George Kamel - The Money Trap No One Is Talking About (Worse Than Inflation)

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Streaming used to be the cheaper option... but now it’s a full-on money trap! In this episode, find out what the cause of “streamflation” is and get five simple strategies you can use to cut your costs big-time. Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video A Step-by-Step Guide to Lowering Your Monthly Bills. • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! Connect With Our Sponsors: • 🔒 Get 20% off when you join⁠ DeleteMe⁠. • 💸 Learn more about opening a high-yield savings account with⁠ Laurel Road⁠. Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show   🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You feel like subscription prices are getting out of control? Well, you're not alone. 87% of consumers think their streaming bill is going up faster than ever before. And I don't know of anything else that 9 and 10 Americans agree on, aside from the fact that Southwest Airlines has lost its marbles. What are we doing, guys? Your snacks already weren't great. Customer service, it was a low bar.

And now you're charging me for my bag? I need two bags. Give me two bags. If I can't carry my body weight and extra shoes and clothing, then what's the point of going anywhere? I have a lot of toiletries. So many Lufas. But I think those folks are right.

Streamflation has outpaced actual inflation. And today, we're going to tackle this epidemic head on by breaking down just how bad it's gotten and try to figure out why it's so out of hand. And most importantly, you're going to learn five strategies that you can use to fight back and potentially save hundreds of dollars each year. But first, be sure to hit like on this video,

subscribe to this channel, so that the YouTube overlords know that we've got some good stuff cooking over here. All right, if you're not quite tracking with the problem we're dealing with, this guy does a good overview. YouTube TV is raising its prices again, this time to 82.99 a month. Now, I cut the chord with DirecTV in August of 2016, switched to YouTube TV. I think the price was like $35 a month at the time, which was crazy cheap and a great deal. Considering I was paying $140 for Direct, this is what I'm paying monthly now for TV.

YouTube TV, 8299, Netflix, 1549, Apple, 99, Paramount, 799, Peacock, 799, Max, 1699, Hulu, 999, Prime, 1499, Disney, 999. Total of 16642. I have nine apps, nine passwords, nine devs for my bank account. I thought the future was supposed to be better, easier, more convenient. Man, they got us with the bait and switch. He's 100% right. Streaming services used to be the cheaper, cooler alternative to cable. But now a lot of cord cutters, like the guy in that video,

are paying just as much before they ditched cable, if not more. And it's no wonder why. Because the only thing these streaming providers have loved more than producing reboots that absolutely no one asked for is raising their prices. Just last year, Disney Plus jumped up to $16 a month for their ad-free plan, Netflix's standard ad-free plan hopped up to $18, and Hulu's shot to $19. But the one that's getting all the buzz right now is YouTube TV, which jumped from $73 to $83 at the start of 2025.

It's like all these companies are in a secret competition to see who can charge the most. And my money is on Disney, because no one milks American families for more money than Mickey. It's a shakedown, and I'm sick of it. So why is this such a big deal? After all, everything else is getting more expensive these days. Eggs, gas, corned beef in a can. And that's just one meal. God bless Bucky's.

The problem, like I mentioned earlier, is that streamflation is outpacing actual inflation. Let's look at an example. In 2019, YouTube TV cost 50 bucks a month. If that price tag had grown at the rate of inflation, it would currently be sitting at $63, which is a 26% increase. But YouTube TV now costs $83, which is a 66% jump and more than $0.00. double the rate of inflation. So obviously, this is a huge problem. But why is it happening?

Is it corporate greed? Well, remember the days when Netflix started dropping a new original series every three hours? Another one. Another one. Another one. Another one. Oh, yeah. Turns out that costs a lot of money.

All for shows like Hemlock Grove and Gwyneth Paltrow's The Goop Lab. Real winners there, guys. Neither one cracked 40% on the tomato meter. And Netflix is not the only platform that overspent on new content. Pretty much all the big guys fell into that trap, in addition to shilling out billions for the rights to air live games from the NFL, NBA, and even pickleball leagues. Shout out to my favorite amateur pickleballer, Ken Coleman.

That donk can dink. To top it all off, a lot of these companies have been losing subscribers lately, which means they're seeing even more cash fly out the window. I want to take a wild guess as to who's paying for all that? That's right. You and me, the common folk, the peasants, if you will. Which brings us to an important question. Is there anything you can actually do about these skyrocketing streaming costs. We're all screwed. I'm kidding, kind of. I've got five tips for fighting streamflation

and lowering your bills so that you can keep watching Survivor Season 48 without busting your budget. If we're really on 48, guys? That feels like too many survivors. And I'm not advocating that anyone not survive. I'm just saying that's a lot. How hard is it if 48 people have made it? Let's get to the tips. Tip number one, audit your subscriptions. One of the biggest problems with streaming services is how many there are, and it can be easy to forget which ones were even signed up for. After all, 42% of people have stopped using the subscription service, but forgot they were still paying for it. So if you can't name all your streaming services off the top of your head, then it's time to cancel a few. Log into your bank account and take inventory of every

streaming service you were charged for over the last month. And ask yourself, do I actually use this? Is it worth the money? Do I even know what this is? And cancel any that don't pass the sniff test. And all those random Apple charges, 999, 1299, go into your subscription settings on your phone and cancel them there. Tip number two, rotate your subscriptions. My guess is that you're not watching more than one or two shows at any given time. And if you are, you might need to go outside once in a while and touch some grass. So try a subscription rotation.

This can save you hundreds. Here's how it works. Let's say you're deep into your fourth rewatch of the office while your wife is in her seventh rewatch of Gilmore Girls. That means you could pay for Peacock and Netflix and put any other services on hold until you move on to some new shows. Then you can cancel those services and switch to Hulu and Disney Plus when you your wife moves on to Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and you start binging Bluey. Both will give you a good

cry and teach you some valuable life lessons. Now over the course of a year, you could easily save over 300 bucks by only having two streaming services at a time instead of four. Tip number three, start a free trial. Now, most of the big-name streaming services offer a free trial, whether it's for a week or 30 days. So if you're just looking to watch a particular movie or fly through a season of a show, signing up for a free trial could be the way to go. Now, the catches for most of these free trials, is that they require you to enter a credit or debit card number, and I hope it's debit. Then when the trial's up,

they automatically charge you for the full price of the subscription. And we've all fallen victim to self-loathing after completely forgetting about a free trial and getting hit with a random $1299 charge in the background without even realizing it. Now, luckily, I've got a hack for avoiding this problem, and I'm not just talking about sending a reminder on your phone. I mean a way to not get charged,

even if you forget or just get too lazy when the trial is up. And I'll break it down in just a second. But first, let me tell you about something else that's happening in the background, without you even realizing it. And that's shady websites on the internet, selling your personal data to spammers and scammers. It's a real problem, and it's why I use DeleteMe,

one of the sponsors of today's video. Delete Me combs through thousands of data broker sites to clean up your digital footprint and make sure your personal info stays, you know, personal. And then every few months, Delete Me will send you a custom report showing you exactly how they've worked their magic on your behalf. And right now, as a George Camel fan,

you'll get 20% off their annual plans by going to join DeleteMe.com slash George or make it easy and click the link in the description below. Now, before we hop back into saving money on streaming, let's talk about where you should put all the money that you're saving. I'm talking about a high-yield savings account with online bank Laurel Road, another sponsor of this video. Now, look, you could put your money in a traditional savings account

at a brick-and-mortar bank making 0.01% interest, but that's dismal. That's sad. You can do better. With Laurel Road, you'll get competitive interest rates that will let your money grow much faster. There's also no minimum balance required to open an account. There's no monthly maintenance fees, and all of your deposits are FDIC insured, meaning they're safe and secure. And you can get started today by going to laurelroad.com slash George or click the link in the description below. All right, here's how to avoid finding yourself on the business end of a free trial.

Instead of giving the company your actual debit card number, you can use a website like privacy.com to create a free virtual debit card. Then you can set limits for how much it'll let you spend. And if you get charged for more than the limit, it will get declined. And no, this is not an ad. I have no affiliation with privacy.com, hashtag not sponsored. It's just something that I've personally done several times, so I know it works and that it's totally safe. All right, my fourth tip for beating streamflation, use bundles.

Several streaming companies have partnered to offer bundles with all of their services. And some other subscription plans like grocery memberships or cell phone plans offer free streaming as part of their package. Now, here are some of the best options. For starters, the Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max bundle offers all three services with ads for just $17 a month. Then you've got Walmart Plus. which includes grocery delivery and access to Paramount Plus for a total of $13 a month. And Verizon customers can add $10 for their bill for Netflix and Max

or the combo platter of Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus. Are you not exhausted? This is a lot. I can't do this anymore, man. Now remember, the whole goal here is to save money, not rack up as many services as possible. These bundles tend to work best if you're trying to reduce the cost of services you already use. So the bottom line, never spend money in order to save money. But if you play your cards right, these bundles could help you cut costs big time. Finally, tip number five, try a free streaming service.

Now, I will admit, there's a reason some of these are free. Looking at you, popcorn flicks. What is that? But there are some legit good options out there, and here's some of the best. You got the Roku channel. This offers a large selection of movies and TV shows, and you don't need a Roku device or an account to watch. Then you've got Tooby.

They have a huge content library and offer live news and sports, and it's how I watched the Super Bowl this year for free. Shout out to Kendrick. And then you've got Hoopla. This lets you use your library card to stream movies, TV shows, and audiobooks with no ads. It's really similar to platforms like Canopy and Libby. And of course, you can also watch YouTube videos for free all day, air day. So there's no need to stress about your budget while watching this channel,

the Dr. John Belloni show, front row seat with Ken Coleman, or the Glosell Cinnamon Challenge for the 57th time. It's a lot, but I enjoy it. So that's how you wage war against streamflation. And if there's one thing I hope you take away, it's that watching your favorite shows and movies shouldn't be a budget killer. If you audit your subscriptions, rotate your services, take advantage of bundles, and use free options, you can slash your streaming bill. And listen, the way I keep track of all of my subscriptions is with my every dollar budget.

If you want to check it out, it's totally free. You can click the link in the description below. And let's be real. My guess is that your streaming isn't the only bill that's getting way too expensive. And that's why I made this video breaking down how you can lower your internet and cell phone bills without canceling a thing. So keep watching to check it out or click the link in the description. As always, thanks for watching. Happy streaming.

We'll see you next time.