Subscriptions vs bank-detected recurring payments

Your AI can answer "what am I paying for every month?" from two different sources. Pennyweight's own subscription detection works on any transactions you have. Your bank's recurring bills and income come from Plaid, and only after you turn them on.

New here? Read how Pennyweight works first.

The two kinds

Subscriptions (Pennyweight's detection). Pennyweight looks at the money going out in your last 365 days of transactions. It groups the charges by merchant and currency. A merchant with at least 3 charges counts when the typical gap between them fits a schedule:

The charges also have to keep to that schedule, at a steady price. Payments between your own accounts, debt and housing payments, interest charges and spending whose amount changes each time are left out. A regular bill whose amount changes, such as a power bill, comes back in a separate list instead.

This works for every account, including manual accounts and imported statements. It covers your active ledger unless you name another one.

Recurring bills and income (from your bank). Plaid detects recurring streams on a linked bank's accounts: money out, such as subscriptions and bills, and money in, such as paychecks and deposits. Pennyweight shows them only for banks where you've turned on Recurring bills & income. Bank linking is available for US banks only. See connect a US bank.

How to see them

1. Ask your AI what subscriptions you're paying for. It lists each one with its schedule, latest amount, last charge date and next expected date.
2. Ask about price increases. Pennyweight keeps each subscription's most recent price change, and your AI can check the charge history too.
3. For your bank's view, open Settings → Accounts in the web app. Under a linked bank, find Details from your bank and turn on Recurring bills & income. Then ask your AI for your recurring bills and income. See turn on card, investment and recurring details.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI lists the subscriptions it found, with how often each one charges and what it costs per month and per year. It also gives monthly and yearly totals, one set per currency. See a monthly money review with your AI.

For the second, your AI names the subscriptions whose price changed, with the old and new amounts.

For your bank's streams, your AI lists recurring money out and money in for each account, with a monthly total of each. It can also tell you about streams that have stopped.

Good to know

• "Unused" means no charge for 90 days or more. Pennyweight has no data on whether you use a service. A subscription drops off the list once fewer than 3 of its charges fall inside the last 365 days.
• Two ways to see a price change. The flag on each subscription compares its latest charge with the one before and ignores moves under 2%. A price that went up three months ago, and has stayed at the new price since, isn't flagged, but it's still recorded as the subscription's most recent price change.
• Left out by category or link. Pennyweight spots payments to leave out by their category, a transfer link, or a matching deposit on another of your accounts. A rent payment with an unexpected category can still appear. Ask your AI to leave out anything that isn't a subscription.
• Each currency is listed separately. A merchant that charges you in two currencies shows up once per currency, and amounts are never added across currencies. See accounts and totals in more than one currency.
• Nothing is cancelled for you. Both views are read-only. Cancel a subscription with the merchant.
• The bank setting is one-way. Once Recurring bills & income is on for a bank, it stays on until you disconnect that bank. Turning it on requires two-factor authentication.
• No streams doesn't mean no bills. If the bank setting is off, or the bank hasn't synced since you turned it on, your AI gets empty lists with a note saying so.
• For a step-by-step review of your subscriptions, see find your subscriptions and price increases.