Are Your Subscriptions Out of Control? Try These Simple Fixes
4 mins read
Published Apr 2, 2025
We all have a lot of subscriptions in our daily lives, and this number is only growing. The average person now manages double the number of subscriptions compared to five years ago. Almost every new service is subscription-based, whether it’s for entertainment, health, AI, or creator tools.
But subscriptions are notoriously hard to track, manage, and cancel. There’s no universal “subscription dashboard,” and because they’re often smaller monthly expenses, they easily fall through the cracks.
This lack of visibility and control has led to what many now call “subscription fatigue”. People feel overwhelmed, not sure of what they’re actually paying for, and frustrated by money leaking into unwanted or forgotten subscriptions. And those hidden charges add up fast.
In this guide, we’ll walk through a few tools and methods to track, manage, or cancel your subscriptions more effectively, so you can take back control.
Spreadsheets for Subscriptions
Spreadsheets are the most basic way to track subscriptions. They work fine if you’re disciplined, but for most people they’re too clunky and usually end up abandoned.
They also don’t offer built-in reminders for renewals or free trials, you’ll need to set these manually in your calendar.
If using a spreadsheet, make sure to include:
Free trials
Whether you plan to keep or cancel later
Payment method (App Store, bank card, neobank, etc.)
Manual Subscription Apps
Credit: Mashable
The App stores are filled with basic manual subscription tracking apps (Apps like Bobby, Subbe, etc.)
These apps are a simple upgrade from spreadsheets. You add your subscriptions manually, but the interface is cleaner and easier to manage.
They usually include helpful features like:
Categories and billing frequency
Monthly vs annual tracking
Renewal and free-trial push notifications
This makes them much more practical than a spreadsheet, especially for avoiding surprise charges.
Some apps are paid, others are free, and they work well as long as you remember to add all your subscriptions, though it’s still easy to miss a few.
Bank-connect/cancel Subscription Apps
Credit: Cnet
The next category of applications are non-manual subscription tracking applications.
(Apps like Rocket Money, Hiatus, Emma, DoNotPay)
These apps let you connect your bank or card so they can automatically detect recurring charges from your transaction history. This is usually powered by Plaid or similar open banking providers.
Some people are hesitant about connecting their bank, but the data is typically read-only and handled securely by the provider.
These apps can pull in most of your subscriptions automatically, though some still require manual additions (like App Store subscriptions). Some apps also use email parsing to catch more details.
Many offer “one-tap cancellation” via concierge teams who contact/email the merchant on your behalf. It’s not true instant cancelling, but it saves you the hassle of logging into multiple accounts for cancelling.
Most operate on a freemium model, with premium features for full detection or cancellation help.
Neobank Virtual Cards Method
Credit: Revolut
(Example: Wise, Revolut)
This method is more about control and cancellation rather than tracking, but it works well as a complement to the tools above.
Neobanks like Wise and Revolut offer features such as:
Merchant Blocking
If a subscription is charged through one of their virtual cards, you can block the merchant to stop future charges. It’s not perfect since it only works after you’ve been billed, but it’s fast. You will need to unblock the merchant if you wish to resubscribe to a merchant.
Multiple Virtual Cards
Some neobanks let you create multiple virtual cards (within limits). You can assign different subscriptions to different cards and freeze the card when you want to stop billing. This can still get a little messy at times though and the merchant will email and keep trying to bill.
Single-use cards (Revolut)
Useful for free trials or sites you don’t fully trust. Just note that there are limits, and some merchants reject neobank virtual cards.
Take Back Control of Your Subscriptions
Subscriptions are growing faster than ever, and keeping track of everything is getting harder. Using one or several of the methods in this guide can help you stay on top of things, and stop the money leaking from forgotten or unwanted services.
And this is exactly why we are building Orbit! an all in one app for managing your subscriptions that combines some of the best components of the above platforms including bank-connect, virtual cards and more.
If this sounds useful: sign up to the waitlist to get early access as well as founding member priviledges as features go live.
