Netflix subscribers are slowly starting to question whether a subscription plan is still worth it, especially since the monthly fee for the streaming service has been growing continuously. Some have gotten away with the price hike through the iTunes billing method, but that is going away now as well.
No More iTunes 'Hack'
Netflix removed iTunes as a way to pay for subscriptions back in 2018 but allowed existing members to do so for a couple of years. Unfortunately for those who enjoyed the steady pricing, Netflix is purging accounts that use Apple's service as their payment channel.
This served as somewhat of a hack for certain people since the pricing did not change for them, and the monthly fee stayed at $9.99 for the basic plan, even though it has increased over the years up to $11.99 per month.
The plan is set to be retired, so customers who pay through iTunes will have to choose between the other available plans. Affected users' options will be the $6.99 ad-tier plan or the standard plan of $15.49 a month, as mentioned in The Verge.
An X user expressed their disappointment over the change, stating that Netflix stopped working with Apple Pay and did not inform them. As a result, they were locked out of their account and had to be charged $31 until they got a refund through Apple.
Netflix representative Momo Zhao confirmed that in order to continue subscribing to the streaming services, users will have to use a credit or a debit card and sign up directly. This could worsen the already strained relationship Netflix has with its customers.
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Netflix's Price Hikes
It is becoming more and more expensive to subscribe to streaming services simultaneously given that each service is issuing its increase, but Netflix seems to be the one that has had the biggest difference from the initial pricing.
Netflix is removing its $11.99 plan, which was the cheapest subscription where users didn't have to endure any ads. Now, the choices are between Standard with ads at $6.99, Standard for $15.49, or Premium for $22.99 a month.
The price hike was issued last year in October, which was reportedly due to a 9% year-over-year increase in average paid memberships, which added 8.8 million subscribers in the 4th quarter of 2023, as per CNN.
This was following Netflix's password crackdown, which the company claims to be the reason behind the subscriber growth as those who borrowed passwords from other users opted to create their own accounts instead.
The price increases hit users harder especially since Netflix was not alone in the subscription fee increases, with Disney+ also increasing its monthly fee by $3 from around $11. For some, this is no longer an affordable way to consume content.
It used to be a cheaper alternative which prompted many to join the cord-cutting trend and go completely digital. Now, some users even expressed that they might as well return to pirating content with all the price changes between all the streaming services.
