The Fixed Costs Check: How to Find Forgotten Subscriptions and Contracts

Fixed costs are sneaky. Once signed up, they keep running quietly in the background, month after month, year after year. The free trial nobody remembered to cancel. The phone plan that hasn't been compared in five years. The insurance that was "picked up" along with a new bank account.

The upside: cleaning up fixed costs once doesn't save just once, it saves every single month, without giving anything up in daily life.

Step 1: Put everything on the table

Go through the bank statements for the last twelve months, not just last month. Many contracts are charged quarterly, twice a year or annually, so they don't show up in any single month. Think car insurance, home contents insurance, the credit card's annual fee, a domain renewal or a yearly software licence.

Check the credit card statements and PayPal too. Digital subscriptions in particular often run through them.

Step 2: Make a complete list

Write down every recurring item, with its amount, how often it's charged and the date it goes out. Sort them roughly:

• Housing: rent, service charges, electricity, gas, internet, TV licence fee (the Rundfunkbeitrag in Germany, the ORF fee in Austria)
• Insurance: home contents, liability, car, legal protection, supplementary health cover
• Transport: public transport pass (such as Austria's Klimaticket or Germany's Deutschlandticket), car lease, parking space
• Communication: phone plan, landline
• Subscriptions & memberships: streaming, music, cloud storage, newspapers, gym, clubs, apps
• Saving & pensions: standing orders to a savings account, investment savings plans

Break annual amounts down to a monthly figure. Only then does it become clear what each contract really costs per month, and the total surprises most people.

Step 3: Test every item with three questions

Go through the list line by line:

1. Is this still in use? When was that streaming service last opened? Did anyone go to the gym last month?
2. Does it have to be this plan? Would a cheaper tier do? A family plan shared with others? A version with ads?
3. Is it available cheaper? For phone, internet, electricity and insurance especially, it pays to compare every year or two.

A tried-and-tested trick for streaming: rotate instead of stacking. Rather than paying for four services at once, subscribe to one for a month or two, watch the shows, cancel, and then move on to the next.

Step 4: Cancel, and do it now

The most dangerous sentence in any fixed costs check is: "I'll cancel that next week." Cancellations are best handled straight away, while the motivation is still there.

A few pointers:

• Note the notice periods: For contracts with a minimum term, write down the end date so there's time to act.
• Use the cancellation button: In Germany, since July 2022, contracts signed online must also be cancellable online through a clearly visible cancellation button.
• Keep the confirmation: Save cancellation confirmations as a screenshot or PDF.
• Switch instead of cancelling: For electricity or insurance, the new provider will often handle the cancellation.

Step 5: Keep fixed costs in view for good

The check pays off most when it isn't a one-off. It makes sense to keep fixed costs permanently in the budget book, so a new subscription or a price increase stands out right away.

In Money Koi, this is done with recurring bookings: enter the amount and how often it repeats, and the app books it automatically on the right date. Reminders for due bills give a heads-up before a payment goes out, and the calendar view shows what's coming. That has two benefits:

• The annual insurance payment no longer comes as a surprise.
• The fixed costs view in Analytics (in Pro) shows how much of the monthly spending is fixed.

That share is revealing: if it's very high, there's little room each month, no matter how carefully the supermarket shopping is done. That's exactly where to start.

How often should the check be done?

A thorough check once a year is enough for most people. The start of the year is a good moment, since many annual fees are due then anyway. It's also worth a quick look whenever a price increase lands in the inbox. It often comes with a special right to cancel.

The bottom line

A fixed costs check takes one afternoon and works all year. List everything, break annual amounts down to monthly ones, question every item honestly, cancel straight away, and then keep fixed costs visible in the budget book. That way, nothing creeps in unnoticed again.

Money Koi helps keep fixed costs and subscriptions in view, with recurring bookings, reminders and a preview of upcoming bills, plus a fixed costs overview in Analytics with Pro. The budget book itself is free for Android on Google Play and needs no account; with Cloud, it also opens in the browser at my.moneykoi.com. iOS is planned for the end of 2026.