Streaming: 10 hacks to save money

Cut what you pay for NOW, Amazon, Apple, Spotify & more

As part of our 10 year anniversary celebrations, I’m sharing a series of my favourite hacks to save money. This time around it’s the simple things you can do to pay less on TV and music streaming.

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1. Get Disney+ for free

Though there are a number of ways to get discounts on Disney+, what’s better than free? Sadly it is the version with adverts, but if that doesn’t bother you this can’t be beaten.

To get this you need to open up a Club Lloyds current account. To avoid the £3 monthly fee you’ll need to deposit £2,000 every month – but that money doesn’t need to be in one go or stay there.

A month after opening the account you’ll be able to select a Lifestyle Benefit. This can be six cinema tickets, a magazine subscription or the year of Disney+ with Ads. It’ll last for 12 months – as long as you keep the bank account open.

If you don’t fancy the adverts and want the full year of Disney+, then it’s worth a look at a year of Uber One. This costs £59.99 but along with discounts on Uber rides and takeaways, you’ll also get Disney+ Standard for free.

2. Never pay for Apple TV+

Since Apple TV launched in late 2019, I’ve had the service for 25 months out of a possible 41. And I’ve not paid a penny for it.

This is down to regularly appearing free trials for previous customers. Some are via specific accounts I also have such as O2 or Barclays, but most have been open to everyone as long as you’re not currenty signed up.

Each month you do this saves £8.99! The only downside is you can’t guarantee there will be an offer, so if there’s something you really want to watch, it might make sense to hold off until an offer appears.

3. Pay for Prime Video only

Most people who watch Amazon Prime Video probably do this as part of the full Amazon Prime membership. Now if you’re taking advantage of everything else that offers, you might be happy to pay the £8.99 a month or £95 year to get this (I’m not convinced it actually saves money to have Prime all the time).

However if you just want to watch film and TV, or the occassional match, then you’re overpaying at full price. That’s because there’s a cheaper membership that is Prime Video only. It’ll cost £5.99 a month but it can be a bit tricky to find, so we’ve shared how you can sign up for this to save some cash.

4. Cancel NOW TV

I’m an advocate in ditching Sky TV subscriptions in favour of NOW as you’re not locked into a long contract and even at full price it’s going to be cheaper.

However I never pay full price to access the likes of Sky Atlantic, Sky Sports or Sky Cinema. That’s because almost every time I go through the cancellation process, I’m offered a cut price deal to stay.

Sometimes these are very cheap, other times I think they’re still too expensive. But if you think you’ll defintely be watching, then taking up these deals will save you a decent sum of cash.

The only downside is recently these promotions have tended to have minimum terms of six months, tying you in for longer than you might want or need. In this case, weigh up whether it’s actually cheaper to pay full price for one or two months later on, or look for other NOW offers.

5. Limit your subscriptions

It’s easy to pay for three or four, perhaps more, streaming services at the same time. But I think if you do this you’re wasting money. That’s because it’s impossible to keep up with all the new content that’s released.

So this hack is pretty simple. Only pay for one, perhaps two, in any month. Binge through everything you want to see on these subcriptions, then cancel and sign up for a different one, where you do the same.

And don’t forget you might be able to have some months were you don’t pay for any at all thanks to the decent back catalogue of content on iPlayer, Channel 4 and ITVX.

6. Find the cheapest rentals

If you ever rent or buy digital films, it’s easy to assume the prices are the same everywhere you go. Sadly that’s not the case. Fortunately there’s a decent price comparison site and app called JustWatch that can help you pick between Apple, Sky, Rakuten and the rest.

It’s also helpful to see if the movie you’re looking to watch is on a subscription service as well. You might pay a few quid more, but you’ll have access for a full month and be able to watch a lot more.

7. Share your music plan

If there are two or more of you in a household using the same streaming service you can change your plan to one that allows multiple accounts. Most have Family for up to six people, and these can really cut the price per person.

If there are just two of you then check there’s not also a Duo plan, which is even cheaper. Spotify and Deezer both offer this.

8. Spotify Basic hack

There are a couple of ways to get a month or two free every year with Spotify. For those on Premium, you can move down to a Basic plan. This offers the exact same features with one exception – there’s no free audiobook listening.

9. Spotify gift card hack

Or, if you’re on Spotify Individual, an annual gift card will knock three months off the price of a year of Spotify Premium Basic. You’ll pay £99 for 12 months – you can even stack another one on top if there’s less than six months remaining on your account. This also helps lock in prices ahead of potential price hikes.

10. Amazon Music Unlimited hack

Finally, you can get a year of Amazon Music Unlimited for £99 if you’re a Prime member, bringing the price down from £10.99 a month to £8.25. But if you then factor in the Prime membership on top, it’s actually pretty expensive.

However, the rules don’t say you need to remain a Prime user once you’ve paid upfront for this pass. So you can take out a Prime free trial (most people can get this at least once every 12 or 13 months) to give you access to this saving.