Joaquin Escalante is well aware of the long list of streaming services he can access.
What he doesn’t know is how much it all costs.
“No idea,” he said, laughing. “We just watch them."
“How they get you is they have, like, the first month is a little less. So that's how I got addicted to the shows,” Nicole Bishop explained. “(And then) I just keep paying."
“You just charge it,” Gina Tran, a marketing professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, said of the services. “A lot of these things are charged to our credit card, our debit card. And then we don't pay attention.”
According to a survey from Consumer Reports , more than half of American households subscribe to four or more streaming services.
Almost 1 in 10 subscribe to nine or more.
That survey was from 2023, so those numbers could be even greater now.
Tran said streaming services are a microcosm of the bigger issue in our now-nearly cashless world. People just aren’t as aware of all they actually spend money on.
“It adds up,” Tran said. “What's important to really look at where your money is going."
That’s the first step to save on streaming: list all the services you pay for and how much they cost, including those free trials you intended to cancel after but never did.
You might be surprised at what you find.
“There's some that we don't even completely touch, that we could just cancel,” Escalante admitted.
Another suggestion is to try free apps, like Freevee, Pluto TV or the Roku Channel. You’ll have to watch ads, but you’ll save money.
And if you’re willing to watch ads for the paid services, it’ll likely be a cheaper monthly charge.
“Stick with one or two that you really like,” Bishop said. “Sometimes less is more."
Another trick is to hop from service to service. Watch everything you want from one subscription and then cancel it for another.
“(People are) selecting, cherry-picking the shows they want to watch. And selecting their current streaming service based on that,” Tran said. “That saves money."
Lastly, where you can, share log-ins. Escalante does exactly that with his family, though he admits he may need to do more budgeting, too.
“I think we should all hire a financial advisor, I'm not going to lie,” he said, smiling. “I'd probably hire one too in the next few years. I need one.”
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