Netflix Begins Password Sharing Fee for U.S. Users — How Much Will It Cost?
Sharing access to Stranger Things among friends and family members not living in the same household now comes with an additional fee for American users.
Netflix announced on Tuesday that U.S. subscribers will be charged $7.99 per month for sharing their account with someone outside of the home. So if your sister or brother or best friend wants to watch Eleven & Co. take on Vecna under your username and they don’t live with you, you’re going to have to pay up.
Netflix plans start at $6.99/month for the ad-supported tier, $9.99/month for the basic tier, $15.49/month for the standard tier and $19.99/month for the premium tier.
Subscribers on the standard plan can add up to one extra member, while those on the premium plan can add up to two extra members. However, additional users “cannot be added to ad-supported plans, partner packages, or third-party billed accounts,” per the streamer’s support page.
Netflix previously issued a password sharing crackdown in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina and the Dominican Republic beginning last August. In January, the streamer expanded its crackdown to Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain.
How do you feel about Netflix cracking down on password sharing? Will you shell out the extra $8 a month? Sound off in the comments.
They should have paired this with a commitment to use these funds to keep the price from increasing for everyone. It would come off as less of a money grab that way, and more like they are punishing only those who have been getting more than their fair share.
Good point and good idea.
I don’t share my password, but I am still canceling. (Well, canceled) this just seems like a huge money grab to me.
That’ll show ’em
I’ve been thinking about cancelling Netflix anyway. This does it for me. I don’t like going into unfriendly territory.
I think it will cost them a lot. I’m in Canada and cancelled Netflix as soon as they announced. There are lots of other streaming services to choose from.
I also live in Canada and only shared it with my son who’s in college, and I cancelled Netflix as soon as they did it to us here in Canada a few months ago…I hope all the cancellations in Canada and now in the US, will hurt them…badly. I was paying $20.00 a month and other services are cheaper plus I have satellite, so can get by without the couple of series I did watch on there…too greedy, so hope it backfires on them!
Im confused. Didn’t it say if you pay basically 20 bucks you get to add one additional person?
Let me then watch for free if they know the password or the house holder enters the password this is really stupid and pathetic
I don’t share but I do live in my rv and travel until I find a new home, sold my other one a few months ago and I traveling to a few different states. I don’t think I should have to give that info for service. I use the same hook ups for everything so hopefully it won’t be an issue
Not happy like everybody else. It’s my understanding that college students have to log in once a month from home to not be charged. I pay for preminun so if I’m gone for over a month and don’t log in from home I get additional charge. I know they will raise prices again. Will have to see if I stay with Netflix
In principle, it’s not exactly unreasonable: if Netflix is sending content to your house, your house should be giving them money.
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But in practice, sharing with friends and family is so rampant that it’s going to be a bumpy transition, to say the least.
What do you mean “sending content to your house”? You say that as if they have to come out to install equipment or something.
The account holder is paying for the service and should be able to share with whomever.
We have too many choices in the US to pay all of that for Netflix.
Okay, but think of it in the context of phones. My friend can’t use their phone on my plan unless I pay extra.
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Or how about car insurance? If I insure my car, my friend can’t file a claim on his own car just because I give him my policy number.
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Or better yet, imagine paying for an all-you-can-eat buffet, and then loading up five plates to feed all of your non-paying friends. Most places would call that stealing and kick you out.
None of that applies. You have to pay for each number on the phone plan, whether it’s just you, someone in your household, or anyone else.
Car insurance is based on risk of loss, as with any other insurance. It isn’t based on the number of people. Especially family health insurance plans.
Netflix isn’t charging for each user in the household, just ones outside the household. So it costs them nothing extra. They’re just losing money on people not having their own accounts.
It’s a money grab. It has nothing to do with risk or network usage.
Why should they be expected to lose money when people don’t have their own accounts. Why do you feel that some people are entitled to free Netflix?
Producing and acquiring content is not free. The infrastructure to support it is not free.
I’ve shared my password with a friend of mine for years, but I’m not all bent out of shape that he will have to pony up for his own account. And neither is he.
You can lend your car or your phone to a friend. You can offer bites off your plate. They have the screen limitation in the plan. They shouldn’t be able to tell you how to use it. Imagine if a car company forbade you to give rides in your car to people outside your household?
I would not be surprised if car companies will start charging for every passenger you have in your car next. Or at least try to. Some manufacturers are already paywalling certain car features as it is.
This! People are already paying more to have unlimited screens…it should not matter where those screens are located. Even if I went along with the premise, I still feel if you can prove you are supporting someone who is in another household ( such as at college or an elderly parent) you should not have to pay an extra fee just because they are not in your four walls.
No but you can let your child borrow your car and drive to college…you really think it is fair for kids away for semesters having to get separate Netflix because for a period of time they don’t stay in the same house hold… or kids with divorced parents… or what about families with two houses , like summer/vacation homes ?
This!
The account holder is STEALING if they give the password to anyone who is not in their household.
Not necessarily. What if I’m on vacation and I want to use my account? That’s not stealing. It’s still my account. As a single mom, I have a 2 person plan. If my daughter is away at school, it’s still the same 2 people using my account. THAT should be allowed. Now, if I gave my password to a friend, that’s a different story. But if you have the same home address (whether on vacation or at school), you should be able to use your account without being charged.
Agreed. That is what I am wondering.
Exactly what if I’m on vacation and decide to use an iPad or the place I’m staying had internet tv once I log in am I glutton be charged extra because I watch at a different location while on my vacation. That doesn’t seem rightz
I meant to say Going to be charged.
Think about families that have multiple children at different colleges!
If you are on vacation then I think when you log in they will send you some type of verification code or something to enter to prove it was you.
The account holder is paying for a number of screens. Netflix is STEALING if they don’t let me use it as I see fit. If I lend my phone to my mom or my son for a day, they are not STEALING from Apple.
So it is cheaper to get your own first tier subscription than it is to be added onto an existing one. Great😒
That may be part of their plan to inflate their subscriber numbers. Adding someone onto an existing subscription still keeps the number of subscribers the same, technically speaking.
But for a dollar more to be added to an existing account, you don’t have ads. Seems worth it to me.
$8 is pretty high. I’ll pay it because I use Netflix all the time and so do my kids who I share with. I’m not happy about it. $4-5 would have seemed more reasonable.
My ex provides Netflix for our child. Our child doesn’t live with him. He isn’t going to pay extra money for keeping it on.
This is such a money grab…. And I’m sure others are watching to see if they can get away with it.
What if you’re on vacation and trying to log in to a smart tv?
I want to know this, too. I’ve searched high and low for the answer on their site and see nothing about it.
Maybe it’s that once all your “devices” are registered to your address, they let you use those devices wherever you roam?
I can’t figure it out either. It feels like its intentionally vague
Directly from the announcement on the Netflix website (paragraph 2):
“A Netflix account is for use by one household. Everyone living in that household can use Netflix wherever they are — at home, on the go, on holiday — and take advantage of new features like Transfer Profile and Manage Access and Devices.”
I’m glad those scammers are finally facing the consequences. It was wrong of them to be sneaky and share their passwords. Netflix is providing a product, and they should be paid for it. You folks made them lose millions. I hope Netflix gets back on steady ground,… and now that it will be getting the proper revenue flow, (1)it will also help them produce more shows. and(2) may eventually be able to reduce the price for the honest folks.
“Love is sharing a password”
-Netflix tweet, March 10th 2017
Poor Neflix, worth a trillion dollars and we made them lose millions.
You’re naive to think they’re lowering prices. I and many others will just cancel Netflix and just bootleg anything on there we want to see.
I mean.. Netflix is only the largest streaming service available, with 232 million worldwide subscribers.
And?
Theft is always the answer, right?
Oh no. You used the T word. That’s definitely going to change my mind now!
lol they will never lower the price.
Found the Netflix PR shill.
What if I want to use it outside of my house?
According to the announcement at the Netflix site, if you are the registered accountholder, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to access Netflix on a device wherever you are geographically.
So, how does this work if you’re traveling and want to use Netflix somewhere other than your home? Will you get flagged for password sharing and have to pay extra for your own account?
Yeah, we go to the beach for two weeks, will I be punished for signing in to Netflix?
My guess is that the way it will work will involve some kind of multi-factor sign-in authentication for non-household-registered devices, such as a verification code or confirmation request sent from Netflix by text or email to registered authorized users, paired with phone location services or recent location data.
I cant remember what site it was on but that was how Netflix said it would work. If you’re on vacation, working out of town, etc you will verify thru the account holders cell.
I’m actually thinking about canceling also. When I started this I was paying $7.99 now I’m paying 20 bucks a month and I’m not getting anything new
New things premiere constantly.
I think family members of the same immediate family should not be charged $8 more for their kids that go off to collage and are still using their parents Netflix service. Please stop this, Netflix keeps gouging their long time customers and I will go to another service if it continues. I’ve been paying Netflix $20 a month, that should be enough. Stop the gouging to good customers. I would never share with friends.
Good job, Netflix. Prepare for a massive drop in earnings in Q2 and beyond.
So you have to pay $20 for premium + $8 each for 2 extra people to join your account?!? That’s such BS.
Nope! Gonna cancel the service. They don’t have enough shows to pay $23 a month!!
I was prepared to pay the additional charge for my son who doesn’t live at with us so he could occasionally use Netflix but $7.99 is ridiculously high. I don’t plan on cancelling but I may just downgrade my own service.
I don’t blame them and I’ll keep my Netflix.
Once Stranger Things is finished, I couldn’t care less about Netflix.
It does not bother me!! I will have a problem ONLY when they will start charging me for having 6 TV’s in my home (8 people live in the house) and I have 6 TV’s using same Netflix password.. I do not want a limit!
So, what happens if you watch Netflix outside your home ? What happens if you are traveling and vacationing and want to watch netflix ?
I don’t share but with this obnoxious display of greed I think I’ll just cancel. If I want bad reality shows and bland political “thrillers” I have plenty of better options.
Sounds like you were already uhappy with Netflix, so why didnt you cancel before this?
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What?