Free Guide

Audit every recurring charge
hiding on your card

By Dan Donovan, @askdandonovan

Drop your bank's CSV export into Claude. Four steps later you'll have an interactive checklist of every direct debit, categorised, colour-coded, with amounts and due dates.

4 Steps
~10 min Total time
1 HTML dashboard
Pro Plan required

Claude Code is Anthropic's AI tool that can read files on your computer and write code. Here, you're using it to scan your transaction history, identify every charge that repeats, and turn that into a usable dashboard, without writing a single line of code yourself.

What you'll have after this
Every direct debit found
Weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual charges, all identified
Colour-coded categories
Insurance, utilities, subscriptions, fitness, kids, transport
Due dates per charge
When each one typically hits, based on your actual history
Interactive checklist
Progress bar, tick-off as you go, strikethrough on completion
What you'll need: A Claude Pro or Max plan (claude.ai/upgrade). Claude Code isn't available on the free tier. You'll also need a CSV export of your bank or credit card transactions covering the last 6 to 12 months. The longer the date range, the better. It's the only way to catch annual charges.
1

Export your transactions as a CSV

Log into your bank's website or app, go to your transaction history, and download the last 6 to 12 months as a CSV file. Every major bank offers this. It's usually under Statements, Transaction History, or Download.

🏦
Most banks (web)
Log in → Accounts → Transaction history → Export / Download → CSV
📱
Most banks (app)
Transactions → filter by date → Share or Export → choose CSV
🔍
Can't find it?
Search "[your bank name] export transactions CSV" (most major banks offer this)
Go back 12 months if you can. Annual charges like insurance renewals, car registration, and club memberships only appear once a year, so a 3-month export will miss them entirely.

Save the file somewhere easy to find. Your Desktop is fine.

2

Install Claude Code and open it in your folder

Claude Code is Anthropic's command-line tool. It runs in Terminal and can read and write files on your computer. Install it with one command:

Terminal 
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Now navigate to the folder containing your CSV file. If it's on your Desktop, type:

Terminal 
cd ~/Desktop && claude

Sign in with your Anthropic account on first launch. You're now ready.

3

Paste the analysis prompt

Copy the prompt below and paste it into Claude Code. It tells Claude exactly what to find and what to build. You don't need to modify anything. It works on any bank's CSV format.

Claude Code prompt 
Analyse the CSV file in this folder. Identify every recurring
direct debit and subscription — anything that appears more than
once with the same or similar merchant name. Also include
charges that appear only once or twice if they look annual
(insurance renewals, memberships, registration fees).

Group results into 8 categories:
1. Insurance — Lapse Risk
2. Childcare & Kids
3. Fitness
4. Transport
5. Utilities
6. Subscriptions
7. Services & Rates
8. Annual Memberships & Fees

For each charge include: merchant name, typical amount
(use ~$X–Y range for variable charges), and when in the
month it typically debits.

Build a single HTML file called direct-debit-dashboard.html
with this exact design:

LAYOUT
- Light mode: #f5f5f5 background, #111 text
- Max width 660px, centered, 40px padding
- System font stack (-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI)

HEADER
- Title: "Card Update Checklist"
- Muted gray subtitle with arrow separator
- Two buttons: "Mark All Done" (solid #4ade80, dark text)
  and "Reset" (outline)
- Progress label "0 of X done" that updates live
- Green #4ade80 progress bar

CATEGORY HEADERS — all-caps, 11px, bold, each a distinct colour:
- Insurance — Lapse Risk: #f87171
- Childcare & Kids: #60a5fa
- Fitness: #4ade80
- Transport: #fb7185
- Utilities: #f59e0b
- Subscriptions: #a78bfa
- Services & Rates: #22d3ee
- Annual Memberships & Fees: #a3e635

ITEMS — each row:
- 22×22px rounded checkbox (border #bbb, fills #4ade80
  with SVG checkmark on click)
- Merchant name (15px medium) + optional inline badge
  (red pill "URGENT", orange "SOON")
- Due date line: red #f87171 urgent, orange #fb923c soon,
  gray #999 normal
- Amount right-aligned; gray #9ca3af + ~ prefix for ranges
- Click row toggles: strikethrough name, faded amount
- Hover: row background #ececec

FOOTER
- Left: "X recurring charges identified"
- Right: "Monthly est: ~$X+"
- Top border separator

JAVASCRIPT
- toggle(el) on each row onclick
- Progress bar + label update in real time
- checkAll() and uncheckAll() wired to buttons

Claude will read the CSV, identify every recurring charge, infer patterns from your transaction dates, and write the HTML file. Takes about 60 seconds.

More history = better results. A 12-month CSV lets Claude spot quarterly charges (water bills, council rates) and annual ones (insurance renewals, memberships) that a 3-month export would miss entirely.
4

Open your dashboard

Claude will tell you it's created a file called direct-debit-dashboard.html. Open it in your browser:

Mac: Terminal 
open direct-debit-dashboard.html

You'll see every recurring charge grouped by category, with the amount and typical due date. Click any row to tick it off. The progress bar updates as you go.

Most people find at least one surprise. Annual charges are the most commonly forgotten: insurance auto-renewals, club memberships, prepaid plans. Check the Annual Memberships category carefully before you cancel your old card.

What to ask Claude next

Once your dashboard is built, stay in Claude Code and keep going. Here are the most useful follow-ups:

Find forgotten subscriptions
Ask Claude which charges only appear once or twice. Those are annual fees you may have forgotten about entirely.
Prompt 
Which charges only appear once or twice?
Those might be annual fees I've forgotten.
Get a monthly spend breakdown
Turn the raw list into a number: total monthly recurring spend, broken down by category.
Prompt 
Calculate my total monthly recurring spend.
Break it down by category with a grand total.
Anonymise it to share
Replace all merchant names with generic alternatives and randomise amounts, so you can post it without revealing your actual spending.
Prompt 
Replace all merchant names with generic ones
and randomize amounts. Safe to share online.
Check what's due this week
Ask Claude which charges are hitting in the next 7 days, useful when you've just got a new card and don't want anything to lapse.
Prompt 
Which charges are likely hitting in the next
7 days? List them in order of urgency.
Other ways to use this
It's not just for new cards