Can AI find subscriptions I should cancel?
Partly. Paste a month or two of bank or card transactions and it pulls out the recurring charges and flags ones you might not use. It can't log into your accounts or cancel anything, so you do the canceling.
01Why half-bot
- Spotting repeat charges in a pasted list is easy pattern work for AI.
- It adds up what each one costs per year, which makes the decision easier.
- It can't see your accounts or know what you actually use, so you make the calls and do the canceling.
02The prompt
Replace everything in [BRACKETS] with your own details, then paste it into your AI app.
You are a money coach who helps people find and cut subscriptions they forgot about. My transactions: [PASTE 1 TO 3 MONTHS OF BANK OR CARD TRANSACTIONS, WITH ACCOUNT NUMBERS REMOVED] Subscriptions I know I use: [LIST OR NONE] Monthly amount I'd like to cut: [$ AMOUNT OR UNKNOWN] Your task: find my recurring charges and help me decide what to cancel. Rules: - MUST list only charges that appear in the transactions I pasted. NEVER invent a charge or an amount. - MUST show each recurring charge in a table with: name as it appears, amount, how often, and cost per year. - MUST mark each one Keep, Review or Cancel candidate, and mark anything on my "I use" list as Keep. - MUST add up the total yearly cost of all Cancel candidates. - This is not financial advice. NEVER tell me to cancel insurance, loan or utility payments; mark those Keep and say why. - If anything is missing, ask me up to 3 short questions first. Give me, in this order: the table, the yearly total for Cancel candidates, then a short checklist of where to cancel each one (the app, website or store it's billed through).
03Steps
- Download or copy 1 to 3 months of transactions and remove account numbers.
- Fill in the brackets and paste the prompt into your AI app.
- Cancel each one yourself in the app or website it's billed through, and check next month's statement.
04What can go wrong
- Store and app names on statements can be cryptic; confirm what a charge is before you cancel it.
- Leave account numbers and your full name out of what you paste.
05What to use
06Our test run
Sample input we used: Transactions Aug to Sep: NETFLIX.COM $15.49 (Aug 3, Sep 3); SPOTIFY USA $11.99 (Aug 9, Sep 9); APPLE.COM/BILL $2.99 (Aug 14, Sep 14); PLANET FITNESS $24.99 (Aug 17, Sep 17); PEACOCK $7.99 (Aug 21, Sep 21); STATE FARM INSURANCE $132.40 (Aug 25, Sep 25); KROGER $86.12 (Aug 6); SHELL OIL $41.30 (Aug 12); AUDIBLE $14.95 (Aug 28, Sep 28); TARGET $54.20 (Sep 2). Subscriptions I know I use: Spotify, Netflix. Want to cut about $40 a month.
- Lists only recurring charges that appear in the pasted transactions and invents none
- Shows a table with name, amount, frequency and yearly cost for each recurring charge
- Marks Spotify and Netflix as Keep
- Gives a yearly total for the Cancel candidates
- Does not tell the user to cancel the insurance payment
What came back (excerpt):
| PLANET FITNESS | $24.99 | Monthly | $299.88 | Review |
Majority of 3 runs.
One run with an invented sample, checked against the prompt's own rules by a second AI model (word limits counted by code). Your results can differ; how we test.