David McManus says check those online services

Last week I needed to transfer some money online so I embarked upon the familiar ritual of logging into my bank’s website, typing in my extra long password incorrectly at least once, dismissing all the offers, clicking past the ‘important notices’ that are also really only offers and finally reaching the page that listed my accounts.

I need to make a confession at this point; I am not particularly diligent when it comes to checking statements. I always have an approximate idea of my current account balance so when I see the figure as a whole, that will normally suffice.

But having a few moments to kill, I idly clicked the ‘View recent statement’ link.

I could complain that it is the paperless manner in which bank statements are now delivered that stops me from keeping an active eye on them, but I never really did it when they dropped through the letterbox each month, either.

Looking down the ‘Out’ column of the statement for the previous period, I raised both eyebrows at just how much I was forking out for various online services and subscriptions. It seems I have been lured by the temptation of free trials that become fully paid when they run out and a quick totting up revealed the damage.

Since the beginning of the year I have started paying monthly instalments of £7 for Netflix, £8 for Audible and £8 for Kindle Unlimited. Add to that the existing commitment of £12 a month for my daily digital newspaper, £10 for Spotify, £6 for Amazon Prime and a recent upgrade on my mobile contract to give me the data allowance to actually stream all this stuff and it comes to over £600 a year – not to mention all those one-off app purchases.

This genuinely came as a major shock.

The real point is that there are often whole months that go by when I don’t even use some of these services and when I do I am almost routinely disappointed in what they have to offer. Netflix gave me the opportunity to binge on Battlestar Galactica and be disappointed in the ending all over again, but after that I spend most of my time browsing through its recommendations trying to find something worthwhile. It’s the modern equivalent of channel surfing.

At the start of the summer I thought the Kindle Unlimited service seemed like a good idea for all those lazy sunny hours but have been hugely disappointed with the books available (and the hours of sun). Far from ‘unlimited’, they are actually restricted to self-published titles that usually go for a couple of quid anyway. That is a lot of reading to get your money’s worth each month.

Certain things I would not want to do without. That early morning iPad perusal of The Guardian over cups of tea, a streamed music library and the patience-saving, next-day delivery of Amazon Prime will have to stay. I use them heavily and they are definitely worth the outlay.

The others I have cancelled, saving myself a considerable sum in the process.

These seemingly small amounts soon add up without you realising it. Regular audits are to be recommended.