BRITS spend a staggering £696 per year on subscriptions – and prices keep going up.
But with a few simple swaps, you could instantly save without missing out on your favourite shows, music and services.
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Digital subscriptions have become commonplace for everything from Netflix and Prime to iCloud and PlayStation Plus.
Just this week, Spotify announced that it’s hiking fees for millions globally (though Brits have been spared for now).
It’s become a regular theme, year after year, that many find hard to sustain.
Here, we reveal some of the easy ways to reduce your subscription bills.
Amazon Prime
Maximum saving: £36 per year
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There are various ways you can cut the cost of Amazon Prime – and it really depends on how you use it.
If you don’t really get that many deliveries and just use Prime Video, there’s a little-known discount available to everyone.
An Amazon Prime Video only option costs £5.99 a month, versus the full-fat Amazon Prime that’s £8.99 a month.
Switch and save £3 a month – or £36 per year.
If you want to keep Amazon Prime deliveries and everything else, there is a way to get that a bit cheaper too.
O2 customers can add Prime to their overall bill for a £2 airtime discount.
Don’t forget, if you’re a student, you can get Prime even cheaper with a huge six-month free trial.
Cloud storage
Maximum saving: £15.99 per year
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It’s important to keep your precious photos safe by backing them up to a cloud service.
iCloud is most popular for iPhone, starting at 99p a month for 50GB (£11.88 for a year), while Google Drive is £1.59 for 100GB (there’s a cheaper annual version for £15.99).
However, few realise there are free options right under their nose.
There are several ways you can go about this.
If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you get free unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos.
Those who don’t subscribe to Amazon Prime can access plenty of free options not tied to an existing subscription.
For starters, everyone (iPhone or Android) get 15GB free with a Google account on Google Drive.
You can spread your backups across several apps too, including:
- Box – 10GB free
- OneDrive – 5GB free
- Dropbox – 2GB free
- Amazon Photos – 5GB free (without a subscription)
If you want to stick with iCloud, there is another way to cut the cost.
Club together with family and get an Apple One subscription instead.
The family plan costs £24.95 a month for six people (including yourself) which works out £4.16 each.
You don’t just get storage, you all get Apple Music, Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade, so you could save further if you’re subscribed to these or similar too.
Spotify
Maximum saving: £12 per year
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Most people will know that the best way to reduce Spotify Premium costs is by joining with other household members.
A family subscription with six members onboard costs £19.99, while an individual plan costs £11.99.
Whether you’re part of a family or individual plan, you can take the cost down by £2 or £1 a month, respectively.
It turns out you’re paying extra for the privilege of audiobooks.
If this doesn’t interest you, you can downgrade to Family Basic or Individual Basic – everything will be the same, you just won’t be able to listen to audiobooks.
Disney+
Maximum saving: £39.91 per year (plus free deliveries on takeaways)
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Disney+ is a favourite in many households, what with all the classic movies and new series like Only Murders In The Building and The Bear among others.
A standard subscription comes in at £89.90 for the year.
But you could trim almost £40 off and gain other benefits such as free and cheaper takeaway deliveries.
Uber is giving away free Disney+ for up to a year when you subscribe to an annual Uber One pass.
Uber One gives you discounts on rides as well, so you can really stretch those savings wider.
Netflix
Maximum saving: £84 per year
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If you can’t live without Netflix but hate paying £18.99 a month you might consider downgrading.
The Standard with adverts option is £5.99 instead, saving a whopping £13 a month (or £84 for the year).
As the name suggests, this means you will get advert breaks though – and the video quality is lower too.
But for those that don’t mind this is an easy saving.
Give these simple switches a go and you could save well over £100.
BONUS MOBILE SAVINGS
You can knock some money off your mobile bill too using Airtime.
It’s free and works as an automatic extra cashback in the background.
Once you’ve accumulated a certain amount it can be used to pay for your mobile charges – I’ve had about two months free as a result of it.
You don’t need to do anything with each purchase.
Just add your card onto the Airtime app and every time an eligible retailer is detected you’ll bank cashback onto your account.
It works for a number of big brands including Morrisons, Ebay, Asos, Ikea and more.
And it doesn’t affect any other cashback or discounts you use either.
Image credit: Getty
