AMAZON is hiking the price of its Prime service, prompting users to ponder how they can cut their online subscription costs.
From September, monthly subscriptions will go up an extra £1 to £8.99 while annual membership will jump from £79 to £95.
Coupled with recent price rises announced by the likes of Netflix, Sky and Virgin Media, Brits are beginning to feel the pinch.
It comes as a cost of living crisis is pummelling millions, with energy, food and tax bills rising to record-breaking highs in some cases.
Many of us are subscribed to multiple subscription services for music, TV, movies and more – and costs can quickly stack up.
Sam Whillance, an expert at discount aggregation site Deal.Town, this week shared advice on how Brits can reduce their monthly outgoings and get the most out of their subscriptions.
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1. Split your monthly costs
You can split the cost of subscriptions with somebody else in your household.
If you are both paying for Netflix or Spotify, for instance, you may be better off joining forces and splitting the cost of a single membership.
Spotify offers a Premium Duo plan for £13.99 a month, perfect for two people in the same household.
Switching to that alone can save around £72 a year versus the price of two individual subscriptions.
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2. Downgrade your plans
If you’re paying extra for premium features that you don’t use, downgrade your plan.
For example, Netflix currently has three separate plans: Basic, standard and premium.
Premium costs £15.99 per month and lets you watch Ultra HD content on up to four screens at once.
If it’s just you watching and you don’t have a 4K TV, it is worth downgrading your tier to standard (£10.99 a month).
3. Cut down your subscriptions
It might sound obvious, but cutting out the subscription services you don’t use can save you loads of cash in the long run.
It’s worth considering which streaming services you use and question whether you really need to pay for all of them.
If you fork out each month for Disney Plus, Amazon Prime and Netflix, for instance, consider dropping the one you use the least.
You may only have Netflix to binge a certain series, and if that’s the case, you can temporarily cancel your other subscriptions until you get through that show.
Netflix, Amazon, Prime and Disney+ all allow you to cancel a monthly plan without an exit fee.
That makes it pretty easy to alternate the platforms you pay for in order to save some money.
4. Make use of free trials
Music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music let you listen for up to five months without paying.
Therefore, if you want free music for a year or two, why not use the free trials while you can.
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The services will ask for your card details, however, and will begin charging you at the end of the trial.
It’s important to remember to cancel the trial shortly before it’s up to avoid any unwanted fees.
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