Find forgotten subscriptions on a credit card statement with ChatGPT
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- by Brian Foster (Glass Almanac)
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Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.
Outcome
Brian Foster exported his latest statement, redacted sensitive details in macOS Preview, and asked ChatGPT to identify all monthly charges, sort them by service, amount and frequency, and suggest which to cancel. He says it flagged the recurring charges within seconds, grouped them so he could spot ones he didn't remember or hadn't used in months, and suggested which to cancel.
Agent
Prompt Original prompt
Exact prompt as published in the source.
Here’s a document of my last credit card statement. Identify all monthly charges. Sort them by service, amount, frequency, and suggest which ones I should cancel.
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Optional stronger version
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Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Find every recurring charge on my statement and decide which subscriptions to cancel. Fill in before running: - My statement or transaction export for the last [3–12] months, with account numbers redacted - Services I know I use and want to keep: [LIST] - My monthly target saving: [AMOUNT] Rules: - List every charge that repeats (monthly, yearly, weekly), with merchant, amount, frequency and last date. - Flag free trials that turned paid, duplicate services (two music or cloud plans), and price increases. - Suggest which to cancel, but mark anything you're unsure of as 'check'. - For each one to cancel, tell me where to cancel (app store, website settings, phone) — don't try to log in yourself. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. - Remind me to redact card and account numbers before uploading, and to check next month's statement that cancelled charges stopped. Output: A table: merchant, amount, frequency, yearly cost, keep/cancel/check, where to cancel; plus the total yearly saving. You'll know it worked when: every recurring charge is listed and I have a cancel list with the yearly savings added up. Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.
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Your prompt
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Find every recurring charge on my statement and decide which subscriptions to cancel. Fill in before running: - My statement or transaction export for the last [3–12] months, with account numbers redacted - Services I know I use and want to keep: [LIST] - My monthly target saving: [AMOUNT] Rules: - List every charge that repeats (monthly, yearly, weekly), with merchant, amount, frequency and last date. - Flag free trials that turned paid, duplicate services (two music or cloud plans), and price increases. - Suggest which to cancel, but mark anything you're unsure of as 'check'. - For each one to cancel, tell me where to cancel (app store, website settings, phone) — don't try to log in yourself. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. - Remind me to redact card and account numbers before uploading, and to check next month's statement that cancelled charges stopped. Output: A table: merchant, amount, frequency, yearly cost, keep/cancel/check, where to cancel; plus the total yearly saving. You'll know it worked when: every recurring charge is listed and I have a cancel list with the yearly savings added up. Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.
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Source
https://glassalmanac.com/i-let-ai-manage-my-bank-account-to-detect-useless-charges/
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