Like, Share, But Don't Subscribe

on unused subscriptions and forgotten in-app purchases

Dear friend,

I spend the 27th of every month sitting with my credit card statements, trying to recollect everything I’ve swiped the card on during this time. It’s an unpleasant thing to do, yes, but I’ve learned to enjoy it over the years, much like I’ve learned to enjoy green tea or the elliptical machine. And while I was going through it, I noticed a significant amount categorised as ‘iTunes Combined Billing’, which usually referred to my subscriptions.

Except, it didn’t add up. What could it have been?

Before we begin this investigation dear friend, a confession: I subscribe to many things. Only yesterday, I subscribed to New York Magazine so I could have unhindered access to their deep & high quality reportage on the lives of celebrities. I subscribe to learning apps for my 4 year old so there’s an educational (but fun!) alternative to YouTube. I subscribe to the holy trinity of Netflix - Amazon Prime - Hotstar. And now, this is where it gets embarrassing - I have 3 music subscriptions. YouTube Premium, Spotify Premium and iTunes. On top of this, I pay for iCloud storage and a fitness app. And mind, this is just my list and doesn’t cover what my partner pays for. At this point, we’re swimming in subscriptions.

But all of this still didn’t explain the amount that was sitting in my statement. As I dug deeper into my Apple account it was revealed to me that the charge was actually an annual Duolingo subscription that I’d purchased around this time last year. Another fruitless bid to be ‘productive’ during a global pandemic. I learned French for about 3 months before pretending like the app didn’t exist on my phone.

Reassessing Subscriptions

Subscriptions are slippery, which is why they can escape even those who are generally careful with money. Annual subscriptions in particular are a bit of a trap because they convince the user that they’re getting the best deal, even if the user isn’t fully sure that they’ll use the service for that long. Kind of like paying annual fees for the gym in January, only to realise you hate it in March. The pandemic sent all of us down the internet content rabbit hole so it’s really no surprise that for a lot of us, there are a number of different directions that our money takes. For example, If you’ve signed up for ‘free trials’, it’s easy to forget when your free month/week ends and billing begins.

So how do you ensure that you’re not losing money on subscriptions?

Take Stock & Reassess Value

Start with taking stock. What are all the platforms you subscribe to? What is the monthly outgo? Are you ok with that or does it feel like it’s too much? Take the time to reassess value as well. Is it something you’re even using? Or would you be better off without it?

Try Going Cold Turkey

Are there services you could consider giving up on, at least temporarily? I briefly gave up Spotify premium, only to realize that I used Spotify very differently from the way I used iTunes Music and YouTube. It’s very personal, but I have clarity on why I pay for 3 seemingly similar services and I’m okay with that. I have gone cold turkey on my Audible credits though.

Cancel Auto-Renew

Annual subscriptions auto-renew automatically. Disallow auto-renewal. This way you get a reminder by way of a push notification or emails, versus showing up on your credit card statement - the way it did for me. By the way, cancellations are not refunds. You won’t be charged again, but the money that’s gone, is gone.

Share With Family

Share with family wherever you have the option to. Apple offers family subscriptions so instead of each of us paying for iTunes music separately, we’ve combined them into a family account which includes our siblings. Netflix and Amazon accounts are also shared with family so there’s only one consolidated outgo instead of multiple people paying for the same thing.

Spring Cleaning Subscriptions

In a way, subscriptions are digital clutter. They take up space. And because the space they take up is mostly digital, it’s easy to miss the magnitude of space they take and the amount of pressure they put on our finances. My exercise of auditing all that I have access to made me realize how much I’m not using despite having access to it, and how little we pay attention to things we’ve already paid for.

Which reminds me: I need to go complete my french lesson now.

Until next time,

Lavanya