An ING survey found that Australians take an average of nine months to cancel a subscription they've stopped using. Nine months of charges for something you forgot existed. Across the country, that adds up to more than $8 billion per year in payments for services nobody is using.
The thing is, forgotten subscriptions don't look like big purchases. They look like $7 here, $15 there. Small enough to scroll past in your banking app, large enough to matter when you add them up.
These are the ten that catch people out most often.
1. Gym memberships
The classic. You sign up in January with genuine intentions, go three times a week for a month, then taper off by March. The direct debit keeps running because cancelling requires visiting the gym in person (ironic, given you stopped going), filling out a form, and waiting out a notice period.
Australian gym members spend an average of $81 per month. Finder research found that 17% of Australians with a gym membership have never actually gone, costing the country $1.9 billion annually in unused memberships alone.
Annual cost: ~$972
If you need to get out of a contract, see our guide to cancelling a gym membership in Australia.
2. Free trials that quietly converted
Apple TV+, YouTube Premium, Paramount+. They all offer free trials that require a credit card upfront. The conversion rate on opt-out trials (where you have to remember to cancel) is roughly double that of opt-in trials. That gap is not because twice as many people love the product. It's because people forget.
38% of Australians say their most common reason for overspending on subscriptions is forgetting to cancel a trial before it auto-renewed.
Annual cost: $60-$240 depending on the service
Cancel guides: Apple TV+ | YouTube Premium | Paramount+
3. News paywalls
You hit a paywall on an SMH article about the housing market. You signed up for "$1 for the first month." That was eight months ago. You've read maybe two articles since. The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, and the AFR all use introductory pricing that jumps to $30-$40/month after the trial. Most people don't notice the jump because the charge is small enough to blend into a bank statement.
Annual cost: $360-$480
Cancel guides: SMH | The Australian | News Corp
4. Cloud storage upgrades
You ran out of iCloud space, upgraded to the 200GB plan for $4.49/month, backed up your photos, and never thought about it again. Google One works the same way. These are the stealthiest subscriptions because the service genuinely works in the background. You never open an app, never see a login screen. The charge just recurs, indefinitely, for storage you might not need anymore.
Annual cost: $36-$54
Cancel guides: iCloud storage | Google One
5. AI tools
2023 and 2024 were the years everyone signed up for ChatGPT Plus, Midjourney, or Copilot Pro. You wanted to see what the fuss was about. The novelty wore off after a few weeks, but the $30-$50/month charge didn't. AI subscriptions are particularly easy to forget because many people signed up during a specific wave of curiosity, used the tool intensely for a short period, then moved on without cancelling.
Annual cost: $360-$600
Cancel guide: ChatGPT Plus
6. The third (or fourth) streaming service
Most people can name their main one or two streaming services. It's the third and fourth that slip through. You signed up for Binge to watch one series, or kept Kayo running through the off-season, or forgot Stan was still active after you finished that show everyone was talking about.
A YouGov survey found that 42% of respondents had stopped using at least one subscription but kept paying for it. Streaming is the most common category.
Annual cost: $120-$300 per forgotten service
Cancel guides: Netflix | Stan | Binge | Kayo | Disney+
7. VPN subscriptions
You signed up for NordVPN or ExpressVPN before an overseas trip so you could watch Australian content abroad. The trip ended. The VPN stayed. Many VPN providers default to annual billing, which means the renewal hits as a single lump sum twelve months later. By then you've completely forgotten you had it.
Annual cost: $80-$160
Cancel guides: NordVPN | ExpressVPN
8. Dating app premium tiers
Post-breakup Tinder Gold. Optimistic Bumble Premium. These tend to be signed up for during a specific emotional moment, used intensively for a few weeks, then abandoned. But "abandoned" does not mean "cancelled." Dating app premium tiers are billed through the App Store or Google Play, which means they don't show up as a recognisable merchant name on your bank statement. You'll see "APPLE.COM/BILL" and keep scrolling.
Annual cost: $240-$480
Cancel guide: Tinder Gold/Plus
9. Meal kit services
HelloFresh perfected this model. The first box is heavily discounted (sometimes 60% off), and the signup flow requires a credit card. The full-price boxes start shipping a week or two later at $70-$105 per week for two people. Some customers don't realise they need to actively skip or cancel each week. The ACCC sued HelloFresh in late 2025, alleging over 100,000 Australians were charged after attempting to cancel.
Annual cost: $3,640-$5,460 at full price (2 people, 3 meals/week)
Cancel guide: HelloFresh
10. Software you stopped using
Adobe Creative Cloud ($22.99-$86.49/month), Grammarly Premium ($30/month), Dropbox Plus ($17.49/month), LinkedIn Premium ($47.99/month). You signed up because you needed the tool for a specific project or job application. The project ended. The subscription didn't. Software subscriptions are especially sticky because they often lock you into annual plans with early termination fees. Adobe's annual-plan-billed-monthly structure means cancelling mid-year costs you 50% of the remaining months.
Annual cost: $200-$1,040 depending on the tool
Cancel guides: Adobe | Grammarly | Dropbox | LinkedIn Premium
The total
If you had just one subscription from each of these ten categories at the low end, the combined annual cost would be over $5,000. Most people have at least three or four of them running right now without realising it.
Pick any three from this list and you're likely looking at $1,000-$2,000 per year in charges for things you don't use. That's a return flight to Bali. That's six months of groceries for one person. That's real money, leaking out $15 at a time.
The reason these subscriptions survive is not that you decided to keep them. It's that you never decided to cancel them. There's a difference, and companies know it.
Recognised a few? Upload a bank statement and find out exactly how many of these are on your card.
Most people find 3-5 subscriptions they forgot about when they actually look. Upload a bank statement to Subtracker and see every recurring charge in 2 minutes. No bank login. No manual entry. $12.99 once.
See what you're paying forChris Raad
Chris is the founder of Subtracker. He built this tool after experiencing the pain of discovering thousands of dollars in unused SaaS sprawl just before tax time.