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- I found dozens of recurring charges on my credit card. I had been wasting $1,600 a year on subscriptions I didn’t even use. (businessinsider.com)
Local Woman Uncovers Hidden Subscriptions, Saving Family Nearly $1,600 Annually
A local resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, recently shared her surprising discovery of numerous forgotten subscriptions that had been silently draining her family’s finances. What began as a routine financial review quickly turned into a detective mission, ultimately revealing hundreds of dollars wasted each month on services they no longer used.
The saga began when the woman’s 17-year-old daughter expressed interest in a promotional Apple Music deal through Verizon. Despite the tempting offer of access for up to six people for $10 a month, the mother declined, citing a recent “rude awakening” regarding their credit card spending.
Concerned about holiday season expenditures, the family decided to conduct a financial “tune-up.” The woman took on the task of reviewing their Mastercard statement, typically a secondary payment method for them. What she found was far from routine.
“I thought I’d been subject to fraud,” she recounted, after printing a statement covering a significant chunk of their Christmas shopping period. Amidst legitimate purchases for coffee and doctor co-pays, several unfamiliar transactions jumped out.
Payments to “Uexton” for $19.99 and “Sportelx” for $29.55 immediately raised red flags. A quick online search revealed Uexton as a gaming website and Sportelx as a sports news service – neither of which she recognized.
Further scrutiny of the bill unearthed more mysterious charges: $29.99 to ESPN New York, $14.99 to Canva, and $11.95 to Audiobookstore.com. Even a $25 fee to Rockin’ Jump, a trampoline park her son had outgrown, was still being charged.
After reviewing statements from the previous two months, the pattern became clear. These weren’t fraudulent activities, but rather recurring subscriptions that had been forgotten over time, some dating back years.
“We had failed to cancel Rockin’ Jump. I didn’t know how the rest had come about,” she admitted.
The realization dawned that she and her husband must have signed up for trial subscriptions, likely sharing their credit card information, and then simply forgotten to cancel before the free or discounted periods ended. The cumulative impact was staggering: $131.88 a month in unnecessary payments, equivalent to a family cellphone plan.
“Over the years, I calculated that we’d spent almost $1,600 annually on streaming and other services we didn’t touch,” she shared, expressing feelings of embarrassment. While acknowledging her own oversight, the experience served as a powerful lesson. From now on, she stated, tempting but ultimately useless offers will be met with a firm “no thank you.”
This incident serves as a timely reminder for all consumers to regularly review their financial statements and be vigilant about recurring charges, potentially saving hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each year.