Wary of subscriptions

I'm so old that I really remember the days before the internet. And it may surprise you that those now trying to rip you off and sell you something of little value for a lot of money existed before the internet. Only they work through print ads or even door-to-door sales. One of the things I learned early in my life was that subscription was one of the favorite business models for scammers. Obviously, many people struggle to calculate how much they cost annually for a $10 per month subscription. In fact, how much you're willing to pay for something depends on your motivation for that thing, and if that motivation is new to you, it can be even greater. $10 a month might seem like a bargain in the first month, but it's probably impossible to see what services or products you're consistently receiving after six months, and $10 is way more than what you're currently offering.

Someone recommended Ted Lasso to me and that's when I realized I had an Apple TV+ subscription showing him. In my defense, I still have the first year of Apple TV free. But it's a weird subscription, because you'll lose access *immediately* when you cancel, not when the free period ends. So I have to be careful before I pay in October and cancel it. In my opinion Apple TV is not worth paying for in full because there is so little content and less than I really think. After Mythical Quest and The Morning Show, Ted Lasso is only the third show I've seen on Apple TV+ in a year. For me personally, Amazon Prime Video is the best TV show subscription because it's free as a bundle and I pay less per year for the subscription than I save on shipping (especially during epidemic years) . The only other TV content subscription I have is Netflix and it was better than today because when I started Netflix I still had content from different TV channels. These days these content providers each have their own streaming service and if I want to access everything I have to a) travel to the US (many of which are not available in Europe) and b) pay $100 or more per month, almost like Netflix when it starts streaming.

Video game subscription services are still relatively new, but I see the same thing happening there. Currently, Microsoft Xbox Games for PC offers games from various publishers with big names like EA. It would be even worse if each of these publishers removed their games from Game Pass and charged me an additional ড10 per month to access them. But even if each subscription service had as many games as the current game pass, it would be bad for me as a consumer: either I would have to pay for everything, or I wouldn't have access to all "exclusive" games. this situation, I would have to set up a rotation, play all games for three months on one subscription service, then cancel it and move on to another. It would be difficult.

In the end, the limiting factor is my available free time. Ten times the content is not a good deal for ten times the money because I don't have ten times the time to eat the content. And that's where video streaming competes with gaming subscriptions for my time. However, of course, the large number of subscriptions is also a risk for personal money, because it is easy to lose an account. I'm particularly critical of non-gaming software that I may only need occasionally. I don't want to pay a monthly Microsoft subscription to use Word or Excel, I don't use them personally. And these days, there are even all kinds of subscription gadgets, right down to the doorbell . Instead of trying to persuade sales people to buy you a magazine subscription you don't really need, Doorbell now takes your subscription money. I think it's called progress.

Tobold's blog