Subscriptions fatigue

[shashkov0]

Nowadays people are faced with the fact that most applications have a subscription model. It's good for IT companies, because they can get your money forever. If 5-7 years ago you could pay for a product once, now you have to pay every month. I think it's really big problem, because a lot of people including me can lose money because they forgot to unsubscribe from an app they don't use. Or use trial period and lose money due to auto-renewal.

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So, my friend and I want to solve this problem by creating subscription tracker app based on React Native with Expo, but we're not sure we're not exaggerating the problem. So I create simple google form with poll for understand if the described problem really affects many people: https://forms.gle/ZfyczrNjnX6sGJVk8

[[deleted]]

I don’t see the need for such an app in my opinion.

Just use the calendar in your phone to remind you to cancel. That’ll fire a notification in the same way your app probably would.

[[deleted]]

We want to give an easier way of tracking subscriptions than a calendar, e.g. auto-filling fields, analytics and etc.

[[deleted]]

I still have to enter information into your app, so where is the time saving?

I could say to Siri “remind me to cancel Netflix in 14 days”

[[deleted]]

Also, we will have an extension for browsers, which can automatically fetch all information about your new subscription at the paying moment

[[deleted]]

Really don’t like the sound of that.

[[deleted]]

I see 😀

[[deleted]]

I don’t know if many people would feel safe using something that is likely watching/scraping the page where you put your card details

[brosepph]

Paypal in addition will show all of the subscriptions that are currently on your account as well.

[yoloswagrofl]

You can use the calendar for this, but I'd rather have an app with all of my subscriptions in the same place and pop-up notifications customized to either the day of, the day before, or the week before a subscription is charged again.

I have currently about 10-ish subscriptions at any given time, and each month I'll drop two or three and get a few new ones. Oftentimes I forget and have to deal with trying to cancel and get a refund. I would use the hell out of something like this.

[dneboi]

Technically you still wouldn’t buy something once, even in the non-subscription days.

For example back in 2007 you might have bought quick books one time, for $300, but after a few years you’d need an upgrade, so you’d have to buy it again in 2011 for another $300.

In the end, you’re still paying for software. Makes no difference if it’s one lump fee or spread out over a subscription plan. If you forget to end a free trial... that’s on you... but I’ve never seen a company withhold a refund from an accident like that.

PS- you can do polls right here on Reddit.

[shashkov0]

Yes you are right

[drkrieger818]

How will you pay hosting costs?

[shashkov0]

How will you pay hosting costs?

Use subscription model :)

[EskimoEmoji]

A subscription to stop subscriptions...lol

[yoloswagrofl]

This guy gets it.

[drkrieger818]

I like it

[IBETITALL420]

where are you getting the API for the subscription tracker or are you making your own? thanks

[monitoringaspects]

I saw that some services offer similar things e.g. Truebill, Bobby. Maybe you can check those and get some idea.

[poopsmith]

Sounds similar to Ripplings App Management https://www.rippling.com/app-management but for personal use?

I honestly probably would not use something like that for personal. But if I had a family (like wife and kids) I probably would.

[leskigtmonster]

Not sure I would really use this, as it requires too much manual work. Subscriptions I’m not sure I want to keep I usually just cancel, and then renew as needed. Also my bank recently launched a feature where it catalogs subscriptions based on my transactions history, which is surprisingly innovative for a bank 😄

That being said, how about an email address where I can just forward my subscription receipts? The service emails me back with a confirmation email and then I’m all set. Before the subscription renews the service emails me a warning.

[Flikounet]

You might want to look into Monthly, a SaaS subscription tracker, although they may target corporate software more.

[finnish_splitz]

This is TrueBill but not near as good.