming and Subscription Services
- First Steps To Tackling Debt in a Covid-19 World
Useful advice, I’m sure lots of people forget to cancel things.
Thanks Sunnii-Elle
For me its a psychological thing.
Once I subscribe to a service that I think will help me in my hustle. I find it hard to unsubscribe.
I have spent thousands over the years on subscriptions to forums that I have not been using. Money I could have used elsewhere.
Anyone here with tips on how to win that psychological battle. The situation I am in right now is bad.
Yes I know that I should unsubscribe, but I can’t.
Good article. I’ve forgotten to unsubscribe once or twice myself!