Auto-pay subscriptions

[catherine]

Anybody have auto-pay online subscriptions that you forget about over time?

I have a couple that I signed up for: A motivational site ($12.99/mo), a yoga site ($11.99), a permaculture site ($11), the NYT & WSJ and then I do monthly giving to a couple of sites (small amounts).

I'm dedicated to cleaning up my finances these days. I'm finding that owning two homes is not cheap. We had to make a couple of one-time purchases and I am determined to stabilize and stop the cash flow.

So I'm looking at these subscriptions and thinking of stopping some of them, because, as you can see, they do add up. I've already stopped the yoga site. But I really like the others! I would drop a newspaper subscription, but I feel its important to read both NYT/WSJ for SOME balance, so if I drop one, I'll drop both. But then I'm stuck getting all my news from TV CNN.

How should I decide? I'm sitting here spending way too much time trying to decide if I should stop my subscription to the great motivational site I'm on. It adds up to $156 a year.

Would you stop these subscriptions if you were trying to cut back? Or are they insignificant little "luxuries"?

[Tybee]

That's tough one. I have the same problem--things like the Y and Netflix and some investment newsletters and one of my old colleges that I give to each month--I really need to stop them all maybe cold turkey and see what I want to add back? They have definitely crept up, and half the time I am unaware of them and they just get charged. I will keep the Y and Netflix, I guess, but maybe try to stop all the rest?

I hate those that say "you can cancel anytime" and then I forget to cancel, shoot, that reminds me, I have auto bill on weight watchers and I have not been tracking or using it.

Ugh.

[Williamsmith]

Anybody have auto-pay online subscriptions that you forget about over time?

I have a couple that I signed up for: A motivational site ($12.99/mo), a yoga site ($11.99), a permaculture site ($11), the NYT & WSJ and then I do monthly giving to a couple of sites (small amounts).

I'm dedicated to cleaning up my finances these days. I'm finding that owning two homes is not cheap. We had to make a couple of one-time purchases and I am determined to stabilize and stop the cash flow.

So I'm looking at these subscriptions and thinking of stopping some of them, because, as you can see, they do add up. I've already stopped the yoga site. But I really like the others! I would drop a newspaper subscription, but I feel its important to read both NYT/WSJ for SOME balance, so if I drop one, I'll drop both. But then I'm stuck getting all my news from TV CNN.

How should I decide? I'm sitting here spending way too much time trying to decide if I should stop my subscription to the great motivational site I'm on. It adds up to $156 a year.

Would you stop these subscriptions if you were trying to cut back? Or are they insignificant little "luxuries"?

Only you know the unique reasons why you value the motivational subscription but I am convinced that if we take time enough to examine ourselves reflectively......we can motivate ourselves much more efficiently than others can. Since you asked.

[SteveinMN]

I have a bunch of subscriptions/memberships like that. The key, for me, is to evaluate the yearly spend in terms of what I believe I'm getting.

The NYT runs $180 a year, which is real money to me now. I've quit the subscription before: you can read 10 articles a month without paying; many other news sources link to NYT articles (those are not counted against your 10); there are other news sources that have the same editorial bent as the NYT -- or even some which are more to the center, like AP.org or Reuters; and sometimes they'll entice you back with a half-off offer. I have no idea what the WSJ costs per year but I'll guess the amount is up there because most people reading it can afford it and make it a business deduction to boot.

I do occasionally find a magazine or service that we pay for monthly that goes months without use. When I realize that, that's my cue to re-evaluate and (likely) cancel it. Even paying for it a la carte can be cheaper than months of paying a "retainer". I can't recall ever going back to subscribe to something like that which I cut.

When I had a higher salary, all these and more were "insignificant little luxuries". Now those luxuries tote up to several hundred dollars. To borrow from YMOYL, that's a major appliance (or a good chunk of one) or the PI part of our mortgage or a car payment. Which would I rather make (or which do I have to make)?

[Lainey]

I'm wary of auto-pay because of horror stories I've heard about trying to cancel them. However, I do use auto-pay to send a few dollars each month to 2 political candidates as well as a blogger I admire. And I know more and more places, like mortgagors and landlords, offer small % discounts for setting up auto-pay.
For bill paying I still like to enter the numbers and click on the send button myself on my bank's Bill Pay system.

Overall it's an easy system, but I agree it can sneak up on you if you're not watching your budget closely.

[rosarugosa]

We just have auto-pay for our Tracfones and our Friends of Lynn Woods membership. I like to be mindful of our spending and I don't think auto-pay encourages that. We do subscribe to several print magazines, but I read them all cover-to-cover and they do not renew automatically.

[catherine]

Well, I thought about what. you guys said and listened to my gut and went to cancel that motivational site I like. So, when I hit the "Cancel subscription" button they offered a discount of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. I felt guilty taking 100% discount but I did feel that for $6.50 a month, I'm being fair about what I feel comfortable paying.

I think the "pay what you can" option is awesome! So I'd like to share the name of the website. What I like about it is their "Philospher's Notes"--excerpts of hundreds of self-help-type books--classic and Neo-classic and contemporary, which you can get summaries of in 10 min videos, pdfs, and/or podcasts. Plus there are classes and mini-classes on various topics. It's really an awesome site. I used to do a book (Philosopher Note) a day, which only took a few minutes of my time, and I got so much out them.

The name of the site is Optimize.me with Brian Johnson.

I think I'm off to cancel the NYT and WSJ. Let's see if they offer me "pay-what-you-can." (Yeah, right!)