We’re all looking to save money where we can. In our new series, Small Change, financial gurus share everyday hacks that soon add up.
Once upon a time, we’d pay our annual TV license fee of £159 and that would be our home entertainment costs covered for the year.
Today, most of us pay an additional £227.76 per year on top through payments to two of the big three streaming services: Netflix, Amazon and/or Disney+. If you opt for all three, plus add on subscriptions for sites like Spotify and Audible, the total gets even higher.
You might think this is simply the price you have to pay for access to the latest shows, audiobooks and podcasts. But Helen Fox, a personal finance expert at Ocean Finance, says there are ways to save on streaming services that many of us are missing out on.
Below, she shares her top tips, which could save you hundreds per year and even equate to six months of free entertainment.
Hack 1: Rotate your monthly subscriptions
Do you really need to be subscribed to all of the TV and film subscription services, all of the time? If you’re binging a show on one platform right now, could you pause your subscription on the other? Perhaps the release of a hotly-anticipated show drove you to subscribe to a service, but you haven’t used it since.
In which case, Fox recommends auditing your TV and film subscriptions and rotate them.
“For example, if you subscribed to both Disney+ and Netflix (standard) at a monthly rate, you would pay £227.76 a year in total,” she says. “However, if you subscribed to Disney for six months then cancelled your plan and subscribed to just Netflix, it would cost just half – a saving of £113.88 per year.”
Hack 2: Use phone provider or Tesco Clubcard discounts
Did you know that phone networks often throw in free streaming services as a perk for both new and existing customers? Neither did we.
“O2 is currently offering six months free on either Disney+ or Amazon streaming services when you take out a new contract, or upgrade as an existing customer. This could save you as much as £60! But you’ll need to weigh up the saving against the cost of the contract to make sure you’re not left out of pocket overall,” Fox says.
“Or if you regularly shop at Tesco and have a Clubcard, did you know that you can swap £8 worth of vouchers for a 3-month Disney+ subscription? This saves you £15.97 if you compare it how much you would pay for the subscription. If you did this every three months, that’s a total saving of £63.88 per year.”
Hack 3: Utilise free subscriptions
If you haven’t signed up to every free streaming subscription already out there, then why not consider it to get 183 days of free entertainment? Fox advises following this plan for free trials:
- Amazon – 30 days for free
- Apple Music – 30 days for free
- Spotify Premium – 30 days for free
- Audible – 30 days for free
- All 4 – 14 days for free
- Apple TV – 7 days for free
- Now TV – 7 days for free
- Britbox – 7 days for free
- Hayu – 7 days for free
- Discovery+ - 7 days for free
- ITV Hub+ - 7 days for free
- Now Sky Cinema – 7 days for free
“Just remember to set a reminder in your phone or calendar to unsubscribe to any subscriptions so that you’re not charged after the free trial,” Fox adds.
