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Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

wsj.com

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Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#421

Post by ggrelet »

renewiltord wrote: post #413
anthomtb wrote: post #411

I do a pretty good job of keeping only the subscriptions I use. Thankfully my S.O. has a severe allergy towards those kind of bills. Did you cancel HBO Max? We haven't watched it in 2 weeks. Are you still using Apple Music? Why do we have three music subscriptions? Is this really the cheapest mobile plan around? It can get naggy but man does it save some $$$. What drives me nuts are the subscriptions that we actually…

I use Copilot (which costs $100/y) and review every transaction across all of our accounts. Gives me a lot of piece of mind. It's very fast to audit because the UI is slick and it has simple name matching rules it uses to categorize. EDIT: The specific app is https://copilot.money/ I use the MacOS and iOS apps though I prefer the Mac app.

This app is only available in the US. Any other similar app you’d recommend? Maybe one you tried before using copilot?

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#422

Post by standardUser »

renewiltord wrote: post #413
anthomtb wrote: post #411

I do a pretty good job of keeping only the subscriptions I use. Thankfully my S.O. has a severe allergy towards those kind of bills. Did you cancel HBO Max? We haven't watched it in 2 weeks. Are you still using Apple Music? Why do we have three music subscriptions? Is this really the cheapest mobile plan around? It can get naggy but man does it save some $$$. What drives me nuts are the subscriptions that we actually…

I use Copilot (which costs $100/y) and review every transaction across all of our accounts. Gives me a lot of piece of mind. It's very fast to audit because the UI is slick and it has simple name matching rules it uses to categorize. EDIT: The specific app is https://copilot.money/ I use the MacOS and iOS apps though I prefer the Mac app.

I aggressively track my recurring subscriptions, but I still feel like sometimes my primary credit card balance is rising more rapidly than I can account for. And the data we get on our statements seems purposefully crafted to confuse and bewilder instead of inform. Part of it is the difference between the "balance" and the "available credit", the latter of which includes things like invisible holds and unprocessed payments. The two numbers are never the same, and I have no clear way of tracking the relationship between those two numbers.

That's a long way of saying that $100/year might not be such a bad deal to get some genuine visibility about my own spending. Especially since the companies currently providing me the information about my spending are, essentially, my enemies.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#423

Post by jimmydddd »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #381
wolverine876 wrote: post #64

The blame falls also on businesses which take money for services they don't deliver. They often know, and otherwise often could know, when subscribers are not using the service. If you're a business, you should earn your revenue, otherwise you are frauds. This particular behavior is little better than taking money and simply refusing to provide service. Don't tell me it's unintentional - you know what's happening and…

"It should be shame that also falls on them, but somehow we give businesses a pass." I have always viewed the push for "subscriptions" as a business model by so-called "tech" companies with suspicion. Looks like it was warranted. Forgetting to cancel is part of the scheme. A friend of mine once worked briefly for a direct marketing company many, many years ago, pre-www. He said they knew a certain percentage would fo…

For annual services, I think they should always remind you before charging you. Even if you've selected auto-renew. I always appreciate the services that do that.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#424

Post by godelski »

pc86 wrote: post #378
godelski wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like a great way to solve these is to require confirmations when payments change (maybe with exception of variable rate loans?). If you work at a bank, maybe pitch a notifications system that detects reoccurring transactions that are in fixed amounts that notifies customers when they change. In fact, also pitch giving your customers a fucking list of reoccurring transactions. Seriously, how is so much software…

> If you work at a bank, maybe pitch a notifications system that detects reoccurring transactions that are in fixed amounts that notifies customers when they change. I get exactly these types of notifications from both Discover and Citi.

Thanks for letting me know! That's an awesome feature.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#425

Post by standardUser »

yedava wrote: post #189

Subscriptions should have a time based expiry option. It's trivial to implement from a technology standpoint and not providing that option is an anti-consumer tactic. The fact that all businesses are so anti-consumer is a testament to the dystopian times we live in. Technology is being used to actively harm us.

I am in favor of a LOT of pro-consumer, anti-business regulations, like dramatically expanded food labeling, mandatory event ticket refunds, standardized brake lights and turn signals... the list is a long one.

But I still don't think a company should cancel my subscription without my knowledge to protect me from myself. One click cancel? Hell yes. But auto expiration? That's a bridge too far.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#427

Post by mckn1ght »

godelski wrote: post #324
mckn1ght wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm like you in that I hate notifications, but I love this idea at the same time, so I think I'll set up an email filter that sends them all past the inbox, right to a dedicated folder, where I can periodically review them all together. Sounds much better than logging into each CC provider separately, finding the statement area, downloading a clunky PDF, after probably having to change a password and confirm contact…

Actually this is not a bad idea. I was thinking phone notifications, but emails are much easier to control. Though I find filtering often not that great. I've been using Thunderbird, but if you have a suggested CLI email client that can "easily" (I live in the terminal, so that's the bar) integrate gmail and my work/school emails, allow me to hack on it, and __most importantly__ has decent documentation, then I'd lov…

I use the stock macOS Mail app to pull down Gmail etc, and its backing data store should be hackable, it’s all in sqlite3 DBs (although I just tried and I get authorization errors trying to work with them! Bet it’s SIP). I was thinking either a standalone CLI or something in emacs.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#428

Post by Loughla »

anthomtb wrote: post #411

I do a pretty good job of keeping only the subscriptions I use. Thankfully my S.O. has a severe allergy towards those kind of bills. Did you cancel HBO Max? We haven't watched it in 2 weeks. Are you still using Apple Music? Why do we have three music subscriptions? Is this really the cheapest mobile plan around? It can get naggy but man does it save some $$$. What drives me nuts are the subscriptions that we actually…

Pandora is my favorite subscription. I have paid $3.99 a month for years, for all the music I could ever listen to. It is literally always on in my house or office.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#430

Post by wrycoder »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #100
chucksta wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes both ways, a couple years ago I had to deal with a scammer who the bank kept "helping" with each new card they issued me. It happened like 5 times before it stopped, nothing I could do.

You issue a chargeback. It's been a while since I've worked on these systems, but IIRC back in the day you would get a refund and they would be penalized an extra $25 or so on top of it. If they get too many they can loose their merchant account. We always made cancels easy in our system, and if someone issued a chargeback we would ban their email from signing up again.

If you use the iOS app for Bank of America, there's a "dispute this transaction" button for every charge. If you click on that, you'll be informed that your card will be cancelled immediately for your own protection, and a new one issued. When what I want is to charge back to a vendor who never shipped and won't refund when contacted. You have to get on the phone, wait for half an hour, and then be very nice about the whole thing, while trying to avoid a card replacement, which is easy and safe for them and very hard for you.
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