Ten Ways to Spend Less on Streaming Services

“Cutting the cord is cheaper than the cable!” quickly joining low-cost rideshares and hoverboards on the list of broken promises of the future, but even as streaming prices have eclipsed what we once paid for cable , there are ways to lower your monthly bills.

If you are diligent and willing to dedicate a little time to the project, you can save a significant amount of money on on-demand television and movies. Here are 10 strategies you can use to minimize your streaming costs.

Conduct a streaming audit

The first step to saving money on your streaming bills is to conduct a full audit of your subscription services . To get a clear picture of everything you pay for, review your bank account and credit card statements to make sure you account for everything you pay for, monthly or yearly. Enter this information into a spreadsheet, or download Bobby , a simple iOS app designed for this purpose. Now ask yourself which services you watch the least and which you could do without. If you’re like me, this will give you a strong sense of FOMO, so remind yourself that canceling costs nothing and you can rejoin with a click or two if the next Stranger Things comes up. nowhere .

Upgrade to an ad-supported plan

A toilet cleaner ad that pops up in the middle of Rashomon might ruin Kurosawa’s fine sense of mise-en-scene, but that’s the world we live in. Many major streaming services are adding cheaper, ad-supported plans for people. who wants to pay less each month, and if you can put up with ads, the savings can be significant. For example, a basic ad-free Netflix costs $15.49 per month, while an ad-supported plan is just $6.99. Hulu without ads will set you back $17.99, but after watching a few commercials, you’ll only pay $7.99.

Learn to love free streaming services

There are tons of completely free streaming services out there , including The Roku Channel, Crackle, Freevee, Pluto TV, and more. If you can get over the feeling that you’re choosing entertainment from the Lost Island movies, these services offer all the entertainment you could ever watch, and completely free (although you’ll have to watch some ads). I highly recommend Tubi – it’s my favorite streaming service, free or paid. Yes, ads can be annoying, but paid streaming companies add ads too, so really the only difference is the monthly bill.

“Grow Up” Your Streaming Subscriptions

“Change” is the process of unsubscribing or suspending your subscription to streaming services when you know you are not going to use them. For example, I only like Severance on Apple TV+. When a show is between seasons, I can cancel my subscription until new episodes come out. There are tons of tools and strategies that can make it easier to switch streaming content – Lifehacker even created a detailed guide to changing streaming services .

Take advantage of package deals

Bundling is when subscription services give you lower prices for subscribing to more than one service, or offer a discount associated with an unrelated product. For example, on September 6, 2023, Disney will release an ad-free streaming package with Disney+ and Hulu for $19.99 per month. That’s 37% off their standalone plans.

There are too many promotions out there for me to be very specific here—just about any business can partner with a streaming company—but the best place to start is with your cell phone carrier. T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon offer some sort of free or discounted streaming offering, and Apple seems to be giving away Apple TV+ subscriptions pretty generously with new device purchases.

But please, bundle responsibly: the reason the companies offer these plans is to get you hooked, so if you only watch Hulu, adding Disney+ is not a discount, even if it only costs you a couple. more dollars.

Take advantage of free trials

If you are disciplined in hitting the cancel button before being charged, you can watch a large amount of TV with free trials . While it’s not as common as it used to be, many services still give a free month to new subscribers, including Apple TV+, Hulu, and Prime Video. You can’t sign up for the same service twice, but your friend who generously shares their passwords can sign up after your month is up if their billing information is different. Boom: Each of you got two months free.

Share passwords and profiles while you can

Recently, Netflix made a lot of noise by banning the sharing of passwords. While there are ways around Netflix’s ban on password sharing , other streamers have a less draconian reaction to password sharing. Max’s official policy is to “disapprove” this practice. Hulu will allow you to have multiple logins as long as you “check in” to your home base at least once a month. Apple TV+ doesn’t specifically prohibit password sharing, although that could change any day. You can use Amazon Prime’s Home Account feature to set up additional profiles – up to three can be active at the same time. (But make sure you trust whoever you’ve allowed to have a profile, as they can buy stuff with your account.) Peacock says it’s against their password sharing policy, but you can use six profiles, and they seem to not hacked. refuse to use them outside the home – at least for now.

Takeaway: Learn the limits and what you can get away with, use the rules, or if you feel brave, break them. There is no jail time for violating the terms of service, although you could theoretically be banned from being a customer in the future.

Check your credit card offers

Many credit cards offer “rewards” designed for streaming services. For example, this Amex Blue Cash Preferred card offers 6% cashback on money spent on streaming services. For wider entertainment card rewards , the Capitol One’s Savor One card gives you 3% of streaming, restaurant and food revenue. Many of these cards also offer special promotions on certain streaming services, and these too can be stacked. While 3% isn’t the biggest discount, if you’re using a credit card to pay for streaming, it can also be a little cheaper.

Subscribe to an annual plan instead of paying monthly

For most streaming services, you can save some money by paying for a whole year up front. So if you know you won’t stop watching Paramount+ next year, buy it annually and save some money. Niche streamer The Criterion Channel costs $11/month, or $100/year, which essentially gives you almost three months free to join. This option of course makes it impossible to “roll” for this service, but it’s an option.

Take advantage of student discounts

This is a great time to be a streaming student . Peacock will give you a year of service for $1.99 per month. Hulu’s Student Streaming Deal drops the price of the ad-supported plan from $7.99 per month to $1.99. Amazon offers one of the most generous student discounts – Prime Video is free for six months and $7.49 a month thereafter while you stay in school, and on top of that, you get free shipping from Amazon, Amazon Music, Prime games. , and more.