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Money Drain: $90 Lost by Forgetting About an Auto-Renewal

In college I frequented several book stores like Barnes and Nobles. I thought to save money I would agree to a membership to one of these book stores because I was always looking at books and music. After a time I was decidedly more frugal than before and stopped most of my spending except for necessities. What I didn’t do, however, was remove one of my auto-renewals, namely the book store membership. When renewal came around, I only had a few bucks in my account (poor college student), and the renewal came through, overdrafting my account. Not realizing this, and next day being pay day, I had a few other scheduled transactions come out on top of the overdraft, resulting in 2 more overdrafts complete with fees. Overall it cost me about $90 for a subscription I no longer use, and was certainly not getting my moneys worth now 🙁

– Submitted by: Emily K

Lesson Learned:
Auto renewals can be tricky. On one hand, I have no problem with them because I keep track of all auto-renewals in my MS Money. Things like, domain renewals, hosting fees, car insurance premiums, etc. On the other hand, if you don’t keep track of them, they can really bite you in the butt unsuspectingly. So really the advice here is, if you keep track, then auto-renewals are fine. If you don’t keep track, then it’s certainly not in your best interest to participate in them.

Amount Flushed Down the Money Drain: $90

About Crystal Groves, Google+

Crystal Groves is a farmer, web developer, musician, blogger, and personal finance enthusiast from the back hills of Maryland and Pennsylvania. She started Money Drain as a project to encourage people interested in fixing their financial situation to share their stories and learn from the stories of others. We all make mistakes, but in order to change we have to make changes.

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