Cash hack: How sharing saves me money

Sharing is caring. From splitting Spotify to passing on unused cinema discounts, these simple tricks can cut your costs or get you extras for you and your friends.

You know by now I’m always after the best deal I can get. And sometimes that best deal is thanks to my friends and family. Whenever I can I’ll share a subscription or a perk with them so that we can both pay less for more.

Listed below my top sharing cash hacks. Hopefully, you’ll be able to share some of the love yourself. A word of warning though. Most of these require you to share log in details or even give access to credit card and bank details, so only share those with people you really, and I mean really, trust. Don’t share with anyone who you have the slightest doubt about – and that might even mean your best mate.

Share your loyalty and cashback cards

Loyalty cards can be a little frustrating. It can take a while until you rack up enough points to do something with them. But if you give family members a supplementary card you’ll be earning even quicker. My wife and I both have the same Clubcard and Nectar card, and my Dad even uses our Nectar account. This is particularly handy when you have bonus months, as Boots often does. Of course, that means you should really share the rewards too.

If you have a cashback credit card then it’s worth getting a supplementary card for your partner. We do this for our American Express, so we’re earniing more cashback on our spending. It also allows us to double up on the extra promotions such as Amex Shop Small every December. Remember, only do this if you trust them and their spending habits.

>> What are loyalty points worth? 

Share your TV services

Netflix, NOW TV and Amazon Prime all let you have more than one person or device registered. This means you’re able to share the account with your housemate, friends or family. Technically this could be against the rules, but I’ve not heard of anyone having their accounts cut for doing it. Either split the costs evenly or pay for one each and get the benefit of two services for the price of one.

So I pay (after a discount naturally) for NOW TV, while my sister pays for Netflix, and we share our log in details. If I ever buy a day NOW TV Sky Sports pass to watch Crystal Palace, I’ll share it with my dad. My wife and I have a single Amazon Prime account, a reduced student priced version thanks to my NUS card trick. I wouldn’t share Amazon Prime with mates though as they’ll also be able to buy anything through your Amazon account.

Here’s how many people can share each service:

• Amazon Prime – Two devices at a time
• Netflix – Up to four screens at once depending on the type of subscription
• NOW TV – Two users at once on up to four registered devices

BT Sport is another service that can be shared. So if there’s a match you want to watch and your friend is a subscriber, see if they’ll lend you their login.

This cash hack will also work with BT TV, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media on demand services from laptops, tablets and phones, though the terms and conditions all say you need to live at the same address. Here’s how many devices you can use with each provider.

• BT – Two devices
• Sky – Up to four devices
• TalkTalk – Two devices
• Virgin Media – Two devices

>> Amazon Prime vs NOW TV vs Netflix – and how to save on each

Share your music streaming

Music streaming works differently and isn’t as easy to share. If you try with Spotify, Google Play and Apple Music you’ll find the account can only be used by one device at a time. This means if my wife is listening on her commute, I can’t. I generally use iTunes instead when this happens. Or, an extra workaround if you are paying premium, is to take your tunes offline and download them to your phone, tablet or computer. Then you can each listen at the same time if you need to for 30 days or so. It’s a bit of a faff, but it works fine for us.

If that’s too annoying you can top up with a “Family” subscription which allows multiple users. This costs £15, so two people will already make a saving from the regular £9.99 each (though we get the £5 Spotify student service). Watch out here though as whoever owns the account also puts their payment details in – which means anyone else with access could go on an iTunes or Google Play spending spree.

Share your referral codes

Another way to save you and friends cash is by sharing any referral codes you get for services you use. And in turn, you can use your friend’s codes too.

I’ve written about this recently so I won’t spend too much time here on the topic, but some examples include £100 each for getting a friend to open an account with Nationwide, or free credit if they use your Uber code.

>> My top referral codes that can earn you and your friends money

Share your membership perks

Many membership schemes like to give you a few extras to entice you to sign up. Obviously you should take advantage of them yourself, but if you aren’t going to, sharing them is the next best thing – and hopefully friends or family will reciprocate.

If I want to go to a movie on a Tuesday or Wednesday I call my sister and ask if she’s used her Meerkat Movies code. If she hasn’y, that’s 2-4-1 tickets for me and a friend.

My parents subscribe to The Times, giving me access to half-price Picturehouse membership and 2-4-1 Odeon tickets at weekends.

In return, I’m able to get them presale gig, theatre and gallery tickets via my O2 and American Express “perks”.

>> How you can get a Meerkat Movies membership for just a couple of quid

Share your employee benefits

I used to work at the BBC and staff benefits included a decent discount on O2 for you and four friends. An easy win.

Many jobs will have staff perks like this, including cashback style sites that include money off gift cards and other purchases.

You might even be lucky enough to know someone who gets lots of freebies as part of their job. I’ve been on a cooking course, pop-up Breaking Bad cocktail making class and Monty Python live in the last few years for free, all thanks to friends.

What do you share? Let me know in the comments below