Paying too much on subscriptions? Here is how to get costs down

With services for subscription services piling up, maybe now is time to reassess priorities, cancelling poor value to unused services.

Transcript

00:00Well, quite clearly, subscription models are what they say. I mean, they want to lock you

00:07into a long-term relationship. But of course, you can sort of move around if you wish. But

00:12quite clearly, when you sort of buy something, if it sort of works well, the tradition of

00:17how she bought it, and that was it. But it's a bit like a maintenance contract. So it provides

00:23a guaranteed income stream for sort of the companies providing the product.

00:27The most popular form of subscription service in the UK is TV, with over 18 million UK households

00:34subscribed to at least one streaming service. In the UK, popular subscription models span

00:40various industries, including meal kits, fitness services, beauty boxes, audiobook platforms,

00:46gaming services, and product rentals.

00:50So the sort of the fire and forget model seems to have had its day, and organisations, particularly

00:54in the tech sector, because that's how this largely operates, they want to get you locked

00:59in for as long as possible. Clearly, they can't normally go for more than a year, maybe

01:04two years. But it does provide that sort of guaranteed income. And of course, in many

01:09of the very big organisations, we're talking many millions of subscribers. That can be

01:15sort of a pretty handsome return.

01:17In 2023, approximately one million UK households cancelled their streaming subscriptions, largely

01:23due to rising costs and economic pressures, highlighting perhaps a growing trend of subscription

01:30fatigue.

01:31And, of course, yes, so you sort of get the first month free, and people often have this

01:36this, they go with it with gusto. But of course, you're locked in for sort of the rest of the

01:40year, and perhaps beyond that, because often, it's incumbent upon you to sort of to cease

01:45the subscription, not for them. So of course, it's kind of into perpetuity, if you like.

01:49So of course, and people sort of tend to forget about these things, because they're coming

01:53out their bank accounts. So the sort of the lesson is, check what you're sort of paying

01:56for and make sure you really sort of need it.