As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly find forgotten subscriptions you are paying for.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your current and recent bank and card statements, then export the transaction lists as CSV or copy the relevant rows into a document.
   2. Remove full account numbers, card numbers, passwords, security codes and any other information that is not needed to identify the merchant, date and amount.
   3. Paste the cleaned transaction data into a chatbot and use the prompt above, including the statement period and whether the data covers bank accounts, cards or both.
   4. Save the model's high-confidence and uncertain lists, then compare every listed payment with the original statements to confirm the merchant, dates and amounts.
   5. For each possible subscription, search your email receipts, app store subscriptions, supplier accounts and direct debit details to confirm what the payment is for and whether it is still wanted.
   6. Contact the supplier or your bank using its official channel before cancelling, disputing or blocking a payment, and record the action and date for each confirmed subscription.

   Prompt

   Analyse the attached or pasted UK bank and card transactions for forgotten or potentially unwanted subscriptions. Use only the transactions I provide and do not invent merchants, dates, amounts or billing frequencies. First, identify likely recurring payments by grouping similar merchant names and looking for repeated amounts or repeated timing. Include direct debits, standing orders and card payments where the data supports this, and flag payments that may be annual or irregular renewals. Return a table with: merchant as shown, normalised merchant name, payment type if apparent, dates found, amounts found, likely frequency, confidence level, and why it may be a subscription. Keep uncertain matches separate from high-confidence matches. Do not treat insurance, utilities, rent, council tax, debt repayments or other essential household payments as forgotten subscriptions unless I explicitly ask you to include them. Add a second list of transactions that need checking because the merchant name is unclear or the pattern is incomplete. Do not tell me to cancel anything automatically. For each likely subscription, give a practical verification action, such as checking the merchant website, email receipts, my app store subscriptions or my bank's direct debit details. Do not ask for or retain full account numbers, card numbers, passwords or security codes. This is not professional advice. I will compare your findings with my current accounts and contact the supplier or my bank before cancelling or disputing a payment.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.