How to keep track of what your phone is buying

By Chris Guld, Geeks on Tour

Our phones, with Google, Apple or Samsung accounts, make it very easy to purchase things. Has anyone set up a subscription purchase and, months later, wondered what is that charge and how do I stop it? I’ve also heard from people who routinely hand their phones to their grandkids and later find charges for games they’ve never heard of. (Editor: See below for what might happen!)

Here’s how to see your charges, find what subscriptions are being paid and stop them:

Google

• To see all transactions: Open the Google Pay app on your phone, or go to Pay.Google.com on a web browser making sure you’re signed in to your Google account. View your Recent Activity, tap See more if necessary. This will show you all of the payments that have been made using your account. Tap on any single item and you will see the payment method that was used – which credit card or other account.
• To see subscriptions: On the phone you can stay in Google Pay and tap the account button in the upper right and choose “Manage your Google Account.” On a computer web browser you can go to MyAccount.Google.com. Find the Payments and subscriptions menu, then you’ll see all your subscriptions. To cancel, click Manage subscriptions and then click on the one you want to cancel until you see the option to Cancel or Deactivate.

Apple

• To see transactions: There is no consolidated list of Apple Pay transactions, but you can see recent transactions by individual credit cards being used by Apple Pay. On your phone, open Settings, Wallet and Apple Pay, tap a payment card and then Transactions.
• To see subscriptions: On your phone, open Settings then tap on the very top entry with your name, Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store, then Subscriptions. Here you will see all the subscriptions. To cancel one, just tap on it and you should see more detail, including a button to cancel.

Samsung

• To see transactions: You can see recent transactions by your payment card. On your phone, open the Samsung Pay app, tap the 3-line menu and choose Cards. Select a card and swipe up for transactions.
• To see subscriptions: I can’t find any information on viewing subscriptions with Samsung Pay. I have to assume that you can’t use Samsung Pay for subscriptions.

I highly recommend using your phone for payments. Especially in this time of Pandemic – your phone gives you a contactless method of payment. Security is also very high. When you hold your phone next to a payment terminal, you need to unlock it with your passcode or fingerprint. Your phone never sends your actual credit card number, it uses a different one-time-use number for each transaction, keeping your payment info safe.

Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She and her husband, Jim, produce a free weekly YouTube show called What Does This Button Do?  They have been Fulltime RVers, popular seminar presenters at RV Rallies, and regular contributors to RVTravel.com, for many years.

From an editor: Here’s something a friend of mine just posted on Facebook. I asked her if I could post it here as an example of the need for parental controls on digital devices. BTW, my friend is raising her rambunctious, energetic (understatement!), smart-as-a-whip, 3-year-old niece (after raising her own family) after her beautiful, amazing, warrior sister died a few months ago from cancer. Here’s her “Frozen” story:

Hanging with “the little” watching a movie and I casually check my bank account on my phone app…. There is a charge for Prime video for $22.09.🥺… So I check my Kindle Fire Stick and sure enough, my Sweet Punkie Pie bought herself the digital version of Frozen with all the bonus features! Mind you, we already own the DVD with all these things. 🤔 
Me: “Punkie, did you buy Frozen on the remote?”
Punkie: (While holding said remote that is voice-activated.) “I said ‘Buy Frozen’ and pushed the button, Auntie!! See?!!” (She is starting to activate it again for another purchase of the same movie!🤯)
Auntie: “Punkie, No!” (Snatched the remote before I owned 50 different digital versions of Frozen.) “Punkie!! Let it go!!”
😒 Maybe if I sang it to her I wouldn’t have had to chase her down the hall…

Thank you, Auntie Jeni, and Chris, for allowing me to put this in here. —Diane

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