No friends? No problem: Here's how to enjoy discounts for your Netflix & Spotify subscriptions

Ever since I became a full-fledged working adult, I started having a favourite day every month.

And that is…

As someone who is obsessed with planning my finances, I make it a habit to calculate my monthly expenses.

But much as I try to budget my expenses and keep them as low as I can, monthly subscriptions can still take up quite a significant portion of my monthly bills.

Determined to keep my spending as low as possible, I decided to cancel my Spotify subscription …

Only to resubscribe a month later.

So imagine my joy when I found out about the existence of family subscription plans for my streaming services.

After this discovery, I quickly hopped onto the shared subscription train.

Lucky for me, I’ve always managed to get into shared plans that are fully maxed out, allowing me to enjoy the lowest possible fees.

But that’s not always the case for everyone.

I came across Shareit, a local website that allows individuals to share the cost of a subscription with strangers to enjoy discounted subscription fees.

So you’re always the 7th friend to join a Disney+ subscription, here’s all you need to know about this service!

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. We just wanna share any good deals that we come across.

TL;DR: How much can you save on streaming services?

What is this shared subscription service about?

Shareit is a service that allows individuals to share the cost of a subscription through their website.

Interested individuals are able to co-share plans with strangers (called co-subscribers) to enjoy a discounted subscription plan.

You can either join the platform to:

• Share the subscription plan as an owner and get paid when co-subscribers join your plan, or
• Join a plan as a co-subscriber

Both would allow you to get a cheaper subscription plan as compared to having an individual plan by yourself.

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How much can you save as the owner of a subscription plan?

If you already have an existing subscription and wish to find co-subscribers to share your plan, you can create a plan for others to subscribe to on the market.

According to the website, here’s how much you can save as an owner if you choose to ‘lease’ your subscription:

Streaming Service	Save Up To (Per Month)
Netflix	$11.64
Spotify	$15.90
Disney+	$9.54
Apple TV+	$4.90
YouTube Premium	$15.90
Nintendo Switch Online	$4.06
Apple One	$15.90
Tidal	$24.90
Microsoft 365	$15.90
Apple Music	$15.90

How much can you save as a co-subscriber of a subscription plan through this service?

Here’s how much you can save as compared to subscribing to your own individual plan.

Streaming Service	Cost of a Co-Shared Plan	Cost of Individual Plan (if available)	How Much Do You Save Per Month?	How Much Do You Save Per Year?
Netflix	$5.98/mth	$15.98/mth (HD Available)	$10/mth	$120/yr
Spotify	$4.98/mth	$9.90/mth	$4.92/mth	$59.04/yr
Disney+	$4.98/mth	$11.98/mth	$7/mth	$84/yr
Apple TV+	$2.48/mth	$6.98/mth	$4.50/mth	$54/yr
YouTube Premium	$4.98/mth	$11.98/mth	$7/mth	$84/yr
Nintendo Switch Online	$1.48/mth	US$3.99 (S$5.37)/mth	$3.89/mth	$46.68/yr
Apple One	$4.98/mth	$16.95/mth	$11.97/mth	$143.64/yr
Tidal	$6.98/mth	$9.90/mth	$2.92/mth	$35.04/yr
Microsoft 365	$4.98/mth	$9/mth ($108/yr)	$4.02/mth	$48.02/yr
Apple Music	$4.98/mth	$9.98/mth	$5/mth	$60/yr

If there’s a subscription plan you’re interested in, selecting the streaming service will bring you to a page where you can choose from any of the open slots:

The price, type of plan, and the number of slots left can be seen on this page.

A glimpse of how much family subscription plans cost

I was a little curious how this website earns money.

And so I took a look at the price difference between the subscription fees and the cost of a regular family member subscription.

Streaming Service	Plan Type	Cost of Shared Plan (per month)	No. of Accounts Allowed	Cost of One Account (shared by max no. of accounts)
Netflix	Premium	$19.98/mth	4	$4.995/mth
Spotify	Family (Premium)	$16.98/mth	6	$2.83/mth
Disney+	Standard	$11.98/mth	7	$1.71/mth
Apple TV+	Standard	$6.98/mth	5	$1.396/mth
YouTube	Premium (Comes with YouTube Music)	$17.98/mth	5	$2.596/mth
Nintendo Switch Online	Family	$3.99 (US$2.91)/mth US$34.99 for 12 months	8	$0.49/mth
Apple One	Family	$22.95/mth	5	$4.59/mth
Tidal	Family HiFi	$29.70/mth	6	$4.95/mth
Microsoft 365	Family	$12.33/mth ($148/yr)	6	$2.055/mth
Apple Music	Family	$14.98/mth	6	$2.496/mth

As expected, the costs are marginally lower as compared to a subscription via Shareit.

Which means the rest would go into fees in between.

Nevertheless, this is still a pretty good deal if you are someone who is unable to find your own kakis to form your own subscription circle!

Where to get shared subscriptions for streaming services

Apart from Shareit, there seem to be a few other ways to get strangers to be your co-subscribers.

One way I’ve heard is via Carousell, where people are listing their own subscription services.

Another would be Shopee.

Granted, you might be able to enjoy the best family subscription price if you join one that’s offered on these platforms.

ALSO READ: Why using a free VPN service with your Netflix account is a risky move

But personally, I might prefer to spend just a bit more and jump on the Shareit bandwagon given that they have

• SSL Certificate: The platform and all transactions operate in a secure environment with an SSL security certificate.
• Cooling-Off Period available: Subscribers have up to 25 days to get a refund if they encounter technical issues.
• Payment Method: Shareit uses Stripe payment for secure payment transactions.

As usual, please do what you are most comfortable with!

Is sharing of streaming service subscriptions legal?

To be very honest, I always thought that such a move was illegal.

Which is why when I tried entering the same address as my friend, my fingers would tremble a little as I imagined myself being locked behind bars for… sharing a Spotify account.

A bit dramatic lah… But you get what I mean.

But according to Share It, this is what is stated:

Yes, Group or family Subscription Plans are made for that purpose. Although they have a higher price compared to basic plans, it allows users to share access to products and services in a group, provided that the terms of use are respected.

A quick search on the Internet also shows that companies are not exactly obsessed with the enforcement of the one-account-per-household constraint.

For instance, according to Elizabeth Bradley, Netflix’s Vice President of Content Acquisition, there’s a reason for the limitation in the number of screens that can be streamed at once as well.

I guess that content-sharing was already expected by these streaming companies, and I’m sure they’d rather us share these services than to completely lose us as consumers.

Maximise your subscription savings with these credit cards

Since you’ll be purchasing your subscriptions online…

Remember to check if you’re using the best credit card for online shopping!

ALSO READ: Netflix and shop: Online store offers limited-edition merchandise

This article was first published in Seedly.