The Bobby App Keeps Track of Your Subscriptions for You
iOS: If you’re like me, you’ve been bitten by a junk subscription draining money from your checking account long after you forgot to cancel your free trial. If you want to finally sort out all of your subscriptions without going into bank statements, take a look at Bobby . It’s an iOS app that lets you track multiple subscriptions to see how much money you spend each month. All it takes is a little bit of work to get started (and $ 1.99 in-app purchase for certain options).
Before you start, you will need access to your subscriptions. You can’t connect Bobby with services like your bank yet (support coming), but adding subscriptions manually is (at least for me) part of Bobby’s appeal. I would prefer not to provide my banking information to a startup that has no experience in properly handling protected data.
Take a few minutes to log into each of your subscription services and check your average billing cycle and fees before manually entering them into Bobby. If you’re like me, you probably have a few subscriptions that you haven’t thought of in a while (I’m looking at you, Spotify).
Bobby’s iOS app interface is easy to use. You start with an empty list, to which you can add up to five subscriptions (an in-app purchase unlocks unlimited subscription functionality). It already includes out-of-the-box subscription schedules for popular services like Netflix, Slack, Google Drive, Spotify, and dozens of others, but you can add your own custom subscriptions for accounts like rentals, gym memberships, and other recurring payments.
You can customize your subscription by adding a description, adjusting the recurring billing cycle by day, week, month, or year, and setting the duration of the subscription if it’s temporary. You can turn on reminders to always know when the next automatic payment occurs. Bobby also supports multiple currencies, just in case you pay for the service with all those euros that are hidden somewhere.
In-app purchases are available for advanced features such as unlimited subscriptions, iCloud sync and Touch ID support, or a different visual style, as well as the ability to select a customized home screen icon. You can buy them all at once and save 35% or $ 1.99 on all three.
Bobby is not perfect – he lacks the right iPad app; there is neither an Android version nor a web app component with which you can view your account in a browser. That being said, iCloud Sync support means you won’t lose your data even if you lose or update your iPhone.
After entering all my subscriptions, it took me a while to regain my composure. $ 250 per month ?! This is a lot of money down the drain, especially in the music department. Keeping all my subscriptions in one place is more than convenient – it opens my eyes.