Quick test: how many things renew in your name each year, and on what dates? If you hesitated, you are normal — and almost certainly paying at least one renewal you would cancel if it asked permission. This audit finds them all in about fifteen minutes, using places you already have access to.
Minutes 0–3: search your inbox
Run these searches in your email, one by one: “renewal”, “renews on”, “auto-renew”, “expiry”, “expires”, “invoice”, “payment receipt”. Registrars and services have been telling you the truth all along, one email at a time. Star or list every hit that describes an ongoing charge or an expiry date.
Minutes 3–6: check the dashboards
Open every registrar account you have ever used (search your password manager for “registrar”, “domain”, “hosting”) and list every domain, its expiry date and its renewal price. Do the same in hosting client areas. Note which domains sit at high-renewal registrars — those are transfer candidates per our price table.
Minutes 6–10: follow the money
Scan the last 13 months of card and bank statements for annual charges. Thirteen months matters: yearly subscriptions hide outside a 12-month window. Flag anything you don’t recognise — small charges are the ones that survive for years.
Minutes 10–13: the forgotten categories
- SSL certificates not covered by free auto-renewing options.
- Software and apps: subscriptions in the App Store / Play Store subscription pages, plus desktop software licences.
- SaaS tools: VPNs, cloud storage, password managers, design and AI tools on annual plans.
- Offline renewals: insurance policies, licences, memberships — anything with a date on a letter in a drawer.
Minutes 13–15: build the master list, set the reminders
Write one list — a note, a sheet, anything you will actually keep — with five columns: item, provider, expiry date, renewal price, keep or cancel. Then set a calendar reminder — 30, 7 and 1 day out — for every “keep”, and cancel every zombie on the spot while the tab is still open. Consolidate domains into one flat-price registrar the same week, while the list is fresh.