10 Financial Life Hacks That Get You Premium Subscriptions for Pennies (Legal!)

If you’re looking to save money or manage it better (who isn’t?), these money saving tips for getting free or cheaper subscriptions are going to be super useful.

Here’s the thing: I don’t like paying much for subscriptions (lol). I have a few that I do pay for, mostly related to my work, like Canva or some specialized forums.

But others like Spotify or Netflix? I’ve practically never paid for those services. And I have them active almost all the time.

Here I’ll share some life hacks for how you can do it too. If you have subscriptions here and there, these money saving tips can cut your expenses significantly. Some will give you unlimited free trials and other hacks will give you up to 70% off.

Hack 1: Use Virtual Credit Cards to Auto-Kill Subscriptions After Free Trials

This money saving hack is amazing, but heads up—it’s only valid for the US. You can sign up at Privacy.com to get a virtual credit card for free. You can set a limit on that card, either a money limit or a quick expiration date. Say $1 or expiring in 30 days.

That way, you can use that card to get a free trial for any service. The card is valid, but if you forget to cancel your trial subscription (50-50 chances, right?), it won’t charge you since you only have $1, or it will have expired the day before.

The site lets you create up to 12 cards per year, so it works perfectly for free trials all year long!

And if you’re not from the USA: You can rotate cards as they expire and you get new ones, or use other payment services like PayPal.

I’ll tell you that I’ve been doing this with Spotify for years to stay on the premium tier. Spotify, for example, often has the 3-month free trial active several times a year, so you only have to sign up 4 times a year.

One tip from experience: use a browser in incognito mode, because otherwise many times the free trial won’t show up if you’ve already used it, or it’ll show up as 1 month instead of 3.

Hack 2: Stack Free Trials Across Different Email Addresses

money saving having tip using different emails

But of course, if you got the free credit card I mentioned in the previous point, you still need a new email address each time for free trials. And sometimes it’s not that easy since they ask for phone verification and you can’t always put your same number.

But I’ll tell you something very few people know. Did you know that if you have a Gmail email address, you actually have unlimited email addresses? For example, if your email is hanna@gmail.com, you already “own” any other email that starts with hanna+…@gmail.com. For example hanna+1@gmail.com, hanna+2@gmail.com.

That means you don’t have to create these accounts, they’re already yours and those emails go directly to your main hanna@gmail.com inbox. Try it right now, send yourself an email from another address and you’ll see.

If you combine this with the previous virtual credit card trick, you’ve got free trials solved for a year.

Hack 3: Family Plan Loophole (Split With Friends)

There are many services that have Family plans, and they don’t actually verify that everyone lives together. So you can easily share this service with friends and split the payment.

For example, Spotify Family costs $19.99 for 6 people = $3.33 each (vs $11.99 solo). YouTube Premium Family is $22.99 for 5 people = $4.60 each. Apple Music, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime—they all have family or household plans.

Everyone will have their own sub-account within the family account, so it’s the same as having an individual account, just much cheaper.

Hack 4: Cancel and Wait for the “Please Come Back” Discount

money hack about susbscription cancellations

Many services beg you to come back if you cancel your subscription, since they’d rather keep you for less money than lose you completely, and I’ve proven this several times.

This happens with all kinds of services (though others, I’ve also proven, never ask me to come back for less, like Netflix). But services like Hulu, Audible, or SiriusXM offer you between 50% and 70% off so you won’t cancel.

When you try to cancel, depending on the service, they’ll either take you directly to another page so you don’t cancel and offer you a discount. Or they’ll send you an email with the offer to come back.

This works especially well with satellite radio and audiobook services.

Hack 5: Student Discount Even After Graduation

Many services offer you discounts if you’re a student. For example, Spotify Student, Amazon Prime Student, or Apple Music Student.

But you know most never check if you’ve already graduated? If you still have an email that ends in .edu, you can keep using the services and student prices.

For example, Spotify Student costs $5.99/month and includes Hulu with ads. Amazon Prime Student is nearly half off the regular price.

Some colleges or universities give you the .edu email forever, so you can have those discounts for life.

Hack 6: The Credit Card Subscription Benefit Hack

Many credit cards offer you subscription services that you’re probably not even aware of. For example, Amex Platinum gives you credits on Uber Eats and free streaming services. Or Chase Sapphire gives you DoorDash DashPass and Lyft Pink. Capital One extends your free trial periods.

Check your card’s website and see what services you might be missing out on, or which ones you’re paying for when you could have them free.

Hack 7: Library Card = Free Streaming & Audiobooks

money saving trick with library membership

For the USA: Did you know that if you have a library card, you have access to Kanopy (movies and documentaries), Hoopla (music, movies, audiobooks), and Libby (ebooks and audiobooks)?

Plus, Libby books can sync with your Kindle.

Totally free. And most people have no idea this exists. If you don’t have a library card, get one—they’re free.

Hack 8: Buy Discounted Gift Cards to Pay for Your Subscriptions

At Raise.com or CardCash.com you can buy gift cards with discounts of between 10% and 20%. With them, you can pay for your subscriptions.

For example, you can buy a Spotify gift card with a value of $100, but only pay $85 since you bought it at a discount. And with that, you pay your subscription. So you’d be getting a 15% discount every month. It’s a clever financial life hack and totally valid and legal.

Hack 9: The “Shared Account Arbitrage” Method

Basically, this consists of buying a Family account, say a Netflix family account that costs $19.99 per month for 6 people. You keep one and find 5 people who want cheap Netflix, and charge them $5 each.

That way, you don’t even spend on your own account—you’re also earning a little extra.

For example, try it with YouTube Premium Family, Apple Music Family, Nintendo Switch Online Family, Xbox Game Pass—they all have family plans.

You just have to find friends or colleagues who want to share. Or you can even find people on Reddit communities (there are actually subreddits for this).

Where I live, this hack is pretty common and well-known. Although I’ve never been the reseller, I have bought super cheap monthly subscriptions from strangers.

Hack 10: Corporate Discount Programs (You Probably Have Access)

ways to save money using employers discounts

Check if the company you work for offers subscription discounts. For this, you can go to portals like Perks at Work or Employee Benefits sites. I’ve seen 25-40% off Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, meal kits, Blue Apron, fitness apps like Peloton, and more, just for having a company email.

You can also go directly to your company’s HR portal or any benefits page they have. Search for “discounts” and you might find out about services you could have completely free that you had no idea about.