Americans are wasting $25.34 a month on unused subscriptions

Households are wasting $25.34 a month on unused subscription services as a third consider giving up their plans, new figures show.

The average American household has 4.4 paid subscriptions worth $52.97 per month, according to a survey of 1,106 people by the credit company Self-Financial.

As searing inflation eats away at family budgets, experts are now calling on households to take stock of their monthly spending to save money.

The data revealed that Disney+ was the most unused video streaming subscription – with 29.3% of people who paid for it saying they hadn’t used it in the past 30 days. Disney+ membership fees start at $7.99.

It was followed by Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, which saw 22.3 and 22.2 percent of users respectively say they hadn’t watched them in the past month.

Meanwhile, the five least used subscriptions overall included: Amazon Prime, Walmart+, Dollar Shave Club, Chewy and Instacart Express.

In total, more than 30% of subscriptions are unused each month, which is the equivalent of 1.4 plans, or $25.34 per month.

Subscription services grew in popularity during the pandemic when households went into lockdown, meaning they had more time to stream series and needed goods delivered to their doorsteps.

This has led to what experts have called the “subscription economy”, with restaurant owners and grocery services offering monthly plans to have products delivered to customers’ homes.

And the trend continues to grow. UBS Wealth Management estimates that the digital subscription economy is worth $650 billion and is expected to reach a market size of $1.5 trillion by 2025.

But experts say the numbers are likely to be dampened by high inflation which is putting unprecedented pressure on household budgets.

Statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the annual inflation rate is now 4.9%, down from its peak of 9.1% in June 2022.

Although this is the first time the United States has seen a rise of less than 5% in less than two years, it still remains well above the target rate of 2% set by the Fed.

According to the Self Financial survey, 36% of households planned to cancel their subscription.

Additionally, many are considering deleting their Netflix accounts especially as part of its crackdown on account sharing.

According to Netflix rules, people who don’t live in the same household can’t stream from the same account.

While it’s always been a rule, the streaming giant is bringing a new device verification feature that allows viewers to prove where they’re watching from.

It will then charge for ‘sub-accounts’ – although the cost varies from country to country.

The program has been rolled out in Chile where it charges sub-account holders $2.99 ​​per month.

But in Canada, the fee is $7.99 per member – the equivalent of $5.95 in US dollars.

The crackdown has yet to be implemented in the United States after the rollout in Spain and Canada led to a drop in its subscriptions.

As a result, Netflix delayed the introduction of the new rules in the United States from the first quarter of the year to the second.

This means that account sharing should be banned within the next three months – although no official date has been given.

Some 36% of respondents said they planned to cancel their Netflix subscription due to the crackdown.

Lauren Bringle, financial adviser at Self Financial, said: ‘With inflation still high and popular subscription services, like Netflix, cracking down on password sharing, it’s more important than ever to monitor the paid subscriptions you might have in place.

‘Review your paid subscriptions each month to decide which ones you can’t live without, which ones you can get rid of, and which subscriptions you can swap out and change regularly to suit your needs.

“$10.99 a month may not seem like much, but over a year that’s over $130, which can quickly double or triple by paying for multiple subscriptions.”