How to save on your online subscriptions

With small sums disappearing out of our bank accounts every month, it can be easy to overlook how much money we're wasting on subscriptions.

Many of us subscribe to multiple online services such as TV streaming, magazine subscriptions and gym memberships and even beer and wine subscriptions. 

But, while they might each be just a few pounds each month, combined, they can all soon add up to hundreds of pounds a year. 

You may even have Direct Debits for subscriptions you’ve forgotten you have and aren’t even using. 

How do you keep tabs on them and make sure you’re getting good value for money? 

1. Check you aren’t doubling up

Before you pay out for a brand new subscription service, check whether you already have it elsewhere without realising it. 

See if other services you already receive include bundled subscriptions to items such as TV streaming services or other perks. 

For example, Vodafone customers, who may already be paying around £30 per month for their mobile phone bill, may opt for an Amazon Prime, Disney Plus or YouTube Premium subscription included in their mobile entertainment package. 

A number of packaged bank accounts or insurance policies also offer additional perks such as TV services or free breakdown cover.

Until recently, I had a Disney Plus TV subscription included with my Club Lloyds Bank account, costing £3 a month, before I switched to another banking service and lost the service. 

Disney Plus usually costs £4.99 a month with adverts.

My previous car insurance also provided breakdown cover with the RAC. 

However, do check the terms and conditions because when I did so I found that it only covered me if I broke down en route somewhere.

So this didn’t help when I got a flat tyre at home. 

I ended up having to buy an additional Home Start membership at £13.50 a month to get the breakdown company to come out to me, so when my car insurance came up for renewal, I avoided adding breakdown cover to the policy. 

However, the RAC is currently offering 40% off its breakdown cover service. 

2. Make use of discounts or free trials

Look out for free trials or discounted periods. Disney Plus, for example, often offers lower-cost subscriptions for a certain period around Christmas. 

Apple TV+ is also free for the first week (then £8.99 a month), while Spotify Premium is free for the first month, and Audible offers 30 days free (then £7.99 a month). 

Sometimes, Spotify also runs a three-month free trial, so keep an eye out for that, while it also has a student account for £5.99.  

At Christmas, I signed up to a free trial with Beer52 to get a box of craft beer for my husband as a present before cancelling it. The monthly subscription is £27 and includes free delivery. 

Keep tabs on your subscriptions with a spreadsheet so you don’t forget what you’ve got. 

Also, set reminders either on your online or offline calendar, or as I often do through Alexa, to prompt you when the free subscription period is due to run out or it is set to increase to avoid paying out more. 

3. Consider paying annually 

One way to save on your subscriptions is to pay annually instead of monthly.

While paying monthly can help spread the cost, it’s usually cheaper to pay yearly. 

For example, Amazon Prime currently costs £95 a year or £8.99 a month, so monthly payers pay £12.88 more a year.  

4. Share accounts

Streaming companies such as Netflix, notably, have been cracking down on customers sharing accounts. 

However, it can still pay to take out a family account if more than one of you wants to use a service at once. 

Spotify, for example, offers a family package at £19.99 a month (a single account costs £11.99), including accounts for up to six people at the same address, while Netflix now offers a Premium service for £18.99 a month, allowing the services to be watched on four different devices at once. 

Meanwhile, as Emma Lunn suggests in the Guardian, Sharesub.com facilitates account holders of different services - whether friends or strangers - sharing subscriptions and dividing the cost. 

For example, sharing an HBO subscription on there is currently £7.86 - 39% less than the full subscription, while an Apple account is just £1.44. 

What happens if you want to pause or cancel your subscription?

Sometimes, providers such as pay-as-you-go gyms or unions allow members to pause their subscriptions for a certain period to save money if they are going on holiday or, with regard to the unions, out of work for a certain period of time. 

It can also be worth contacting the provider if you are looking to save money to see if you can get a better deal by suggesting you want to cancel. 

Sometimes, if you try to end your subscription, the company might offer you a cheaper deal or another special offer.  

My husband has often found this with Sky when he has called customer services to cancel the phone and internet account. 

5. Loyalty doesn’t always pay

Another way to get a better deal can be to cancel and then get your partner to sign up to the same provider, as Lunn also suggests. 

This is because, sadly, loyalty doesn’t always pay anymore, and new customers are often offered better deals than existing ones. 

6. Keep an eye on your bank account 

It’s worth checking your current account for subscriptions you don’t want anymore that are still going out or financial anomalies. 

We pay for a Netflix account for my mother-in-law and recently, she became unable to access it. 

We then noticed that the monthly Direct Debit had mysteriously increased to the highest level from the cheapest deal.

The money mysteriously still went through again the following month, even after I'd cancelled my debit card and ordered a new one. 

When we tried to check in with the account, we found were locked out of it. 

Through Netflix’s online customer service chatbot and our own research, we found that it had been hijacked by someone in Bolivia who had hiked the subscription to the premium setting, paid for by us, and changed everything into Spanish. 

They’d got access by hacking my Outlook email account and they and their three little ninos were busy watching Spanish language kids’ TV on our dollar. 

Luckily, the customer service people were great and helped me reclaim it, put it back into English, change the password and add a phone code to it too for additional security to stop this happening again.

Sadly, we did not get our money back, though. 

7. Have a six-monthly audit

It’s also a good idea to have an annual or even six-monthly audit of your subscriptions and Direct Debits to other services to check you still need them, want them and are getting value for money. 

Do you really need three or more streaming services for example, when there’s simply not enough time in the world to watch all this media? 

Alternating them can be a better idea once you’ve watched all your favourite shows on one.

Going through your bank and Paypal accounts regularly to see if these are still needed will save you money in the long run.