As a lover of shows and movies, I am constantly trying to find the best streaming services to watch all of my favorites. But most of the time, these services require subscriptions, which means paying a monthly fee to stream. Luckily, there are some tricks to avoid getting trapped by the services.

A great way to avoid paying completely for a streaming service is to use up the free trial. Most services such as Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and others use a free trial for up to a certain amount of months before you have to pay. If you decide to start the free trial, it will ask for your email, and towards the end a billing method. It may sound like they’re forcing you to pay, which is what they want you to think. However, after you put in your information and your free trial starts, once it ends you can immediately cancel your subscription and not pay a single cent. If you wish to repeat this method, the only thing you need is a new email to enter into a new trial. 

Another trick to use if you don’t mind spending a little money, is to share an account and split the bill with friends or family members. After subscribing to a streaming service, you can add multiple people to stream with you. If the total cost of streaming for 1 month is $12.99 and you split the bill amongst 3-4 friends, then that means you’re only paying about $4.33 per month, which is only about $51.96 per year, as opposed to paying alone and spending $155.88 per year. By sharing the account and having at least two people share the bill, the costs are half of what they were. In terms of how to share the bill, only one person can sign up to pay for the service, but the person sharing the account with you can Venmo, Paypal, Cash app, or even just give you cash in order to pay for their share. 

Streaming services like Netflix have one goal, to make as much money as possible by making you, the consumer, pay. By having these tricks, you will be able to enjoy your shows and movies with little to no cost.