A quick tap and a password can be all it takes to lock in another subscription renewal, and while the charges may feel small at the time, they can add up fast.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Kern County mother Janel Burton discovered after taking a close look at three months of her bank statements. Burton said she thought she had a good handle on her finances, but the review revealed recurring charges she didn\u2019t realize were still hitting her account.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is this?\u201d Burton said as she went through the statements.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m finding what I signed up for, forgot to cancel, you know, the trial periods \u2014 and then you forget,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The total cost of Burton\u2019s various subscription charges over three months surprised her. A breakdown of the statements showed $424.36 spent on Nuuly during that period, along with $176 for Peloton plus an additional $5 charge. Altogether, that came to $605.36 in recurring charges over three months.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo way,\u201d Burton said.<\/p>\n
According to subscription tracking service ReSubs, the average person has between five and eight active subscriptions and spends around $219 a month, with at least one subscription they\u2019ve forgotten about entirely. In Burton\u2019s case, there were two.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I was maybe overspending, but I don\u2019t pay attention to my bank statements, which I should,\u201d Burton said. \u201cThat could be a trip or a plane ticket or car payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Economics professor Aaron Hegde said recurring charges can be easy for consumers to overlook, especially when they\u2019re spread across different platforms and payment methods.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo in some cases, it is truly not something that\u2019s noticeable, because you have to kind of dig around to see how much you\u2019re paying,\u201d Hegde said. \u201cThere are services where, if you use Apple payments, you can go under subscriptions on your device and see what you\u2019re paying for. But if you subscribed directly through a website or service, you may not notice it until you see it on your credit card statement.\u201d<\/p>\n
With monthly costs from streaming and lifestyle services such as Netflix and Spotify, Hegde said it can be easy for consumers to lose track of spending. He recommends checking bank accounts at least once a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easier to opt into something than to opt out,\u201d Hegde said.<\/p>\n
Hegde also pointed to budgeting apps as another tool to help users track spending and identify recurring charges. Some features are free, while others require a paid membership.<\/p>\n
Burton said she plans to make changes going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cPay attention. But I need to set myself reminders,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Before signing up for a seven-day free trial, consumers can avoid unwanted renewals by setting a reminder to cancel days before the charge date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A quick tap and a password can be all it takes to lock in another subscription renewal, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-321550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}