As the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, it’s easy to be bogged down by direct debits eating into our bank accounts - from electricity and food bills, to subscriptions for Netflix or Disney+.
With so many transactions and fees to pay throughout the month, it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of all the money leaving our accounts.
If you’ve ever stopped to wonder why your outgoings are so high, you might want to have a quick sweep over your iPhone settings to make sure you’re not paying for any unexpected subscriptions.
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‘Vampire bills’ are the pesky subscriptions which could be quietly draining your bank account and eating into your hard-earned money.
Perhaps you signed up for a free trial on Amazon Prime and forgot to cancel, or maybe you paid for an Arcade game that comes with hidden costs.
Today, every small fee adds up, so it’s worth taking a look at what you’re actually paying for through your phone - and as we enter the festive season, you might decide that your money is better spent on gifts or going to the pub with friends.
For iPhone users, the remedy to ‘vampire bills’ is simple.
Your subscriptions can be easily viewed in the ‘Settings’ app.
Once there, click on your name at the top of the page, and beneath, you’ll find a handy tab named ‘Subscriptions’ where you can see everything you’ve signed up to pay for.
Each one should detail the name of the subscription along with your payment plan, as well as the date of when you will next be charged.
If you’re alarmed at the amount of subscriptions you’re funding, there’s a handy big red button which allows you to cancel them immediately - and you can often use them up until a certain date, when your subscription expires.
Of course, if you don’t mind paying the odd extra to watch your favourite show on Prime, or if you’ve become attached to that one game that takes the stress out of your day, you can always adjust the plans to pay in one go - so you’re not facing an annoying fee each month.