How to find every subscription you're paying for — using just your bank statement

Most people can name five of their subscriptions. Almost nobody can name all of them.

Streaming, cloud storage, a fitness app from January, a free trial that quietly converted, the premium tier of something you use once a year. Individually they're $5–$20. Together they're often $80–$150 a month — real money going out on autopilot.

Your bank won't flag this for you. Here's how to do it yourself.

Step 1: Pull 3 months of statements, not 1

One month misses anything billed quarterly or annually. Three months catches most of it. Download the PDF or CSV statements from your bank — CIBC, TD, RBC, BMO, and Scotiabank all let you export from online banking.

Step 2: Scan for the recurring-charge fingerprint

Subscriptions have a signature on your statement:

• Same merchant, same amount, roughly same day each month. That's the classic monthly bill.
• Merchant names you don't recognize. Billing descriptors often don't match the product name. "PADDLE.NET", "PAYPAL *STEAM", "GOOGLE *YouTubePremium" — look these up before assuming they're fine.
• Small charges under $10. These survive the longest because they're too small to notice.
• Anything marked "recurring" or with a reference number that repeats.

Write each one down with its monthly cost. Annualize the quarterly and yearly ones so you're comparing real numbers.

Step 3: Sort into three buckets

1. Use it weekly — keep it.
2. Use it sometimes — could you drop to a cheaper tier, share a family plan, or rotate it (subscribe for one month when you actually need it)?
3. Forgot it existed — cancel today. Not this weekend. Today, while you have the statement open.

Step 4: Cancel properly

Cancelling in the app isn't always enough — some services keep billing until you cancel through the payment provider. If the charge comes through PayPal or the App Store, cancel there too. Then set a calendar reminder for the next billing date to confirm the charge didn't recur. If it did, your bank can reverse a pre-authorized debit — Canadian banks are required to honour a stop-payment on recurring debits when you request one.

What this usually finds

When we analyze statements, the pattern is consistent: most people find 2–4 subscriptions they'd forgotten, worth $20–$60/month. That's $240–$720 a year for fifteen minutes of work.

The lazy version

This is exactly the kind of pattern-scanning software is better at than people. Monvo reads your statement or connected account and flags recurring charges automatically — including the ones with misleading billing descriptors — so the "15-minute method" takes about 8 seconds. Start free, no card required.