Stop Wasting Money. Find and Cancel Unwanted App Subscriptions on Your Phone
You name it, there’s probably a paid subscription for it. Food delivery, ridesharing, social media, and photo editing apps all charge for monthly premium services like exclusive features, reduced fees, access to offers, and other perks. BMW even charges customers in some countries $18 a month to heat the front seats of their own cars. Absurd, right?
And we are not immune to this service economy either. Like many of us here at CNET, you’re probably paying hundreds of dollars in recurring payments for streaming apps like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Spotify, Hulu and Disney Plus, or more practical things like AppleCare. With so many services, it’s also easy to lose track of everything you’re paying for.
And if you’re trying to cut some costs, you should start with the many subscriptions you might have on your phone.
In this story, we’ll show you how to find all the monthly services you pay for on your mobile device, whether through the Apple Store on your iPhone or Google Play on Android, and how to cancel the ones you no longer want.
If you’re looking to save money in another way, check out 10 ways to save on streaming services, how to save on streaming TV with these simple tips, and free options for some of your favorite paid services.
Find and cancel your subscriptions on your iPhone
You can find all of your monthly Apple Store subscriptions in a few places on your iPhone, but the easiest way is through your Settings. To do this, launch the Settings app, tap your name at the top, then tap Subscriptions in the first section. Here, you’ll see a list of all active (and inactive) subscriptions you’ve signed up to from apps you’ve downloaded from the App Store.
You can also find your subscriptions in the App Store app.
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Under Active, you’ll see all the subscriptions you’re currently paying for, with the following information: app or service name, brief description, next billing date, and cost. To cancel an active subscription, tap the subscription, tap the red Cancel Subscription button at the bottom of the page, then tap Confirm in the pop-up that appears.
You will be notified of how long you will have access to the Paid Service if you cancel.
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For most subscriptions, you will still be able to access paid services until the end of your billing period. However, some apps won’t let you continue using the service, so you’ll have to read the fine print to see what happens if you cancel. Once canceled, the subscription will remain in the active section, but will display, in red text, its expiration date.
Find and cancel your subscriptions on your Android
Unlike iOS, Android runs on devices from different brands, such as Samsung, Google, and Motorola, but fortunately all of these versions of Android all have the Google Play Store, so finding and canceling your monthly subscriptions is similar regardless of whichever phone you are using. using.
To find all your subscriptions, launch the Play Store application, tap on your profile picture or the initial of your first name which appears at the top right and go to Payments & subscriptions > Subscriptions. Here you will see a list of your active and inactive subscriptions.
Each subscription will include the date of your next payment.
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If you want to cancel a subscription, tap it, then tap the green Cancel Subscription button. The Play Store may ask you to consider other cheaper subscriptions and also to give a reason why you’re canceling. Accept all prompts to continue until you see an all-green Unsubscribe button. Click it and your subscription will be cancelled, but you should still have access to it until the end of your billing period.
Ignore any prompts that try to prevent you from canceling.
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