How to Hunt Down App Store Subscriptions You Didn’t Realize You Pay For

Who among us hasn’t signed up for an app subscription and said “yes” to the pop-up box on our phones asking if we’d like to sign up for monthly payments, swearing up and down that we’ll remember to cancel it when the free trial runs out, only to… not? Let he who actually went back and manually deleted their Afterlight Pro account cast the first stone! But as we are all striving to manage our money in these times, it’s easy to hunt down and snipe the charges you no longer want to pay, if you know where to look.

Obviously, Big App doesn’t want to remind you what you’re paying for. And when those fees get lumped in with the rest of your monthly app store bill, alongside things you pay for on purpose like Apple TV or Apple Music (sorry Android Hive, this piece isn’t for you), you could wind up spending hundreds of dollars a year on services you used one or twice, months ago. This is what everyone means when they say “late-stage capitalism,” right?

Luckily, there’s an easy way to monitor what you’re paying the ghost of Steve Jobs for—you just need to know where to look. Here’s how to peek at your subscriptions in Apple’s app store and prune accordingly. 

Look, nobody likes it, but we all have to use it to redownload Instagram after a halfhearted attempt to live in the moment… or whatever. Head over here to start your journey. 

Or whatever picture you have that will take you to your Apple ID. 

Getting warmer… 

There aren’t any subscriptions in this example because this writer is frugal, but hopefully the image above gives anyone enough to go on when it comes to where they’ll be. If you click through each sub, there is a nice big “Cancel” button waiting for you. 

There you have it—the very easy way to kick a few bucks back into your monthly budget instead of blowing them on one-time purchases you didn’t even know you were making. You’re welcome! 

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