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11 tips to save on the cost of your subscriptions
From streaming your favourite films to getting your fill of coffee, many people find paying for a range of subscriptions normal now.
In fact, the return of big hit series such as Succession, Ted Lasso and The Mandalorian led to an increase in spend on subscriptions, according to Barclays data.
The bank found the amount spent on digital subscriptions was up 4.1% in March - the highest year-on-year uplift in five months.
Here, Which? rounds up the latest subscriptions price changes and offers tips to save money on your favourite services, from Amazon Prime to Spotify.
Which subscriptions have gone up?
Pret a Manger: The coffee shop chain announced it would be upping the price of its coffee subscription by £5 on 26 April , to £30 a month. The relaunched offer, called Club Pret, will also give subscribers 10% off freshly made food and snacks and will apply to existing subscribers from 5 June. You can currently get your first month with a 50% discount. When the coffee subscription first launched in September 2020, it was priced at £20 a month.
Spotify: The music streaming platform raised the cost of its Premium Student package from £4.99 to £5.99 a month, Premium Duo from £12.99 a month to £13.99 a month, and its Premium Family package from £14.99 a month to £16.99 a month, in April 2021. You can currently get the first month free.
Now: Sky's on-demand streaming service streamlined its plans which led to price cuts and the merging of some passes in June 2021. However, adverts appeared for customers using Entertainment and Cinema passes unless they paid for Boost. Now increased the price of its monthly Boost to £6, and the price of its Sports Monthly membership to £34.99 in March this year.
Disney+: In February 2021 the costs rose from £5.99 to £7.99 a month and the annual charge from £59.99 to £79.90 for new customers.
Netflix: Customers experienced a price rise in May 2022 as its Basic and Standard plans went up by £1 a month, and its Premium plan increased by £2 a month. It also introduced a new Basic plan with adverts in November 2022 for £4.99 a month. This means Basic, without adverts, costs £6.99 a month, Standard costs £10.99 a month and Premium costs £15.99 a month.
Amazon: The technology giant upped the price of its monthly and annual subscriptions in September 2021. The monthly membership rose from £7.99 to £8.99 - an increase of £1 a month. The annual membership increased from £79 to £95 - an increase of £16. See our news story for tips on how to save on Amazon Prime.
- Listen: the Which? Money podcast team explains how to save on subscriptions
Top tips to save on subscription costs
From sharing plans to joining a library - we've rounded up 11 ways to save money on the cost of subscriptions.
1) Share your subscriptions
Sharing your streaming subscriptions within your household is one of the quickest ways to save money. Most services have plans you can switch to that could help you save, without losing personalised features.
Spotify for example offers a Premium Duo plan for £13.99 a month, perfect for two people in the same household, saving £71.88 a year versus the price of two individual subscriptions.
For larger households, there is the Premium Family plan for £16.99 a month which allows up to six users to get premium benefits, saving a whopping £515.40 a year over six individual subscriptions.
You can also share your Amazon Prime benefits with another person in your household, halving the cost of having two separate accounts.
2) Select the annual option
If you love a streaming site and know you won't want to cancel it, then you could save by buying the membership in one go, rather than paying monthly.
For example, Disney+ costs £7.99 a month, or £79.90 for the year - a saving of £15.98.
While Amazon Prime costs £8.99 a month or £95 for the year - a saving of £12.88.
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3) Rotate monthly subscriptions
Do you really need to pay for all the TV and film subscriptions you enjoy at the same time?
Netflix, Now, Amazon Prime and Disney+ will allow you to cancel monthly subscriptions at any point with no exit fee, so if you can plan what you want to watch you could alternate to save.
For example, if you subscribed to both Disney+ and Netflix (standard) at a monthly rate, you would pay £227.76 a year in total.
However, if you alternated months you would pay just £113.88 a year (six months of Disney at £7.99 and six months of Netflix at £10.99).
- Find out more: best ways to save money
4) Do your research and compare prices
If you know you want to watch something specific, do your research to find out which platforms actually have it and shop around for the cheapest one to watch it on.
Free app JustWatch pinpoints where you can find television shows and films. It also compares the best price for streaming what you fancy watching.
5) Downgrade your plan
You could save by switching to a cheaper plan.
For example, Netflix has four different plans - basic with adverts (£4.99), basic (£6.99), standard (£10.99) and premium (£15.99).
The basic plan only lets you watch on one screen at a time - but if you live alone and don't share your account with anyone this could be ideal. It would also save you £48 a year.
There is also now the option to have Basic with Adverts, costing £4.99 a month. However, you'll have to put up with four to five minutes of adverts per hour, and you won't be able to download titles.
Amazon Prime also offers a basic membership called Prime Video for £5.99 a month - it doesn't include other benefits such as free premium delivery, but it's worth it if you only want to stream shows. It would save you £36 a year.
6) Calculate if it's really worth the money
If you're only using your subscription a handful of times a month it's probably not worth it.
For example, the Pret coffee subscription costs £30 a month - this allows you to have five hot drinks a day (but you can only redeem one every 30 minutes).
A regular-sized latte in Pret cost £3.30, so if you get three a week it would cost £39.60 a month. That's a saving of £9.60.
However, if black filter coffee is your drink of choice, then it may be worth just buying them individually. A black coffee costs £1.50 and would cost £18 a month if you had three a week, so you would be £12 worse off if you had the Pret subscription.
- Find out more: how much can you save by swapping to instant coffee?
7) Make the most of free trials
Some services will give you a free trial before you have to pay.
Music streaming services, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music Unlimited and YouTube Premium all currently give new users a one-month free trial.
This means you can listen to music for five months before paying a penny.
However, remember to diary the date the trial ends or set an alert so you avoid accidentally paying for the next month. Or just cancel as soon as you sign up if the subscription allows.
If you've recently bought an Apple device, you should get three months free Apple TV. You'll have 90 days to redeem the offer.
8) Cancel what you don't use
If you have multiple bank accounts and different bills going out from each of them, you could lose track of the subscriptions you are signed up to.
Money Dashboard and Snoop are two apps that can help you get an overview of all your accounts in one place.
Once you have an overview of your finances it should be easy to spot subscriptions you no longer need or want.
Some banking apps also have features that make it easier to stay on top of bills. Starling Bank for example offers Bills Manager which allows you to set aside money each month just for your bills so you ensure you don't fall short.
9) Use free alternatives
You can use All 4, ITV Hub and My 5 for free (as long as you are not using them to watch live television).
For free music, BBC Sounds allows you to listen to live radio and has loads of podcasts and playlists - all completely free of charge, it even has a workout anthems playlist which is perfect for the gym.
If you fancy free e-books, magazines and newspapers, join your local library.
10) Check for bundles
Most mobile providers offer free extras with your contract which could give you access to your favourite streaming site for up to two years.
Vodafone offers up to 24 months of Amazon Prime, Spotify or YouTube Premium with certain pay monthly deals, and EE offers a 'special benefit' for the length of the mobile contract. This currently includes BT Sport, Apple Music or Netflix.
It's important to make sure any new phone contract is right for you before taking it out, and make sure you shop around for the best deal.
- Find out more: how to save money on your broadband, mobile and TV
11) Use cashback offers
You can earn money back on monthly and annual payments if you choose to make them with a cashback credit card. Just remember to pay back what you owe each month to avoid cashback gains being wiped out by interest charges.
It's also worth checking your credit card or debit card provider's app to see if it offers any specific cashback deals on a service you want.
You might also be able to get cashback on purchases using sites such as Quidco or TopCashback.
- Find out more: cashback sites explained
Get help with the rising cost of living
We know households are struggling right now with the rising cost of living.
Which? is dedicated to offering tips and advice on how to cut the cost of your household bills, essentials and make the most of your money.
- Find out more: how to deal with the rising cost of living
Have you successfully used our tips to help save or make money? We'd love to hear from you. Get in touch at money-letters@which.co.uk.
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Pret a Manger prices are taken from its Regent's Place branch on 18 April 2023.
This article was first published in March 2022 and has been updated a number of times since. The last update was 26 April 2023 to include Pret's price increase.