With so many subscription services on the market, it’s difficult to keep track of how many you’re signed up for. These services range from anything like HelloFresh to Netflix, but regardless of what you’re subscribed to, they eat away at your budget each month. Especially with auto-payments, you can easily forget about how much you're spending if you’re not paying close attention to your accounts.
There are ways to combat forgotten subscriptions, like using one of the best budgeting apps of 2022. However, another easy way to ensure you’re only paying for what you actually want is by paying for your subscriptions annually, not month by month.
Basically, you’ll have to know going into sign-up that whatever it is, it's worth it to pay for the whole year. This way, you’re already thinking more critically about what you’re committing to, and if you have the money for it or not.
Furthermore, when you sign up for an annual subscription, you’ll usually get a discount. Making one annual payment is almost always cheaper than paying each month. For example, a yearly subscription to Spotify costs $99. If you decide to pay monthly, you’ll be charged $9.99 a month, or almost $120 over the course of 12 months. In other words, you'll save around $20 from making the switch from monthly payments to annual payments.
Similarly, if you choose to subscribe to Dropbox with a yearly subscription, you’ll end up paying less than if you chose the monthly option. A Dropbox Plus subscription that’s billed yearly comes out to $9.99 a month. On the other hand, a monthly subscription will end up being $11.99 a month, meaning you'll save around $24 if you go with the annual subscription.
Amazon also offers generous discounts on Amazon Prime membership if paid annually. In fact you’ll save almost $40 if you decide to do the annual membership ($139) as opposed to the monthly one over the course of a year ($14.99).
Squarespace's annual subscription option is also cheaper than their monthly option. For an annual personal subscription, payments are discounted by 30%, costing $16. Alternatively, if you were to choose the monthly payment option, you'd have to pay $23 per month. In other words, you'd save around $84 just by making the switch.
However, there is a downside to paying for subscriptions annually. It’s that if you change your mind about wanting a specific service, you won’t be able to back out. But if it’s something you know you’ll never want to get rid of, in my case Spotify, then it could be worth it to pay more up front.
