subscription-audit

Subscription Audit

Overview

Scans your transaction history for recurring subscription charges, totals your monthly and annual subscription spend, identifies subscriptions with no recent usage pattern changes, and recommends cancellation candidates.

Wilson Tools Used

• anomaly_detect — detect unused or forgotten subscriptions via type unused_subscriptions
• transaction_search — find all recurring charges and verify subscription patterns

Workflow

1. Run anomaly_detect with types: ["unused_subscriptions"] to surface subscriptions that appear to be unused or redundant.
2. Run transaction_search with query: "subscription OR recurring OR monthly" and months: 6 to pull all subscription-like transactions over the past 6 months.
3. Group results by merchant name and calculate the monthly charge amount for each subscription.
4. Sum all recurring charges to produce a total monthly subscription spend and annualized cost.
5. Cross-reference the anomaly detection results with the transaction list. Flag any subscription that appeared in the unused list.
6. Present a table with columns: Merchant, Monthly Cost, Annual Cost, Months Active, Status (Active / Flagged for Review).
7. Recommend cancellation candidates — prioritize subscriptions flagged as unused, then sort remaining by cost descending.
8. Calculate potential annual savings if all flagged subscriptions were cancelled.

Without Wilson

1. Export transactions from your bank as a CSV file (Chase: Statements & Documents > Download Account Activity > CSV; Bank of America: Statements & Documents > Download Transactions).
2. Open the CSV in a spreadsheet (Google Sheets or Excel).
3. Sort by the Description column and look for repeating merchant names with consistent amounts.
4. Use a filter: in Google Sheets, add a helper column with =IF(COUNTIF(B:B, B2) > 1, "Recurring", "One-time") where column B is the merchant/description column.
5. Create a pivot table grouping by merchant name, summing the amounts, and counting occurrences.
6. Any merchant appearing monthly with a consistent amount is likely a subscription.
7. Multiply each monthly charge by 12 to get annual cost.
8. Review each subscription and ask: "Did I use this in the last 30 days?" Cancel anything you answer "no" to.
9. Common subscription merchants to search for: Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Adobe, Dropbox, iCloud, Google One, YouTube Premium, gym memberships, news subscriptions.

Important Notes

• Subscription detection relies on pattern matching in transaction descriptions. Some merchants use varying names across charges.
• Annual subscriptions (charged once per year) may not appear in a 6-month window. Extend the search range to 12-18 months to catch these.
• Free trials that convert to paid subscriptions are easy to miss — look for small initial charges from unfamiliar merchants.