I recently made a post of a meme on The Admin Bar community (a community of agency owners and WordPress enthusiasts on Facebook), the meme was about canceling free trials before they charge you, and it seemed to resonate with a quite a number of TAB members.
Image credit: @dudewithsign (Instagram)
The reality is that while running our agencies we subscribe to lots of services and tools some of which we end up not using. I’m sure a lot of agency owners have had the experience of losing money to unwanted subscriptions and recurring payments. They seem like little sums of money, but it adds up with time.
Do you want to be able to manage your subscriptions, monitor sub trial periods, renewal dates and probably cancel on time if you don’t want to pay the money? I looked up some subscription tracking tools and here are 5 of them that you can use.
- TrackMySubs
This subscription tracking tool sends automated reminders and alerts to you about any of your subscriptions. With this you keep track of all your recurring payments. It was recommended by a fellow TAB member and I immediately signed up for it. It’s quite easy to set up and they have a free plan for up to 10 subscriptions; I think it’s worth a try.
TrackMySubs lets you choose the date that the subscription is due and gives you option to set a default alert or customize your alert.
With TrackMySubs you also get features like exchange rate conversion, payment type management and lots more. Imagine being able to manage all your subscriptions in one place. How relaxing!
Pricing: Free Plan for 10 subscriptions. Starter Plus Plan of $5/month for 20 subscriptions. Entrepreneur plan of $15/month for 50 subscriptions.
Website: www.trackmysubs.com
- Butter
Butter helps you manage all your paid subscriptions and memberships in one place, saving money for you in the process. Everything you’ve signed up for is easily tracked by Butter, and they give you 1% cashback on your eligible subscription fees.
With Butter you can manage and modify your subscriptions easily, get notifications on special offers, and also get rid of unwanted subscriptions.
Butter works by linking it up with your credit card or bank account while it automatically finds subscription and recurring bills. It can help with cancelling or negotiating your bills.
Butter is completely free and I think you might like them as the design of their website looks amazing! Lovely colour scheme.
Pricing: Free
- Bobby
Bobby is a simple and effective iOS app that lets you track and manage multiple subscriptions. It supports 260+ subscription services and has a customizable interface. You can set up reminders to notify you a particular period of time before the payment for a subscription is due.
It also has a feature like the currency breakdown that helps you keep track of any foreign subscription you may have. With Bobby, it becomes very easy to see how much money you’re shelling out each month.
Bobby allows you link with your bank account or manually set up your subscriptions.
Website: www.bobbyapp.co
Pricing: Free ($1.99 in-app purchase unlocks unlimited subscriptions, iCloud Sync, additional themes)
- Trim
The Trim app is a subscription management tool that helps you negotiate your bills, create reminders and cancel subscriptions for you. Trim helps you quit any unused subscriptions, set up a budget and reduce regular spending.
It is a well-built app with an easy-to-use interface and has a unique feature for negotiating your bills. Trim can also calculate debt and help you build a pay-off plan that minimizes interest.
You can set up Trim by linking it with your bank account and answering questions about your finances.
Pricing: Free plan for access to the basic features of Trim. It also has a Premium plan of $10/month.
Website: www.asktrim.com
- Truebill
Truebill helps you control your subscriptions and monthly bills. The goal of the app is to help you save money by seeking out unwanted subscriptions to help you canceling them. Truebill manages your subscriptions, seek refunds and offer other premium services. It can also help you negotiate lower rates for your bills and secure credit when a service you pay for experiences a lapse in service.
Truebill can be set up on a phone (Android and IOS mobile apps) and linked to your bank account. It access details of your financial transaction and has a dashboard for tracking your expenses. It identifies recurring payment, groups them and you can manage the subscriptions in one place.
Truebill advertises as a free service app, but hey, it takes 40% of what they help you save as a “savings fee”. That fee is charged once the savings are secured, and it applies to one year’s worth of savings at one time.
Pricing: 40% of savings secured by the app annually.
Apart from this percentage fee Truebill has a free plan for limited features, while the premium plans range from $3 to $12 per month or an annual cost of either $36 or $48 per year.
Website: www.truebill.com
Honourable mentions: Subby, Subscro, Substly.
Any of these tools can be really helpful in managing your subscriptions, monitoring your spending and saving valuable time and money, especially if you have a lot of subscriptions.
I hope someone finds this useful and bids goodbye to unwanted subscriptions especially the free trials that we sometimes forget to cancel .
Cheers!
