How to save money on subscriptions you want to keep

Before you can trim costs you need every subscription in one place with its price, billing date and how often you really use it. Check your current account, every credit card, PayPal, and the subscriptions screens in the Apple App Store and Google Play, because app subscriptions often bill through those rather than directly.

Mark each one as use weekly, use sometimes or forgot about it. Cancel the last group straight away. The other two groups are where the tactics below come in. Adding the totals to the budget planner shows how much of your monthly spending is on autopilot.

Many streaming, software, cloud storage and membership services offer an annual plan that works out cheaper than twelve monthly payments. It only saves money if you would genuinely have kept the service all year, so use it for your most-used one or two subscriptions, not everything.

Put a calendar reminder a week before any annual renewal so you can decide whether to keep it, and check the renewal price rather than assuming it stays the same.

Most video streaming services in the UK can be cancelled monthly. Instead of paying for three or four at once, keep one at a time, watch the series you wanted, then cancel and switch to the next. You usually keep access until the end of the period you have paid for, so cancel as soon as you subscribe and you will not be charged again by accident.

Our streaming subscription audit goes into which services overlap and how to plan a rotation around the shows you watch.

Some services, particularly pay TV, broadband, gyms, newspapers and magazines, offer a cheaper price when you start the cancellation process or ring to leave. There is no guarantee, and offers vary from customer to customer, but it costs nothing to ask. Be ready to actually cancel if the offer is not good enough.

For broadband and mobile in particular, the end of your minimum term is the best moment to negotiate, because you are free to leave without a penalty. See our guide to switching broadband to save money.

Since 17 January 2025, Ofcom rules mean that new broadband, mobile and pay-TV contracts must set out any mid-contract price rises in pounds and pence at the point of sale, rather than as inflation plus a percentage. The rules do not cap how big the rise can be and do not apply to contracts taken out before that date, so it is still worth checking your contract.

If a phone, broadband or pay-TV provider raises your price in a way that was not set out in your contract, Ofcom rules generally require them to give you notice and let you leave without an exit fee. For other subscriptions, check the terms; many monthly services can raise prices with notice, and your option is to cancel.

When you sign up online or by phone, you normally have 14 days to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. For digital content such as streaming, you usually lose that right once you start using the service and agree to it starting straight away. If a company keeps taking card payments after you have cancelled, you can ask your bank or card provider to stop a continuous payment authority.

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 includes a new regime for subscription contracts, with reminder notices before renewals, easier ways to leave and a cooling-off period on renewals. It is not yet in force: at the time of writing (October 2026), the government expects it to start no earlier than 2027, and the details depend on regulations still to be made. Gym memberships have their own quirks, covered in gym contract cancellation rights.

A cheaper plan only helps if the money does not quietly disappear into everyday spending. Work out your monthly saving and set up a standing order for that amount into savings on the same day the old payment used to leave. Saving £15 a month adds up to £180 a year before interest; the compound interest calculator shows what a regular amount grows to over time.

If you like seeing progress, SYM can turn those savings into a daily or weekly goal you log with one tap.