Fact checked and updated with current pricing and privacy policy information on 3/30/2023
It's easy to become a victim of subscription creep. There's your music subscription, video streaming subscriptions, gym membership, online storage, cell phone service, and probably much more. Companies make it simple to sign up for their services, and it's often too easy for you to let them continue long after you don't need them because either you've forgotten about the subscription or it's difficult to unsubscribe.
That’s where subscription monitoring services come in. They analyze your credit card and bank account transactions for subscriptions and flag the recurring charges. You can then request that they help you unsubscribe from unwanted services – if they can. Unfortunately, not all subscriptions can be canceled by these services.
The two main services for automatic subscription monitoring are Trim and Rocket Money (formerly Truebill). While I used to recommend both, I now only recommend Trim due to changes in the privacy policy and pricing when the Rocket Companies acquired Truebill.
Your bank and credit card statements hold a lot of personal information that can be gleaned from your purchases. The privacy policy for Trim clearly states that they will not sell your personal information to third parties. However, when you use Rocket Money, you agree to the Rocket Companies Privacy Policy, which allows for sharing your personal data within its group of companies (Rocket Money is part of the Rocket Family of Companies, which includes Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Auto, Rocket Loans, Rocket Homes, among others), affiliates, and third parties. You can fill out a form to opt out of the sharing of your personal information, but the default is to share your data.
Another significant difference is that canceling unwanted subscriptions is part of Trim’s free service. Cancelation is only available to Rocket Money premium subscribers (starting at $3 per month).
Trim and Rocket Money also offer bill negotiation services to help lower your monthly subscription costs. They'll call your cable company and other service providers to negotiate a lower rate at your request. According to Trim's Payment Terms, you'll pay 15% percent of the first year of savings they negotiate for you upfront. This is lower than Rocket Money, which charges between 30% and 60% of your first-year savings upfront. For both services, if they can't negotiate a lower rate, you don't pay anything.
Both Trim and Rocket Money are BBB Accredited Businesses: Rocket Money has a B rating, and Trim has an A- rating. For both, most of the complaints are regarding bill negotiation.
How to view and cancel subscriptions billed through Google Play or Apple's App Store
Some of your subscriptions may be billed through Google Play or Apple's App Store and won’t appear on your Trim or Rocket Money dashboard. However, checking to see what services are being billed through Google and Apple and canceling your subscriptions is easy.
For iPhones and iPads, go to Settings > Apple ID (where your name is at the top) > Subscriptions. There you'll see a list of current and their next billing or expiration dates. Tap on a subscription to cancel your subscription. And if you recently renewed your subscription, you can request a refund from Apple.
For Android, open the Google Play app, then select your profile photo, and then Payments and subscriptions > Subscriptions. Select the subscription you want to cancel and then select "Cancel subscription." If you have more than one Google account on your phone, check all accounts in Google Play. You can easily switch between accounts when you go to Menu in the Google Play app. You can also use your computer to go to play.google.com; make sure you're signed into your account (you'll see the photo in the upper right corner). Next, click on your photo, and select Payments & subscriptions > Subscriptions. Click on “Manage” next to the subscription you'd like to cancel, and then choose "Cancel subscription."
[Image credit: credit card bill via BigStockPhoto]
For the past 20+ years, Techlicious founder Suzanne Kantra has been exploring and writing about the world’s most exciting and important science and technology issues. Prior to Techlicious, Suzanne was the Technology Editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and the Senior Technology Editor for Popular Science. Suzanne has been featured on CNN, CBS, and NBC.
