Streaming services, cloud storage, app upgrades, a free trial that quietly turned paid. Recurring charges are easy to start and easy to forget.

This week's tool is one you probably already have: a general-purpose AI assistant, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot. They're good at a tedious job most people never do, which is reading months of transactions and spotting the patterns.

Step 1: Export your transactions

Log in to your bank and card accounts on a computer and download the last three months of transactions as a spreadsheet file, usually labeled CSV or Excel. Three months is enough to catch monthly charges and some quarterly ones. Do this for every card and account you use for online purchases.

Step 2: Strip out the sensitive parts

Before you share anything, open the file and delete what the AI doesn't need. Keep only the date, merchant name and amount. Remove account numbers, card numbers, your name, your address and running balances.

Never paste in your Social Security number, full account or card numbers, passwords or login codes. No budgeting task requires them.

It's also worth checking your AI tool's privacy settings. Many let you turn off the option that uses your conversations to train future models.

Step 3: Ask the right question

Upload the cleaned file, or paste the rows, and try a prompt like this:

"Here are my transactions for the last three months. List every charge that looks recurring, such as subscriptions, memberships or automatic payments. For each, show the merchant, the amount, how often it repeats, and the total I'd pay over a year. Flag any that increased in price or that look like duplicates."

The yearly total is the eye-opener. A $14.99 monthly charge doesn't feel like much until you see it as about $180 a year.

Step 4: Check the AI's work

AI assistants can misread merchant names or miss charges that bill under a parent company's name. Treat the list as a starting point. Match each item against your actual statement before you cancel anything.

Look especially for duplicates, such as two music services, or the same service billed on two different cards, and for price increases you never noticed.

Step 5: Cancel the right way

Start by canceling directly with the company, through its website, app or customer service. Save the confirmation email or number.

If a company keeps charging you after you cancel, you have tools. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that you can revoke a company's permission to debit your account by notifying both the company and your bank. You can also ask your bank for a stop-payment order, which needs to be placed at least three business days before the scheduled payment. Banks often charge a fee for that. And if money is taken after you revoked permission, tell your bank promptly and dispute it.

One caution: canceling automatic payments doesn't cancel a contract, and it doesn't erase what you owe on a loan.

Why it matters

Companies have every reason to make signing up easy and leaving hard. The Federal Trade Commission tried to fix that with a nationwide "click-to-cancel" rule, but a federal appeals court struck it down in July 2025. Some states have their own automatic-renewal laws, but there is no single national standard. That makes your own review the most reliable protection.

Other jobs the same trick handles

Once your cleaned file is loaded, you can ask follow-up questions. Have the AI group your spending into categories, show which merchants you pay most often, or compare this quarter with the last. Ask it to show its math so you can check the totals against your statement.

Make it a habit

Put a reminder on your calendar to repeat this every three or six months. It takes less time the second time, and the AI does the boring part.

Sources: CFPB on automatic debit payments · Greenberg Traurig on the click-to-cancel ruling (July 2025)

Beyond the Bank is for informational purposes only and is not financial, legal, or investment advice.

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