Three months ago, I had around Rs 8,000 in my Apple ID wallet. Since recurring transactions on credit cards have become difficult in India, I usually keep a large amount in the e-wallet to pay for monthly/annual subscriptions to various services and apps. Early January I realised that over Rs 5,000 disappeared because my subscription to New York Times was charged annually and then came subscriptions to Adobe Lightroom, VSCO photo and video editor and Teleprompter for Video, besides the usual iCloud fees, Lionsgate, Voot and all that jazz. But that’s how subscriptions work. Is there is a way out of the mess?
Recheck what you have subscribed to
Be it Android or iOS devices, in the Play Store/App Store you can view all the subscriptions you currently have, including the ones you have cancelled. Many big companies offer three-month trial periods before charging your account. And if the company can afford it, it even offers an annual trial subscription before charging the account. The longer the trial period, the more the chance of forgetting that we even subscribed to the service.
We usually forget a trial app’s maturity period. Every month, make it a habit to go through the list. On the iPhone, go to Settings, tap on your profile on top, then tap ‘Subscriptions’ to go through what you are paying for via Apple. Make sure the option for ‘Renewal Receipts’ is turned on so you get emails reminding you that you pay for these services. On an Android device, go to the Play Store, then tap the menu icon and look for ‘subscriptions’.
Don’t get tricked
There was a time when I just couldn’t cancel my Adobe Premiere Pro subscription because at the back of my mind there was this unnecessary thought: “What if I need to use the service next week?” First, ask yourself if you really need the app and is there an option, like LumaFusion available. It turned out that LumaFusion was perfect for most of the video-related things I do and it has a lifetime charge, meaning I could pay only once and use it as long as I need. Sure, Premiere Pro has many cool features but it’s not always necessary for everyday usage.
Being a heavy user of Pages on MacBook, Google Doc, Google Sheets, Keynote and Apple Freeform, I have paused my Microsoft 365 subscription.
At times you need to call a company’s helpline to cancel a subscription. This is when they try to sell you a product. Refuse and refuse again… if you know your mind.
Calculate and do it all over again
During the pandemic, I had subscriptions to a number of entertainment apps, like Netflix, Apple TV+, Hotstar, Lionsgate, Voot, Amazon Video, ZEE5, Hoichoi, Spotify and what not. I don’t even watch all the services, so barring two-three streaming platforms, I cancelled the rest. For example, if I subscribe to Apple Music why have Spotify? Or if my wife subscribes to Amazon Prime service, why do I need to have a separate subscription?
Choose the app and Cloud tier carefully. With iCloud+ I get enough storage space for my entire family. My YouTube Premium is a family pack that is used by my wife, parents and sister. The same goes for Apple Music. It’s cheaper to have a family subscription for most of the things.
When it comes iCloud and Google One subscriptions, figure out how much storage you need. See if you can get away by backing up photos and videos to a local drive.