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While Britain is locked down everything from gyms to schools, restaurants and stadiums are closed, while travel is restricted to essential journey's only.

But what happens if you are paying for a subscription, membership or season ticket that is now effectively useless?

In some cases ditching annual membership could cost you more when time comes to re-start your subscription, in other cases there could be an exit fee or a black mark on your credit report.

But not in every case.

Chances are you can save a packet by going through your bank or credit card details and having a cull of what you dont need.

But, fist, a quick ethical message. Before you start deleting, have a think about the business thats receiving the cash.

Can it fend for itself or might it benefit from a bit of largesse on your part (if you can afford it?).

However, there are also things it makes no sense to pay out for any more - lockdown or no lockdown.

There are two main categories when it comes to saving some cash:

Things you havent authorised or should have been cancelled - This can include things like old insurance policies for a mobile phone you no longer have but didnt realise you were paying for or packaged bank accounts, where you didnt want or need the extras.

Things you dont need any more - This can include subscriptions, memberships and services that you arent taking full advantage of.

This is what to look for.

We use and stream so much data without fully understanding the technology - so many of us panic and just click to accept cloud, streaming services and other digital services. After all, its only a few quid a month, right?

Ok, so you dont want to lose all your photos in a tech failure, but you only really need one cloud storage service. Same goes for music streaming services, which are also often duplicated.

With streaming sites charging around 15 a month and other services not far off, youre wasting loads of cash.

If youre paying for two cloud services and two music streaming services and you reduce that to one each, you could save up to 400 a year.

If you check out your email inbox (if you can bear it) youll find many a message from the various services you subscribe to.

Many will be offering you deals to not cancel your regular payment.

Take a bit of time to look them over. Ive seen some gym upgrade deals that are pretty good for keeping the monthly payments going.

But ultimately, if money is tight or youve just reached the point when you want a clear out youre usually able to cancel most subscriptions these days with around a months notice at most.

Gyms used to be a nightmare for this, but things have improved significantly since the dark days of three months notice.

However, if you feel youre being significantly penalised financially and you were misled when you took out the agreement you can pursue a formal complaint.

The arts and media need your support more than ever at this difficult time.

So keep that paper subscription up and support your local theatre and arts venues too.

Lurking on your statements may be one-off payments or sneaky monthly subscriptions.

You may have signed up to free trials and forgotten to cancel, or tried out a service but you simply dont use it. These payments dont appear on your regular payment lists so you have to trawl through your accounts to find them.

Go back a year and one month, which will allow for every annual payment to be tracked down.

If you didnt authorise these payments, werent told you were going to be debited or you think youve been scammed, your bank can cancel them right away and you might even get a refund.

Contracts for things like insurance, broadband and mobile phones can have have significant penalties for pulling out of mid-term with broadband and mobile phones being the biggest offenders.

Insurance contracts also catch people by surprise as they are an annual contract where theres one price each year that is split in to twelve chunks.

No-one really gets why this is, but it does mean that youll have to pay a variable fee to bail early. Beat this by saving the renewal dates in your diary a month in advance so youve got time to shop around and jump ship.

However, if youve been overcharged by a business as a result of staying loyal compare your current payments to what youd be charged as a new customer (without the initial offers). You may be able to claim back quite a bit of cash.

Millions of us are paying for insurance policies that we dont use or need.

Check your regular payments and debits from your bank account - you may be surprised to spot a mobile phone insurance policy for a phone youve upgraded years ago that youre still being charge for.

Or you might find an expensive gadget insurance policy is much cheaper if you update your home insurance ditch it! You could be able to claim back hundreds if youve been overcharged if you asked for an insurance policy to be cancelled.

And if you have a packaged bank account and youre over 70, then your insurance is unlikely to cover you and you might get some cash back.

The Mirror has covered the problems that people seeking refunds for airline and packaged holidays have encountered extensively.

But what about trains and other forms of transport? As a general rule, if you cant travel, you may be offered a refund, however, other firms are only offering vouchers.

Well have to take this to the T&Cs for each company ultimately to see if thats fair, but dont assume its automatic contact the travel firm and ask how to claim.

Season tickets do have refund policies if youre unable to use them for extended periods, but again, they all vary so youll need to check out the website for the latest guide.

Bear in mind that you dont know how long youll have to claim for yet, so check out how the process works but hold fire.

Online accounts are great, but it means weve become less vigilant about checking our spending.

Yet there are countless errors that can occur on bank and credit card statements, from duplicated transactions, services that you cancelled that are still being billed and honest-to-goodness errors.

If you spot anything you dont recognise, ask your bank or card provider to charge back the money.

You might have to sign a statement saying you didnt authorise the payment but usually theres no delay. There are time limits though, so dont hesitate.

Most of us have been cajoled/persuaded/told to drop paper statements from utility companies. The same goes for mobile phone services.

Chances are you might not need the full package youre on and could instantly save be reducing it.

Phone bills also hide a range of charges you might not have been aware of. These can include data roaming charges that you might not have realised you were paying when on holiday, premium rate text services (up to 5 each) after you agreed to let a firm send you notifications and other disputed charges.

Have a scoot through the bill and flag up anything you havent authorised.

The Phone Paid Services Authority can help if you arent happy with the response from the firm.

Making a few savings can really help you make your cash go further, but remember that businesses are super busy these days, so for non-urgent enquiries take your time and try to avoid tying up phone lines where possible.

And be friendly even if youre frustrated. A bit of kindness goes a long way.

If you need any help or support throughout the lockdown, were here for you at Resolver http://www.resolver.co.uk

More here:
What you can cancel without penalties during lockdown to save money - Mirror Online