I haven’t seen this talked about online but there’s a little trick I use whenever I sign up to a new app that saves me hundreds of pounds a year and only takes a few seconds.

Apple requires developers make their app’s pricing transparent and thus if they offer subscriptions, they must be available to customers along with the different options allowing customers to upgrade/downgrade/or cancel their subscriptions without typical dark patterns like only being able to do it by phone, or by pausing the contract etc.

Amazing for the customer, but it also allows you to see all of the subscription levels and adjust them accordingly.

So for example, if you signed up for a 1-year contract at £40, but noticed they had a promo subscription for £10/year you could switch using this little trick — it even works if you have already paid! Apple will refund the remaining amount in your subscription and charge you for the new one.

Most developers won’t display their best prices to brand new signups since you’re already invested enough to download the app, they’ve probably promised you the world and excited you about all the features. These lower prices will be offered to either cancellations or used as a retargeting incentive for people who haven’t upgraded after using the app for a while since a customer paying a lot less is better than no customer at all for software businesses.

How to:

Almost every app in the app store that charges you will usually have a free trial pinned to a monthly or yearly subscription. I tested this with an Ultimate Guitar subscription after having paid £49.99 for a year, and it worked for me, getting my yearly bill down to £29.99. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for other apps, but I haven’t tested this enough and you may well be refunded — but please do so at your own risk.

If you sign up for the free trial or have paid, hop into Settings, then select your profile, then Subscriptions. Here you’ll see every app and service you pay for on a recurring basis and can select each one to see all their subscription options.

Some, for example will have dozens of subscription options. In this case, Headway has subscription options for 12 months that cost less than many of their 6 month options which is a bargain if you wanted to subscribe to Headway (I emphatically don’t recommend it).

All you have to do when you see an option that will save you money, is select it and approve the change (and accompanying charge).

It’s that simple!

I hope that saves you some money, and if it does, come say hi to me on Twitter: @rowesk