Monthly Memberships

In the last few years, we’ve become accustomed to many convenient services, many offered via subscriptions. Now, in the old days, if you had a few magazines or newspapers stacked up, you might not pay to continue your service. Today’s subscriptions typically offer autopay, which is convenient and quickly forgotten for many.

C&R Research reports that the average American spends $219 per month on subscriptions for things like streaming services, news websites, and even regular deliveries of our most often-used goods, such as beans or pet food.¹

There is also increasing evidence that these subscriptions are getting out of hand for some households. Many find themselves with an unclear idea of how much they are spending on their services, in many cases underestimating the amounts by upwards of $100 per month.²

Some have even forgotten they were subscribed to a service. As many as 42 percent of households have some ongoing autopayment happening for a service they are no longer using.²

As we all know, these fees can add up quickly and become an unnecessary drain. Some of them are for things like streaming services; you subscribe to see the big new movie or series and keep it going even though you’re done with the show.

Others are less straightforward. For example, you may have signed up for premium rideshare or restaurant and grocery delivery services that are no longer necessary or may not merit the extra expense.

While you might be able to track these extra expenses with a quick review of your checking account and credit card statements, there are also a number of apps that can help you review these payments and even help you cancel them all at once.

One of the nice things about subscription culture is that turning them off can be easy and doesn’t need to be goodbye forever. Unsurprisingly, the services make it fairly easy to turn your subscriptions on and off, as needed, so there’s no reason not to take advantage.

1. cbsnews.com, December 26, 2023
2. cnbc.com, September 6, 2022

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