How to cancel subscriptions and direct debits in Israel

Recurring payments are built to be forgotten. Once you agree to the first charge, the rest arrive on their own, month after month, on whichever card or account you used that day. A 2022 survey of 1,000 US adults by C+R Research, reported by FOX 13, found that 42% had forgotten about a subscription they were still paying for.

In Israel there are three places these charges hide: standing orders on your bank account, recurring charges on your credit cards, and subscriptions billed through Apple or Google. This guide covers all three. Details vary by bank and provider, so treat the steps as a general map and check your own bank’s app.

Before cancelling anything, find everything. Set aside an hour with three months of statements:

• Bank account: look for the list of active standing orders (hora’ot keva) in your bank’s app or website. Most banks show them in one place, with the beneficiary and amount.
• Each credit card: scan three months of card statements for merchants that repeat at a similar amount. Do not forget yearly renewals, which only appear once.
• App stores: on iPhone, Settings → your name → Subscriptions. On Android, Google Play → Payments & subscriptions.

Write each one down with its monthly cost. The subscription cost calculator turns that list into a yearly total, which is often the moment people decide to act.

Standing orders for things like gyms, insurance, donations and some utilities are authorised from your bank account. In most Israeli banks you can view and cancel them in the app or on the website, under standing orders or direct debits; otherwise your branch can do it.

Two tips:

• Cancel with the provider too. Cancelling the standing order stops the payment, but if you still have a contract, the provider may treat it as non-payment. Tell them in writing that you are ending the service.
• Keep the confirmation. A screenshot or the cancellation reference is enough.

For a service billed to your credit card, the cleanest route is to cancel with the provider: in your account settings online, by email or by phone. Keep the confirmation.

If a provider keeps charging after you cancelled, contact your card company. Card companies take this seriously: the Bank of Israel has fined a card company for charging transactions on a cancelled card. Ask the card company how to dispute the charge and block the merchant.

Remember instalment purchases (tashlumim) are not subscriptions. They are a single purchase split into payments, and they continue until paid off.

• iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → choose the subscription → Cancel Subscription.
• Android: Google Play → profile → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → choose it → Cancel.

Deleting an app does not cancel its subscription. You have to cancel it in the store.

When you go through your list, these are the charges people most often forget:

• Streaming and music, especially extra profiles or a second service you signed up for to watch one show.
• Phone add-ons such as roaming packages, extra data or content services billed through your mobile provider.
• Cloud storage on more than one platform.
• Gym and studio memberships, which often renew automatically, and some require notice to cancel.
• Insurance add-ons bundled with a card, a phone or an appliance.
• Donations and memberships set up by standing order years ago.
• Free trials that turned into paid plans.

Also check for duplicates: two family members paying separately for the same service, or a family plan alongside an individual one.

For each charge, ask two questions: did I use it in the last month, and would I sign up again today at this price? If the answer is no, cancel it. If it is “sometimes”, look for a cheaper plan or a yearly price.

Watch for price rises too. Streaming and software prices change regularly, and the email announcing it is easy to miss. Comparing this month’s charge with last month’s is the only reliable way to catch it.

Doing this once a year is good. Not having to do it is better. A few habits help:

• Put free-trial end dates in your calendar the day you sign up.
• Pay for subscriptions with one card, so they are all in one statement.
• Review recurring charges every quarter, not just once a year.

Or let software keep the list for you. Balance finds recurring charges automatically from the statements you import and the Apple Pay payments it logs, shows what each costs per month and per year, flags when a price goes up and reminds you before the next charge. It never connects to your bank, so cancelling stays in your hands.