How to Easily Cancel Your Subscription Services

Today, 41% of people report experiencing subscription fatigue. Most of us have too many subscriptions and they’re taking up a huge part of our discretionary income.

Fortunately, there’s something you can do about it.

Here, we’re laying out how to find subscriptions, cancel them, and avoid getting stuck with too many expensive subscriptions you don’t need in the future. Taken together it’s a few easy steps that can make a serious difference in your day-to-day finances… and your financial future.

How to find subscriptions

29% of consumers have subscribed to something accidentally. So you can’t assume there aren’t any hidden ones you’ve missed. Subscriptions are often spread across various bank accounts, app stores, and email inboxes that can let them go undetected for months or years. Plus, many subscription services make it so hard to cancel that they hang around draining your accounts a little bit at a time until they’re long forgotten. Here’s how to find them all.

Check bank and credit card statements

The first place to start is by quickly looking through your bank and credit card statements. It’s best to go back a full year to ensure you spot both monthly and annual subscriptions you may have forgotten about. Your bank or card provider may have automated tools for spotting subscriptions to be sure to look out for those as they can be a real time saver.

Search email inboxes

Another place to spot forgotten subscriptions is by searching your email. For most of us, doing this manually would take an extreme amount of time, so using your email’s search function is probably your best option. Search for words like “subscription,” “renewal,” “membership,” “unsubscribe,” or even “free trial.” This may require a bit of trial and error so take the time to experiment a bit and see what you can find.

Check Apple and Google Play

Fortunately, as of the time of this writing (March 2026), finding subscriptions in Apple and Google Pay is refreshingly straightforward. If you have an iPhone, just go to Setting > [Your Name] > Subscriptions to see things you may have subscribed to via apps on your phone. For Apple Pay subscriptions, just select your card in your wallet and go to the More button before clicking on Preauthorized Payments. For Google Pay, just sign into your payments profile at payments.google.com before clicking on Subscriptions & Services and finally on Manage.

Skip the hide and seek by using orsaWatch: Subscription Manager

Instead of digging and searching through apps and email, orsa credit union members can use orsaWatch to find, collect, and cancel forgotten subscriptions right inside the digital banking app you already have.

Connect your accounts once and you can see all of your subscriptions, move them to one account (like your orsa checking, credit or debit), set payment reminders, and even cancel with a few clicks. All for free. No extra apps, logins, or subscriptions to get rid of your subscriptions. It not only saves money… It saves you tons of time too! If you’re an orsa credit union member, find and cancel now!

How to decide what to cancel

Once you’ve uncovered all of your many, many subscriptions it’s time to decide what you want to keep and what it’s time to cancel. A useful framework to use when making those decisions is thinking about value. Does a particular service add value to your life? Not potential value, but real value today. If it doesn’t bring you joy and value today? Ditch it!

Questions to ask about each subscription

• Have I used this in the last 30 days?
• Would I pay for this again today if I weren't already subscribed?
• Do I have another service that already has it covered?
• Is this subscription really worth the cost?
• Have I used this in the last 30 days?
• Would I pay for this again today if I weren't already subscribed?
• Do I have another service that already covers this need?

How to cancel subscriptions

Now that you’ve determined which subscriptions you’d like to cancel, the real challenge begins: cancelling. Sadly, the FTA’s “click-to-cancel” rule has been blocked so knowing how to cancel subscriptions isn’t as easy as it should be. But we still have useful trips to make it easier.

Canceling through the company’s website

A good place to start is by cancelling subscriptions directly through the company’s website. Here’s an overview of what typically works:

• Log in to the website
• Navigate to your account or profile settings and look for a billing or membership section
• If the cancellation option is hard to find, search "[service name] how to cancel"
• Expect retention screens and offers before the cancellation is confirmed
• Save a screenshot of the confirmation once the cancellation is complete—just in case.

Canceling through Apple

Luckily, cancelling subscriptions you originally set up through the App Store is pretty straightforward as of the time of this writing (March 2026). Just follow these steps:

• On iPhone or iPad: Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions > select the service > Cancel Subscription
• On Mac: App Store > Account Settings > Manage > Cancel Subscription

Canceling through Google Play

If you signed up for a subscription through your Google Play account, as of March 2026 here’s how you can cancel them:

• Open Google Play on the original account you used to subscribe > Profile > Payments & Subscriptions > Subscriptions > select the service > Cancel

Canceling by phone of live chat

You can also try cancelling subscriptions through a phone call or live chat with a representative. Here are things to keep in mind:

• Some recurring services, especially gyms, insurance providers, and software companies, require a phone call or live chat to cancel.
• Be prepared for hold times, transfers, and persistent retention offers from customer service representatives.
• Ask for a cancellation confirmation number or email before ending the chat.

How to avoid unwanted subscriptions

Now that you’ve cancelled all your unwanted subscriptions, it’s time to establish some good habits to keep on top of them in the future.

• Set cancellation reminders - if you want to cancel a subscription at a specific time, remind yourself! You can add an event in your calendar with a reminder or ask your phone’s AI to remind you on a specific day.
• Conduct a subscription audit every 2-3 months - Even with the best habits, you can still accidentally subscribe to something without realizing it. So check your email, bank, and card records every few months for surprise subscriptions.
• Keep ongoing subscription records - It’s easy to forget about subscriptions you signed up for intentionally. Keeping a list helps ensure you use what you’re paying for and cancel what you’re not using.
• Sync orsaWatch: Subscription Manager with your calendar - Stop asking yourself “did I?...” every month by setting up reminders in orsaWatch then sync it with your calendar app for easily accessible alerts when you need them. Then simply cancel right from orsaWatch in digital banking with a few clicks!

Tools that make subscription cancellation easier

By now, it should be clear that managing and even knowing how to cancel all your subscriptions can be a real challenge. Fortunately, there are specialized tools designed to make managing subscriptions far easier! For example, Rocket Money and PocketGuard can automatically find recurring charges like subscriptions, and they can often even cancel subscriptions for you. That said, big red flag here, they also often come with subscriptions of their own to access key parts of the services including cancellation assistance. Fortunately, there’s an alternative…

Don’t pay to unpay with orsaWatch: Subscription Manager

The good news: If you’re an orsa credit union member, you get access to orsaWatch: Subscription Manager for free. It gives you the power to find, manage, and cancel unwanted apps right from the digital banking app you already have. No extra apps. No extra subscriptions. No extra logins and passwords. Because it’s built right into the orsa digital banking portal you already have. Just connect your accounts once get the ability to spot and cancel forgotten subs with just a few taps!

Not an orsa member yet? Tap to open a new CloseEnuff^™ cashflow boosting checking account to join and get access to our digital banking tools!

Conclusion

While there’s some effort involved, learning how to cancel subscriptions and staying on top of them can translate into substantial savings. The key is making it as easy as possible. Fortunately for orsa credit union members, the free subscription management tool we call orsaWatch streamlines the entire process. There’s practically no easier way to manage and cancel subscriptions!