How to cancel many of the subscription services you might not be using

With entertainment a necessary expense at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic, you might find that you’ve signed up for more subscription services than intended. Whether that’s free trials that ran over before you canceled them, or a service you subscribed to so you could watch that one show, it’s all too easy to end up with a monthly bill that’s eating your hard-earned cash.

Regardless of how many subscriptions you plan on keeping, it’s time to clean out your subscription list. Most of the KnowTechie staff did this early on in the pandemic when we realized that most of the services we actually pay for aren’t even ones we use anymore.

That’s nothing compared to Matthew Inman, the brains behind The Oatmeal. He had a rude awakening when he realized that Netflix had been charging him for a DVD subscription for an unlucky thirteen years. Ouch.

Today Netflix was kind enough to let me know that I've accidentally been paying for a DVD subscription for THIRTEEN FUCKING YEARS.

I have been renting imaginary DVDs since
George Bush was president.

The lesson here: keep an eye on your subscriptions. And vote Obama 2008. pic.twitter.com/iNtpuKzkdD

— The Oatmeal (@Oatmeal) January 12, 2021

Even if you don’t want to cancel any, it’s still a good idea to go through your inbox for receipts, to find out exactly how many services you’re paying for each month. Plus, unless you were grandfathered into a great deal, you don’t lose anything much if you cancel, and you can always subscribe again at any time if you find you miss that one service.

Netflix

If you want to know if you’re still paying for a DVD subscription on Netflix, head to your Account page. You’ll be able to see which plan(s) you’re subscribed to, and if you want, cancel your subscription completely. Sure, you’ll miss out on the huge number of new movies that are being added this year, but at least you’ll have a little more cash in the bank.

HBO and HBO Max

If the only thing you subscribed to HBO for was Game of Thrones, why have you been paying for it for almost two years since it ended? Go cancel, and save yourself enough to buy a pizza every month. Go do it, season 4 of Westworld is still months away, and you can always resubscribe then.

Amazon Prime

If you find you’re not using Amazon Prime because you prefer to support local businesses, or if you don’t use Amazon Music or Prime Video, or like the Twitch Gaming perks, you can go cancel your subscription pretty easily. Just be aware that you might not get any money back, as Amazon’s terms for a full refund only work if you haven’t used any of the services.

Apple services

Whether you realized you prefer Spotify to Apple Music, don’t want to play the games on Apple Arcade, or don’t want Apple TV Plus to continue once your free trial runs out, it’s easy to cancel your subscriptions on an Apple device.

Nintendo Switch Online

If you absolutely need to cut costs, the $20 a year subscription to Nintendo Switch Online is probably one of the last to go. I mean, you lose cloud saves for your games, multiplayer with your friends, and all of those sweet retro games that Nintendo adds to every month. It’s only a few steps to cancel though and can be done via your console or the Nintendo website.

Hulu

Hulu is often bundled with other services, or offered through third-parties like Amazon, Roku, or even your cell phone provider. Depending on who you signed up from, the process is slightly different so it’s worth reading Hulu’s instructions page.

YouTube TV

YouTube TV seems to raise their prices every few months, with no real benefits to remaining a subscriber. Heck, you don’t even get most of the NFL for the price. You can either cancel or pause your subscription from the same page, just make sure you’re signed into the same Google account that your YouTube TV subscription is through.

Disney Plus

Maybe you only subscribed for The Mandalorian, and don’t really want the rest of Disney’s content until it comes back for another season. If so, your Disney Plus subscription can be canceled in a few short steps, via their website. If you subscribed through the app, you need to cancel via iTunes or the Google Play Store, or the subscription you got it bundled with.

ESPN Plus

ESPN Plus is one of those services that often gets bundled with other streaming services, so you might not be able to cancel it from their own website. It’s also easy to subscribe through third-party sources, like Roku, Amazon, Apple Pay, or iTunes. If you have an active subscription and want to cancel it, head to this page in ESPN’s help pages, which will tell you how to cancel depending on how you subscribed to begin with.

If you cancelled any of your services, enjoy the extra cash in your account every month. Even if you found that you can’t live without all of your subscriptions, it’s still good to know what you’re paying every month.

Have any thoughts on this? Plan on canceling any subscriptions? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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• NBC’s Peacock streaming service is now available – here’s how to optimize your experience
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• Just like my employment, these streaming services may be “not economically viable”

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