Stealth price rises you missed last year as four common subscriptions added £84 to your bills in 2024
SUBSCRIPTION costs crept up last year – and you might not have noticed that you’re paying an extra £84 on bills.
It’s a new year, which means this is the perfect time to take stock of what you’re spending each month.
There are four very popular services that saw fairly significant price rises in 2024.
And together, they tack on an extra £84 to your outgoings each year.
Don’t let those price hikes quietly empty your bank account this year.
Here are four services that are costing you more than they used to…
DISNEY+
Disney+ raised the prices of two plans for Brits in 2024.
On October 17, the cost of the Standard plan climbed from £7.99 to £8.99 each month.
That works out at an extra £12 a year for the TV streaming service.
But if you were paying for the Premium plan, your bill went up from £10.99 to £12.99 a month.
That’s an additional £2 a month, or £24 annually.
SPOTIFY
Music streaming giant Spotify also charged fans more for their tunes in 2024.
Three separate plans each saw prices rises.
For the Individual plan, your monthly bill went up from £10.99 to £11.99 – a £12-per-year increase.
If you want the Duo plan, you’re paying £16.99 instead of £14.99 each month.
That’s a £2 monthly price rise, or £24 over the course of a year.
And the Family plan also rose by £2 a month, increasing from £17.99 to £19.99.
Again, that’s an extra £24 per year coming out of your account.
XBOX GAME PASS
Gamers weren’t exempt from price shocks either.
The Xbox Game Pass, which lets you enjoy a large selection of free titles each month, saw prices rises on several plans.
For PC Game Pass players, the plan rose from £7.99 a month to £9.99.
If you bought the Game Pass Core on an annual basis, you’d be paying £55.99 instead of £49.99.
But the costliest increase was for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, rising from £12.99 to £14.99 a month.
That’s a yearly increase of £24, based on an additional £2 paid out each month.
SWAP YOUR STREAMS TO SAVE!
Here’s some bill-slashing advice from The Sun’s tech editor Sean Keach…
If you’re like me, you’ll be paying out more than you’d like on subscriptions each month.
It’s easy to lose track of where all the money goes, and the fear of missing out makes it hard to bin Netflix.
But if you’re paying for several streaming services, you’re making a big mistake.
Instead, try something called stream swapping.
Cancel all of your TV subscriptions except for Netflix, then burn through all of the telly you want to watch on the app.
Then cancel that and sign up for another service, like Disney+.
Watch all of the good stuff there and then move on, perhaps to Amazon Video.
Do this with three or four apps and then cycle back to Netflix at the start.
This way, you get to watch all of the top content on each app but you’re not paying for them all at the same time.
And you might even get to take advantage of some attractive sign-up offers too.
It could save you hundreds each year if you stick to it.
PARAMOUNT+
Disney+ wasn’t the only streaming service that increased prices in 2024.
Paramount+ also jacked up its monthly fees by a quid each month.
That means you’re paying £7.99 instead of £6.99, equalling £12 over the course of the year.
With all four of these services combined, you could be paying as much as £84 extra each year.