Subscription Recovery

Subscription Recovery

IRON LAW: Never cancel, dispute, or contact a merchant about a service until the
user has named that specific service and the specific outcome they want for it.
A subscription appearing in a discovery list is not authorization to act on it.

Prerequisites

• Claude in Chrome browser extension connected, for any service checked or acted on in-browser. If mcp__claude-in-chrome__* tools aren't loaded yet, fetch them via ToolSearch first.
• Unlike amazon-returns-recovery, there is no single account to sweep, discovery depends on what the user can provide (a bank/card statement, app access, or just naming what they remember paying for) and what platform-level subscription hubs are available (App Store, Google Play, PayPal).
• Unvalidated click-paths. Only the App Store, Google Play, and PayPal hub pages in Phase 1a are close to a fixed, checkable URL. Every individual service's own billing/cancellation page (Netflix, Spotify, a gym's member portal, etc.) has to be discovered live and should be recorded in references/service-playbook.md once confirmed, so the next run doesn't rediscover it from scratch.

Phase 1a: Platform subscription hubs (read-only, no side effects)

These three cover a large share of subscriptions in one page each, because the platform (not the individual service) is the merchant of record:

1. Apple App Store (iOS/iPadOS/Mac subscriptions bought through Apple's in-app-purchase flow, many streaming apps route here instead of billing directly): https://apps.apple.com/account/subscriptions (requires Apple ID sign-in) or on-device: Settings → [Apple ID] → Subscriptions.
2. Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions, same idea for Android-purchased subscriptions.
3. PayPal recurring payments: https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay/: lists every merchant with standing authorization to charge the account, including ones that don't show up anywhere else (a common blind spot: an old free trial that converted, billed via PayPal, with no reminder email ever opened).

Each of these lists service name, price, billing cadence, and next charge date, and each has a direct cancel button on the same page: no negotiation needed for a straight cancellation found here.

Phase 1b: Bank/card statement scan (read-only, no side effects)

If the user can share a recent statement (PDF, CSV export, or even a screenshot of the transaction list), scan for recurring merchant names and amounts: the same charge appearing monthly/annually from the same merchant is the signal. This catches services that bill directly (Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, a gym, a SaaS tool) and aren't visible through the Phase 1a hubs. Ask for the statement rather than guessing; don't assume access to financial accounts.

Phase 1c: Ask directly

Ask the user what else they know they're paying for that Phase 1a/1b didn't surface: people usually remember 60-70% of their subscriptions when prompted but forget the rest until specifically asked. This is often faster than a statement scan for a first pass, and worth doing even after one.

Phase 1d: Amazon carve-out

If a subscription turns out to be Amazon-billed (Prime Video Channels, Audible, Kindle Unlimited, Prime itself), don't handle it here, hand off to amazon-returns-recovery's Phase 1b, which already documents those pages.

Phase 2: Confirm with the user

HALT. Discovery is over and nothing has been canceled, disputed, or contacted. Present the findings, then wait for the user. No service is acted on unless the user names it, silence, "sounds good," or a general go-ahead is not a naming.

Report every subscription found as a plain list: service, price, billing cadence, next charge date, and usage signal if known (last opened, last watched, last attended). Ask which ones to pursue and what outcome they want per service: cancel only, cancel and ask for the last charge back, or dispute a specific charge without canceling (e.g. billed twice in one month). Some subscriptions may turn out to still be wanted: don't assume every finding is a mistake, and say so if one looks intentional.