Personal Finance: The cost of forgotten subscriptions
The average adult in the U.S. spends about $1,080 per year on recurring subscriptions to purchase services including streaming, virtual publications, e-commerce sites and meal preparation kits. Consulting firm Deloitte reported the average household spent $69 per month just on streaming content during 2025.
But the kicker, according to the latest survey by CNET, is the startling amount that goes unused.
According to the firm’s second annual subscription survey, the average customer spent $17 per month, over $200 per year, on subscriptions they no longer use or had long forgotten. That adds up to around $27 billion down the drain every year. For members of Gen Z, it’s even worse: $276 per year washed away. With more content and products delivered via recurring payment models, the opportunities for leaks in the household budget multiply as well.
Subscription-based product marketing is a huge enterprise, comprising $2 trillion in annual revenue globally. A report from research firm Market.US estimates that subscription revenue in the United States was $232 billion last year and is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11.8%, reaching $633 billion in 2034. A meaningful slice of that revenue comes from forgotten or unused services that continue to ding your credit card every month.
Sellers of subscription services benefit greatly from our forgetfulness. In a 2024 paper, economists at Stanford University and Texas A&M used anonymous data from a major credit card issuer to estimate the rate of subscriber renewal when a credit card on file expired. They determined that merchants realized an increase in revenue of between 14% and 200% due to customer inattention compared with the hypothetical baseline where customers routinely manage their agreements. Pure gravy right to the bottom line.
Online purveyors of repeating services are increasingly turning to psychological tactics known as dark patterns to manipulate consumers into signing up or renewing subscriptions. Pressure tactics like artificial time constraints or limited quantities, and framing techniques, including fear of missing out, are common. Some sites use pre-checked boxes obligating the buyer to additional items unless the option is unchecked. One of the most exasperating tricks is known to insiders as the “roach motel”: offering a free trial followed by a paid subscription that proves difficult to cancel. According to the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network, 76% of the 642 websites the agency reviewed utilized at least one dark pattern, and 2/3 used more than one.
Consumers have grown increasingly frustrated. The Federal Trade Commission logged 70 complaints per day in 2024 regarding what it calls predatory subscription practices, up 67% since 2021. Last year, the FTC sued Amazon over allegations that it enrolled thousands of customers in Amazon Prime without their permission and deliberately impeded customers from easily cancelling Prime services. Amazon denied the allegations but agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement and material changes to its subscription practices.
Last July, the Federal Trade Commission proposed new “click to cancel” regulations that would have made cancelling unwanted subscriptions easier, but the rule was blocked by the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on procedural grounds. In response to the court decision, Congress has taken up the cause. A bipartisan House bill called the Unsubscribe Act was reintroduced in January, matching a similarly bipartisan Senate bill introduced last year. The legislation would simplify the process of cancelling unwanted subscriptions and eliminate the practice of “negative consent,” instead requiring merchants to obtain affirmative permission to begin billing at the end of a free or trial period subscription. The twin bills are currently in the respective House and Senate committees and could emerge for a vote later this year.
In addition, several states, including Tennessee and Georgia, have adopted some form of affirmative consent requirement as well as mandating a clearly defined cancellation process.
If you are one of the millions of consumers with neglected gym memberships or streaming services you haven’t used since binging “Downton Abbey,” there are steps you can take to locate and cancel them. Start with a careful audit of bank and credit card statements for the previous few months. In most cases, transactions can be downloaded into a spreadsheet and sorted by payee to help isolate repeat purchases. You might be surprised at what you have missed.
If you do decide to take up a free or introductory offer, be sure to note in advance how to cancel if you choose not to extend the free period. Set a calendar reminder to stop the subscription before the first billing date. Also watch for sneaky price increases on existing services, as annual subscription rates often increase on the renewal anniversary date, and many consumers miss or ignore the email notification of a hike. And periodically evaluate the utility of each service to which you subscribe. Some people try rotating among competing streaming services for example. It may also be worthwhile to call the merchant and ask for a discount, especially if you are prepared to follow through with a cancellation.
The problem has grown so pervasive that a new industry has popped up offering utilities to locate and cancel forgotten services. Several budgeting apps include tracking capability that, once linked to your bank and credit card accounts, can identify recurring charges. Some free versions like Nerdwallet can alert you, while some paid versions like Rocket Money can actually handle the cancellation for you. Prices for these applications range from a few dollars a month to $24.99 for Experian’s high-end version. They don’t do anything you can’t do yourself, but some people are willing to pay for the convenience, and you can always cancel this additional subscription once you’re cleaned up. Just don’t forget.
The subscription economy is here to stay, and the plethora of available services can be a wonderful thing. Forgetting about old subscriptions, not so much.
Christopher A. Hopkins, CFA, is a co-founder of Apogee Wealth Partners in Chattanooga.
