But data from a recent study suggests we may need to pay a bit more attention to them.
A new survey from Self Financial revealed some startling data:
- 85.7% of paid subscriptions are going unused each month
- The monthly average value of unused paid subscriptions is $32.84
In other words, there's a large percentage of the population who is losing money paying for unused live TV or video on-demand (VOD) streaming subscriptions.
That’s not good!
In this article, we’ll dive deeper into what this survey uncovered and offer some solutions for how you could save some money on your streaming bills moving forward.
How Many Streaming Service Subscriptions Do You Have?
What the survey found: The average household has 4.1 paid streaming subscriptions active in a given month.
What you can do: It may be a good time to take inventory of your own subscriptions. How does your household compare to that 4.1 number?
If you're paying for The Disney Bundle, for example, you may have three of them on one bill each month. Are you an Amazon Prime subscriber? Prime Video comes included with that. If you throw in a Netflix subscription, that'd put you at five already!
Whenever we’re discussing streaming services, money expert Clark Howard always reminds me that there’s only so much content that one person can consume in a calendar month.
There are only– at most– 744 hours in a month. And there are tens of thousands of hours worth of content available on each of these streaming services.
My suggestion: Consider trying a monthly rotation of streaming services. Keeping just one service active each month will help you keep your streaming bill as low as $100 per year. You'll also be able to drill down on watching the content you desire most from that service. And changing services regularly will keep your options fresh.
Which Streaming Services Are Paid For and Rarely Used?
What the survey found: Amazon Prime and Netflix ranked among the top "unused" paid monthly subscriptions.
What you can do: Once you've done an assessment of how many subscriptions you have floating out there, the next step is going to be assessing how often each of them is used.
Netflix is considered to be the most popular streaming service on the market. But is it actually the most popular service in your household?
Fear of missing out on the water cooler talk about the latest Netflix Original may have you paying up to $23 per month for something that you don’t really use. Clearing that item off your budget could save you $276 per year.
Amazon Prime is another subscription worth assessing beyond the value of Prime Video. Do you use it to shop often enough? We can help you determine if Amazon Prime is worth it or not.
Why Are People Paying for Subscriptions They Don’t Use?
What the survey found: Auto renewals and forgetfulness are the top reasons people continue to pay for subscriptions they don't use.
What you can do: Streaming services give you a great advantage that the old cable subscription didn't. You're able to cancel at any time.
So let’s be intentional about taking advantage of this!
Most services will let you schedule your cancellation at any time during your billing cycle and allow you to enjoy the full month you’ve paid for without interruption.
So, theoretically, you could sign up for a service for one day, cancel it the next day and still enjoy the rest of the 29 days you paid for. Doing this will keep you from letting an auto-renewal roll onto your credit card while you’re not paying attention.
Do you have any subscriptions you’re not using? Why haven’t you canceled it? We’d love to hear about your strategies for saving money on streaming in the Clark.com community.
The post Are You Part of the 85% Wasting Money on These Subscriptions in 2024? appeared first on Clark Howard.