What’s the best way to manage your subscriptions? And how do most people actually handle all their regular payments?
The truth is most people simply don’t manage their regular payments. It’s no surprise that more than 50% of all people in the UK pay for stuff they don’t use, according to yougov.co.uk.
There are several ways to track and manage your regular payments. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the different options and how you can best save money.
Manual tracking
Most people who track their regular payments manually do so through Excel spreadsheets or a calendar.
Excel spreadsheet
Using a spreadsheet involves quite a lot of work and is not the best solution for everyone. The distinct advantage (and disadvantage) is that you need to keep a close eye on all your payments to make sure you don’t miss anything. This can help you think more about the need for each subscription. The obvious disadvantage is the time it takes and the lack of accuracy if you miss a subscription or payment.
Calendar
Using a calendar is a good way to keep track of when payments are due or ensure you receive a notification before you are charged for a free trial. If you’re looking for a quick solution to make sure you know when your contracts expire or renew, this may be the best option.
Manual tracking using apps
There are some subscription trackers that give you the benefits of manually tracking in a spreadsheet and using your own calendar. These are very useful tools that allow you easily manage your subscriptions. It is still time consuming but certainly easier to use than an Excel spreadsheet. However, the biggest disadvantage is the manual set-up, which is not only time-consuming but also error-prone.
The best apps for manual tracking are Bobby, Subby and TrackMySubs.
All manual approaches lack 2 important features that only an automated solution offers. They are the additional insights and the potential savings.
Automated solution
Breviusapp is a subscription manager with all the benefits that a manual tracker cannot offer you. Compared to other automated solutions, Brevius is free and fully dedicated to subscription and recurring payment management. It’s very easy to use, you connect your bank accounts and everything else is done automatically. The app shows you all your subscriptions (even the ones you don’t even know about), past payments and upcoming payments. You can connect as many bank accounts as you want, so there’s no way you can miss a subscription.
The biggest advantage to all other solutions is the huge savings potential. With a single click you can let them know to cancel a subscription for you. Any subscription in fact.
Brevius also negotiates better prices for you with your current provider. It’s all done by the app while you sit back, relax and save money.