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shapecharge \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Most people\u2019s essential bills are fixed and predictable. If they\u2019re also set to autopay, they\u2019re easy to forget about.<\/p>\n
Read Next: 8 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000<\/a><\/p>\n Check Out: Suze Orman Reveals the No. 1 Bill You Should Pay First Each Month<\/a><\/p>\n Some households are unknowingly paying for the same service twice. These sneaky overlaps can drain hundreds of dollars from a budget<\/a> each year. Finance experts showed you where these duplicate bills might be hiding<\/a>.<\/p>\n Streaming Services, Apps and Digital Subscriptions<\/p>\n Subscription services are one of the biggest sources of duplicate spending, especially when multiple people in the same household sign up separately.<\/p>\n \u201cA family may pay for Netflix directly and also include it in a cable package. Some people pay for both Dropbox and Google Drive, even though they use only one,\u201d said Ashley Akin, a CPA and tax consultant specializing in tax compliance services and the senior contributor at CEP DC<\/a>.<\/p>\n Free trials can also easily turn into duplicate charges because people forget to cancel in time<\/a>.<\/p>\n Consumer finance expert Austin Kilgore, analyst with Achieve<\/a>, a center for consumer insights, said subscription stacking is another common cause.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a household with more than one adult, it\u2019s possible that each person subscribed to a service without talking to the other.\u201d<\/p>\n He also noted that bundles can hide overlapping services especially if multiple people are buying different bundles.<\/p>\n Be Aware: New Law Could Make Electricity Bills Skyrocket in These 4 States<\/a><\/p>\n Insurance Policies That Overlap<\/p>\n Insurance is another area where consumers frequently pay for overlapping protection.<\/p>\n Brad Spurgeon, owner and CEO of Brad Spurgeon Insurance Agency Inc.<\/a>, said duplicate coverage often occurs because policies describe similar protections differently. Flood insurance is a common example. \u201cWhether they realize it or not, homeowners frequently have both a National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policy and a private flood policy with major overlap in their structural coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n Rental car coverage is another common redundancy, he said, because it\u2019s part of many auto insurance policies and most credit cards, \u201cyet there are still a lot of drivers who choose to buy it separately at the rental counter.\u201d<\/p>\n Utility Plans and Household Account Mix-Ups<\/p>\n Utilities can also produce duplicate charges. Adam Cain, vice president of marketing at ElectricityRates.com<\/a>, said this often happens when consumers switch providers but forget to cancel an old contract.<\/p>\n Overlapping contracts are easier to create than many people realize, particularly in deregulated states, \u201cwhere people get excited to enroll into a fixed plan with their new energy provider forgetting that they\u2019re still bound to the old one.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Duplicate Bills Are More Common Than You Think<\/p>\n Duplicate charges are surprisingly common because modern households juggle dozens of recurring payments. When services are bundled or managed by different family members, overlaps become easy to miss.<\/p>\n Akin said most families pay some bills twice a year without realizing it and waste $300 to $800 annually<\/a>, or an average of $400. \u201cThis is a huge amount of money that could go to vacation, saving or paying down debt.\u201d<\/p>\n How To Spot and Stop Duplicate Charges<\/p>\n Finding duplicate bills usually requires a deliberate review of finances<\/a>. Kilgore recommended starting with regular bank and credit card statements, but also those for payment apps, such as Venmo or Paypal.<\/p>\n Akin recommended examining your last three months of statements and making a list of the charges you pay each month.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you live with a partner, review the list together,\u201d she said. \u201cSet reminders before free trials end. If possible, use family plans instead of two separate accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n A quick audit of subscriptions, policies and household services can often uncover easy savings hiding in plain sight.<\/p>\n More From GOBankingRates<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com<\/a>: The Bills You\u2019re Probably Paying Twice Without Realizing It<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"shapecharge \/ Getty Images Most people\u2019s essential bills are fixed and predictable. If they\u2019re also set to autopay,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[236724,28,236723,100024,147,530],"class_list":["post-525945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-brad-spurgeon","tag-business","tag-duplicate-bills","tag-households","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}