Senior News Line: Forgotten subscriptions

Here’s a short quiz. What do the following have in common: the local car wash, vitamins, printer ink, credit monitoring and razors?

The answer: They can all be subscription goods or services. And all of them could be expenses you’re paying for without being aware.

Per the research, our downfall is when the payments for those subscriptions are set to auto pay, either monthly or annually, making them easy to miss or forget.

The research group asked participants to guess how much they spent on subscriptions. The actual spending turned out to be two times the estimate.

There are so many more: air filters, tech support, exercise bike online classes, meal kit delivery and internet access. And more: extended warranties, big-box-store memberships and exercise apps.

You can reclaim some of your money with a little work. Go through a year of bank and credit card statements to look for recurring charges.

Did you sign up for a trial subscription and forget to cancel? Did the price of a subscription go up without you knowing? Have you previously asked to cancel, but it wasn’t done?

Even if you don’t find that you have forgotten subscriptions, you could be overpaying for the ones that you do want.

Example: By changing to a smaller cellphone plan, I was able to cut $20 off my monthly cost.

Example: By changing to a movie streaming service that included ads, I was able to save $10 per month.

Example: I was able to save $15 per month by canceling a movie service that I didn’t use often enough to justify keeping it.

These three alone come to $45 of my money that I get to keep. That’s $540 per year.

To be considered: The research showed that many seniors have as many as a dozen forgotten subscriptions they’re still paying for. Do you have any?