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Depending on your subscription plan, the price hike adds up to an extra $24 or $36 you pay each year to the streaming service. Below, CNBC Select shares some ways to save on (and even benefit from) your Netflix subscription.
While you're unlikely to be happy about paying a higher monthly Netflix bill, it does mean you earn a bit more from that 6% cash back. Amex's cash back is earned in the form of Reward Dollars, which cardholders can then use as a statement credit to lower their credit card balance.
And with the U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature Card, cardholders can choose to earn 5% cash back on two bonus categories each quarter, on their first $2,000 in combined eligible net purchases, then 1%. Television, internet and streaming services are counted as a bonus category and U.S. Bank's website lists Netflix as a sample qualifying merchant. Again, you can use this cash back to essentially lower your credit card bill.
T-Mobile has a "Netflix On Us" deal where qualifying cell phone plans get a free Netflix subscription. Those who aren't happy with their current cell phone provider should consider this benefit, which not only makes Netflix complimentary but also consolidates your streaming and cell phone bill.
Netflix allows you to pause your membership and come back to it. This can give you a break from the monthly subscription if you're looking to cut costs or if you're just not watching a particular show at the moment.
You just have to connect the bank account you use to pay your Netflix subscription to Experian Boost, and Experian will add your payments to your Experian credit file. Consumers can link positive payment data as far back as 24 months. Experian Boost also includes access to your FICO Score and Experian free credit monitoring that alerts you to changes on your credit report, such as new account openings in your name and balance updates.
Basic and Premium plan Netflix subscribers will now pay a little more each month for the streaming service. To help save on this cost, get a credit card that rewards streaming purchases, switch your phone plan to T-Mobile or take a pause on your subscription. And, while you're paying more for it, make sure that monthly Netflix bill is helping your credit with Experian Boost.
At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every personal finance article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of personal finance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.
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Due to losses in its subscriber base recorded in the first half of 2022, Netflix introduced an ad-supported tier in November 2022 to offset customer and revenue declines. Indeed, recent data showed that nearly one in three sign-ups to Netflix in September 2023 were on the ad-supported plan. Furthermore, while the subscription revenue of the streaming provider is expected to decline in the years to come, the advertising revenue is forecast to increase, showing the high value of hybrid business models to the streaming market these days.
Netflix was conceived in 1997 by Reed Hastings (the current CEO) and Marc Randolph. Both had previous ventures in the West Coast tech scene, Hastings was the owner of debugging software firm Pure Atria, while Randolph had co-founded and then sold MicroWarehouse for $700 million.
Originally a DVD-rental service, in the same vein as Blockbuster, Netflix broke ground with its mail order service. It introduced a subscription model at the turn of the millennium, which allowed subscribers to rent as many DVDs as they wanted, without incurring any additional costs which were the bane of many Blockbuster-fans lives.
It took a few years for the streaming service to make inroads, but once it did Netflix pivoted to a platform only approach, canning the DVD-rental service and launching Netflix worldwide. Today, only citizens in North Korea, Syria, China and Crimea are denied the binge-watching pleasures of the streaming service.
But in terms of awards, the first Emmy Netflix ever won, in 2012, is perhaps the most illustrative: an Emmy Engineering Award, given to individuals or organisations that have profoundly changed the way we watch television. Netflix, it is fair to say, has profoundly done this.
As Netflix has grown in revenue and subscribers, it has enticed others to copy its formula. Amazon launched its Prime Video subscription service at around the same time and has been a heavy spender, as it looks to compete with Netflix for online eyeballs.
To combat this, Netflix launched a cheaper ad-supported tier, to entice users who would not pay for Netflix otherwise. It also considers the ad-supported tier as a way to carve out a new source of revenue, with subscription growth drying up.
If you subscribed to Netflix la carte through +play you are NOT eligible for the Netflix Premium and AMC+ Bundle offer.
If you cancel the a la carte service and wait until the end of the billing cycle you become eligible for the bundle offer if it is still available.
If you purchased the Netflix 12 months on Us offer you are NOT eligible for the bundle at this time. At the end of your promotional period, you become eligible for the bundle if it is still available.
If you have AMC+ a la carte through +play you are not eligible for the Netflix Premium and AMC+ Bundle offer.
If you cancel the a la carte service and wait until the end of the billing cycle, you may become eligible for the bundle if it is still available.
Your subscription of Netflix Premium with AMC+ begins after you have activated the first service of the bundle offer. The subscription will auto-renew monthly at the then prevailing rate (+tax) until you cancel.
If you do not activate at least one service within the activation window (30 days), Verizon will automatically cancel the bundle.
For a limited time, buy a participating seasonal or annual subscription through +play, and get Netflix Premium for a year on us*.
Offer exclusively for Verizon standard monthly mobile, 5G Home, LTE Home and Fios customers.
Note: Offer applies to Netflix Premium plan only.
Netflix is also making basic plans unavailable to new customers in several countries, including the UK and US. Basic plans in those countries have now been replaced with standard subscriptions with ads. Ad-supported plans are much more affordable, costing 4.99 per month in the UK and $6.99 per month in the US.
Please note: the prices included in our study are the base price as advertised by Netflix. They do not include the various taxes and other charges users may face. We are aware that several countries, including Argentina, have these charges but our study focuses on the price charged by Netflix.
Second, we evaluated the cost per month in each country and how these shape up against others (based on current exchange rates at the time of writing). We have also analyzed the 13 countries with ad-based subscriptions (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Guernsey, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, South Korea, UK, and US) separately to see how these plans compare.
At the other end of the scale are a number of African and European countries and Fiji where none of their plans are cost-effective, despite recent library growth across the majority of these countries. This is due to extortionate monthly costs (Liechtenstein and Switzerland) or library sizes that are more than three times below average (Zambia, Seychelles, Uganda).
The homeland of Netflix itself, the US, also features as one of the least cost-effective countries across all of its plans. This is, again, due to its average library size and above-average monthly costs. It ranks as the eleventh, twenty-first, and seventeenth least cost-effective country for its basic, standard, and premium plans respectively.
One of the biggest advantages of streaming platforms over standard TV channels is their lack of adverts. So are the cheaper plans with ads on Netflix worth it? And do they offer the best value for money when we compare them to basic plans without ads from around the world?
It probably goes without saying that all 13 countries save a reasonable amount of money per title when opting for the standard plan with ads. But as the above table demonstrates, some get a better deal than others.
One of the most expensive countries, Guernsey, saves the most per title when choosing the standard with ads plan (saving nearly $0.0018 per title), while Brazil (which boasts the most cost-effective standard with ads plan) saves a fourth of what Guernsey users do.
Here we can compare all of the countries Netflix is available in (245 in total) to see which countries pay the most and least for their subscriptions on a cost-per-month basis. We can also see just how the recent price hikes and cuts have affected these costs.
The basic subscription tier lets you stream content in 720p HD on one device at a time. Both standard plans (with ads and ad-free) support 1080p full HD streaming and up to two devices at once. Only a premium subscription allows you to watch Netflix in 4K UHD on four supported devices at a time.
Netflix discontinued the Basic plan in some countries (including the US and the UK) as part of its efforts to adapt to the latest market trends and enhance its service model. The strategy is aimed at simplifying the subscription offerings and encouraging users to opt for other plans like Standard with ads or Premium, which provide more features or content. Obviously, these plans bring more financial gain to the company too.
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