Check Every Bank Account and Credit Card (Go Back 13 Months)
The most reliable starting point is your actual payment records. Log in to every bank account and credit card you hold and review the last 13 months of transactions — 13, not 12, because annual subscriptions renew once a year and 12 months might just miss one. Filter for recurring charges and look for small amounts between $1 and $30 that appear regularly from the same merchant. Write down the merchant name, the charge amount, and whether it appears monthly, quarterly, or annually. Pay attention to generic-looking merchant names like "APPLE.COM/BILL", "GOOGLE *Services", or unfamiliar company names — these are often subscriptions.
Search Your Email with These Specific Terms
Your email inbox holds a detailed record of every subscription you've ever signed up for. Open your inbox and search for each of these terms separately: "receipt", "invoice", "subscription", "your subscription", "payment received", "billing", "renewal", "free trial", "thank you for subscribing", "your plan", "payment confirmed", and "auto-renew". Also search for "unsubscribe" to find marketing emails from services that are billing you. Sort results by sender so you can group emails from the same service. Flag anything from a company you don't immediately recognise or no longer use.
Check Apple, Google, PayPal, and Amazon Separately
These four platforms each host subscriptions that won't appear as direct charges on your bank statement — instead they appear as Apple, Google, or PayPal charges. On iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions. This shows all active App Store subscriptions with their renewal dates and prices. On Android: Google Play → profile icon → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions. On PayPal: Settings → Payments → Manage automatic payments — this lists every merchant with pre-authorised access to your PayPal balance. On Amazon: go to Account & Lists → Account → Memberships & Subscriptions for all Amazon-managed recurring charges.
Check Your Password Manager for Old Accounts
If you use a password manager — 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, Dashlane, or Apple Keychain — browse through all your saved logins. Any service you created an account for is a potential subscription. Look especially for SaaS tools and productivity apps you used during a specific project, job, or phase of life. Services in categories like project management, design tools, stock photo libraries, VPNs, grammar checkers, and online learning platforms commonly retain billing access after people stop using them.
What to Do Once You've Found Them All
For each subscription you find, ask three questions: Have I used this in the past 30 days? Is there a free alternative? Am I getting clear value worth the monthly cost? If the answer to most of these is no, cancel immediately. For services you're uncertain about, log them somewhere visible — like SubRadar — and set a 30-day review reminder. Seeing the total cost of all your subscriptions in one view is often the final push needed to act. Even cancelling two or three small forgotten subscriptions commonly saves $20–$50 per month.