The salary-day subscription check: 10 minutes, UAE

Why the first of the month

The u.ae government portal says salaries for the previous month are due on the first day of each Gregorian month. For most people that is the day money is available and the next month's outgoings are still ahead of you. A check done a week later is done after a renewal has already gone through.

This month the first is Sunday 1 November. The same check works on 1 December and 1 January.

Why bother: people undercount

Two surveys, neither about the UAE alone, explain the habit:

• In a YouGov survey of 17 markets, run in February 2024, 18% of UAE consumers left three of their subscriptions unused in six months, the highest share of any market surveyed.
• In a US survey by C+R Research in 2022, people guessed they spent $86 a month on subscriptions. When they listed each one, the average was $219. And 42% said they had stopped using a subscription but forgot they were still paying.

The US figures are not UAE figures, and we say so. The lesson carries: the total you guess is lower than the total you pay, and the fix is to list them.

The ten-minute check

1. Apple (2 minutes). On an iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. Apple's support page lists these steps and says that if a subscription shows an expiry message in red, it is already cancelled. Note each renewal date and amount.

2. Google Play (2 minutes). Open Settings, Google, your name, Manage your Google Account, then Payments and subscriptions, then Manage subscriptions. Google's page warns that uninstalling an app does not cancel its subscription.

3. Your card statement (3 minutes). Scroll the last month for repeat charges that are not in the first two lists: streaming, software, gyms, delivery plans, apps billed directly. Note any name you do not recognise.

4. Your phone bill (1 minute). Third-party subscriptions can be billed by your telecom provider. See why a du bill increases if a line surprises you.

5. Decide (2 minutes). For each item, answer one question: did I use this in the last month? If not, cancel it with whoever bills it. Our cancellation guide has the steps for each route.

What to write down

Keep a short list with four columns: the service, the amount, the next renewal date and who bills it. Add any free trial with its end date. Then add the bills due before your next salary: utilities, telecom and card statements. A card statement has a minimum due and a due date, and missing it has a cost: one UAE bank, Standard Chartered, lists a late payment fee of AED 241.50 including VAT, charged in addition to finance charges, if the minimum payment is not made by the due date. That is one issuer's fee, not a rule across banks.

Three things the check often finds

• A trial that became a plan. If you started a trial and forgot, the first charge is the discovery. See free-trial traps before White Friday.
• The same service twice, through Apple and directly. See forgotten and duplicate subscriptions.
• A yearly renewal you had not thought about for eleven months.

Doing it without the list

You can repeat this by hand each month, and it works. If you would rather not, Rasid builds the list from your billing email and shows what is due. Connect Gmail with read-only access and Rasid finds subscriptions and bills, shows the email each find came from, and keeps the figures, never an email's subject or body. It reminds you three days before a renewal or a due date by default, and the Home Screen widget "This month" shows, for example, "6 of 9 paid". No Gmail? Add them by hand, or import a spreadsheet, a PDF card statement or a screenshot. Rasid does not cancel or pay for you, and it never asks for a bank login.

For which apps remind you before UAE bills are due, see bill reminder apps in the UAE, and for finding everything you pay for, how to find all your subscriptions.