Inflation: Subscription Costs Keep Rising in 2025 — 3 Ways To Better Manage Them
Written by
Vance Cariaga
Edited by
Jenna Klaverweiden
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If you need to tighten up your budget, a good place to start is with subscriptions. U.S. adults spend more than $1,000 a year on subscriptions, according to a survey from CNET — and those costs are likely to move even higher in 2025.
Here are details on the subscriptions that are seeing price hikes this year, as well as three ways to better manage them.
Subscription Costs Are Rising
Numerous services have announced subscription hikes in recent months, including some of the most popular streaming services. Here’s a list of some of the latest announcements:
- Netflix is raising the price of subscription plans for U.S customers by about $1 to $2.50 monthly, according to an email sent to CBS MoneyWatch.
- The cost of the consumer Microsoft 365 bundle is increasing by $3 a month, GeekWire reported.
- Alphabet-owned YouTube increased the cost of the YouTube TV subscription from 72.99 to $82.99 in January, CBS MoneyWatch reported.
- Late last year, Disney announced that it was raising subscription prices for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN, Forbes reported.
Many of these increases are small when you look at them on a per-month basis. But taken as a whole and over a long period of time, you could be looking at a lot of money.
“Unmanaged subscriptions can add up,” Rod Griffin, senior director of public education and advocacy at Experian, told GOBankingRates in an email. “While a slight price increase to watch ‘Bridgerton’ might not seem quite so bad, accumulated monthly charges could drain your budget without you noticing.”
Beyond that, he added, you also could end up paying for services you completely forgot about due to “subscription creep.” This happens when you forget to cancel a subscription you signed up for but no longer use.
Here are three ways to better manage your subscriptions, according to Griffin.
Review Your Budget
Whether you live alone, with a partner or with a full household, it’s important to review your budget every so often to find out how your spending aligns with your financial goals. If you find that discretionary spending keeps you from achieving those goals, determine which items to cut back on.
“Maybe cut back on that daily $5 coffee or consider that having five different streaming service subscriptions isn’t the most sustainable at this time,” Griffin said.
Audit Your Subscriptions
Griffin recommended making a list of your subscriptions and then cross-referencing your monthly statements to account for everything. He also suggested charging all your subscriptions to the same credit card so they’re easier to track.
Rank Subscriptions by Importance
“After you’ve created a list, take a look at each subscription and weigh the importance of each,” Griffin said. “Have you used it more than three times a week? Is the price increase worth how many times you use it? Did you even know you had this subscription? Identify the services that you do not use often and decide which to unsubscribe from — and unsubscribe in one session so you do not forget any or delay any further.”
As he noted, if you later find that you need the service, you can always resubscribe. Also, if you want to streamline the process of tracking subscriptions, Experian offers a subscription cancellation service with an Experian premium membership accessible at Experian.com and through the Experian mobile app.
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