the main points
- Netflix is warning subscribers that the days of sharing passwords are over.
- It will cost you $7.99 to share your password with another user.
- It might be worth exploring less expensive streaming options, or checking out Amazon Prime Video if you’re already a Prime member.
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Most things in life are not free. But for many people, Netflix has been around for a really long time. This is because the streaming service giant was previously really lax about enforcing the rules surrounding password sharing.
But that all changes. Netflix began warning subscribers that if they wanted to allow others to use their passwords, they would have to pay a price. This is a change to prepare for.
Prepare to pay
Netflix currently offers four pricing tiers:
- The Standard plan with ads costs $6.99 per month
- The basic plan, which has no ads but limits you to one supported device, costs $9.99 per month
- The standard, ad-free plan that lets you watch content on two supported devices simultaneously costs $15.49 per month.
- The ad-free premium plan that lets you watch content on four supported devices simultaneously costs $19.99 per month.
If you only have the Standard plan with ads or the Basic plan, you won’t have the option to share your password with others. But if you have the ad-free Standard plan, you can add another user to your account for $7.99 per month. And if you have an ad-free premium plan, you can add up to 2 additional members to your account, but each additional user will cost you $7.99. Well, adding users to your account may result in a higher credit card bill.
Of course, if you’re letting someone else use your Netflix account for free, you can always pass the new added cost on to them if they want to keep using that option. Another smart move might be to split the total cost. So, for example, if you had an ad-free Standard plan that costs $15.49 a month, and your cost goes up to $23.48 a month for an add-on user, you could split that bill and pay $11.74 each. This is still cheaper than some streaming options out there.
Is Netflix worth paying for?
If you get a lot of good use out of Netflix, it might be worth sticking with it — even if you’ve been using it for free until now and now have to pay for the option to access a friend or family member’s account. However, there are a number of streaming services that are cheaper than Netflix. So if money is tight, you may want to explore alternatives.
On top of that, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, Prime Video Access is included with your account (otherwise, you can pay for it separately). So if you’re familiar with Netflix, you might want to see if you can find more content on Prime Video to enjoy and avoid additional fees.
Finally, many people are liable to be upset that Netflix is finally cracking down on password sharing. But to be fair, the streaming giant has allowed users to share passwords for years without charging. So if anything, we should be grateful that the option to use other people’s accounts for free has been around for as long as it has.
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