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My wife, Suzie, and I have just uncovered the biggest financial oversight mistake we’ve probably made in a very long time.
Since entering retirement, we have been reorganizing our everyday finances, including consolidating our two separate current accounts (a checking a/c without a checkbook) into one for the majority of our recurring bills. During this process, we realized we were paying for three mobile phone plans, two coming from my wife’s account. It turns out Suzie had always assumed my plan was taken from her account. After tracking backward, we discovered this has been happening for over 5 years and has cost us many $1000s in charges. We are currently in talks with the mobile operator’s fraud department.
But this got me thinking…again! What other small, overlooked expenses can have a regular, unnoticed drain on our finances?
Our recent discovery concerning the mobile phone plans highlights anl area many of us may neglect: recurring subscriptions and forgotten memberships. Beyond duplicate phone plans, we should consider streaming services (such as Netflix, Disney+, or Spotify), unused gym memberships, software licenses, or even magazine deliveries that are no longer read. Many services frequently offer an initial “free” trial that subsequently converts automatically to a paid subscription; these charges can accumulate over long periods.
Based on our experience, here is a practical approach to identifying and stopping these drains: Thoroughly examine all bank and credit card statements for any recurring payment. Create a simple log: service, purpose, cost. think if it’s truly needed. Consolidate recurring bills to a single, actively monitored account. This makes detection easier. For annual subscription , set calendar reminders a month prior to renewal. This allows for re-evaluation and price comparison. Make it a routine to meticulously review all financial statements.
Another easy trap to fall into is once a direct debit is established, it often slips our mind, even if the service is no longer used. It’s a good idea for couples to communicate openly about bills to prevent duplicates or overlooked payments. Don’t dismiss small monthly charges. These can compound over time into large amounts. Don’t forget credit card statements. Subscriptions often hide here, not just in current accounts. I, for example, have a free music streaming service trial coming to an end soon. This is another area to be mindful of to check because they can slip your mind. Set up reminders to give you the option to cancel.
Suzie and I consider ourselves to be very organized and on the ball with finances. This discovery has been a wake-up call that even a savvy person can make simple errors with money matters. In fact I recently read an article on this site about these issues but I think it’s worth mentioning it again: The key takeaway? Be vigilant and communicate between yourselves.
This shouldn’t happen to my wife and me since we scrutinize every transaction as it’s downloaded by Quicken.
New California’s law takes effect today July 1st, 2025: Businesses will be required to send annual auto-renewal reminders to subscribers, which must include a “click to cancel” option
India passed a law like that a few years ago.
I think there will be a suit filed by the current administration to have that reversed.
I’ve been working on getting on top of this (subscriptions, recurring bills) as I prepare for retirement myself. One newer development in the U.S. is a recent law requiring businesses to timely remind customers that their automatic annual renewal is coming up and to make it more straightforward to cancel the subscription. I’ve canceled a couple of things that had slipped my mind because of those emails.
My fundamental principle is that I want to simplify as much as possible in the next few years, having had a front-row seat to the cognitive effects of aging with my in-laws and my own mother.
An actual law that’s good for consumers, I’m impressed.
I always look over monthly credit card statements. There was a small charge, about $8, from a retailer, Carol Wright Gifts. I thought little of it, as Chris makes frequent purchases online. After over a year had passed, I finally noticed the charge was the same each month, so I finally questioned Chris.
About 15 months ago, Chris had made 1 purchase from Wright. Somehow she activated a monthly charge that would have provided unlimited shipping for the cost of, you guessed it, $8 per month.
I went to the website and found that this option seemed, in my opinion, to be intentionally designed to be deceptive. I did a google search and found dozens of complaints. I contacted Wright and was quickly refunded.
So yes, even those of us that are diligent need to beware.
Why I use an aggregator that collects all the transactions in one place
You sound like an advertisement for the Rocket Money app. It’s a good thing 😉
Never heard of it, but I’m glad it’s a good thing 😁
Was thinking that but not sure it’s a thing in the UK.
More generally we’ll all make some easily neglected financial errors just as a result of having busy lives and inertia. I think retirement is probably the point to carve out time and fix all those little sub-optimalities whether it’s rounding up orphan savings accounts or eliminating unnecessary subscriptions or actually paying attention to various cashback and points schemes etc.
I’m curious re the cellphone though – did you even have an extra SIM card with an orphan number?
No. Apparently the number we’ve been paying for isn’t even registered to our account or address. Hence the fraud departments involvement.
A good reminder. I remember my wife and I did a similar exercise when we retired about 7 years ago. I really don’t remember the exact dollar amount, but I do remember being surprised at the monthly amount we were able to trim away at the time. It’s surprising how subscriptions can collect over time and just be overlooked (especially if they’re simply added to another subscription. That’s particularly easy to do that with Amazon. Gene