ACK! Cable Bill

[Deleted]

I've HAD IT with paying $200/month for cable, phone and internet! Hubs and I took a hard look at out budget and I was stunned to realize cable is almost $200 and cell phones aren't far behind at $160.

We have Comcast with DVR in the living room and another box in the bedroom (no DVR on that one), with HBO. Should that be $200/month? What's the alternative? We live just south of Boston, for the record, and when we first signed up we got a $99/month deal which has run its course. Should we go FIOS? Xfinity? Any advice is welcome!!

[StJess80]

I hate mine too, but we are on the wrong side of the bldg for satellite. Our cable bill is like $160 for 2 dvr's, internet (w/ some sort of power boost) 2 tvs w/ digital cable. But our cell isn't bad. $106 for 2 smartphones, unlimited everything.

[polarbearfans]

We quit cable a couple years ago. No regrets. We do have Internet $60 a month for max speed. $10 Netflix. $8 Hulu plus. $60 a year for Xbox gold for Espn sports.

We cut it in summer which is easier since not as much tv. We have plenty to watch and have no desire to get cable again. Yes we lost shows we liked but we adjusted. Love the savings.

We also have an HD antenna for live tv. There is a website that tells which way to turn for best signal for certan channels.

[mellie35]

My advice is to first call the cable company and threaten to cancel. They might lower your bill to keep you. We just did that after our first-year deal was up and they raised our prices. We called them and then they asked what would make us happy. We actually said that we wanted to keep paying the same. They actually gave us a price of lower than what we had been paying.

[Deleted]

Negotiate. Tell them you're going to cancel. I get our rate lowered ever year that way.

[Deleted]

I call the cancellation dept every 6-12 months and threaten to cancel. I get my bill lowered every time. Right now I pay $130 for 2 HD boxes, DVR, all non premium channels, showtime, phone, Internet.

[Deleted]

Wow! You guys are great negotiators. I'm such a wimp! But I'll try. Thank you!

[Deleted]

Oct 11, 2012 21:00:49 GMT -5 @lorelaireadsagain said:

Wow! You guys are great negotiators. I'm such a wimp! But I'll try. Thank you!

I am a wimp and a pushover and I always win. Don't worry about it!

Tips here:

www.erica.biz/2009/negotiate-your-phone-bill/

[Deleted]

Ooh that simple "I can't afford it" line in the negotiate your phone bill article is a good one. I'm going to use that!

[StJess80]

Yup, I plan on using that again soon.

[Deleted]

Thanks! I used the script posted by V and got $50 off my bill per month! Verizon FIOS

[Deleted]

We switched to dish for this reason. It is a lot cheaper generally. We currently have DirecTV and I need to call them - our last bill was $170 but that included a $40 payment for NFL Sunday ticket and a couple of movie rentals so without those I think it would have been more like $115-120. Still, that's pretty high IMO. When we originally signed up I think we were paying more like $60-70 a month.

OP I think you can do better. And thanks for the reminder that I need to call DirecTV and ask them to make our bill lower!

[M]

When we had Charter, I use to pull the "I'm a poor college student" bit all the time. We had extended basic and fastest internet at the time for $45/mo. We are with Comcast now and pay $80...they suck at negotiating. We tried to cancel cable since we never watch TV and they wanted to increase our internet! We have ATT dsl as a back up internet for only $20/mo and works well enough for everyday use so this may be an option for you. It's just not fast enough for us since we rely heavily on good internet connection for business.

[anonnani]

I have directv with stars and sports channels a dvr in the living room and regualr box in the other and its 120ish after tax. But it doesn't include internet. We did internet through our sprint cell phone that was $20 one time fee and it does mobile hot spot for the house. And we never really used the house phone so didn't bother with one. But directv and verizon have some sort of deal so u get bill credits if u have both services.

[chessie]

Switching over to FIOS since my regular plan is awful. I tried the whole I will cancel, they sent me to cancelling department, in my area there is not a lot of competition and they know that.

[aspentosh]

Definitely negotiate. We pay $110 for FIOS- HD DVR box, extra HD channels, 20/20 internet.

[gt7301b]

I called the cable company to negotiate and they kept trying to give me HBO. I don't want HBO!!! Finally, I asked myself, why am I negotiating with these fools who won't listen to me.

We have FIOS coming on Saturday, $82 for cable and internet with a $100 gift card!!

[Deleted]

I wish we could get FIOS - my HOA is blocking it

[sh10]

We switched to DirecTV (and I swore I would never get satilite and I love it! DVR on all three tvs, which would have been much more with cable. We got two referral bonuaes and are in the intro period, so our bill is only $70 right now, but even when it goes up, the max should be $120. The service is so much better, they email us updates, we can program shows online, it's great. Comcast in our area is not as tech savvy as the test of the country, it's older equipment.

[everam01]

I have DirecTV and all of our promotions had expired, so I called and they dropped it from $100/mo to $65/mo for the next year, no contract extension.

[DefenseAgainstTheDarkArts22]

Oct 11, 2012 20:49:43 GMT -5 polarbearfans said:

We quit cable a couple years ago. No regrets. We do have Internet $60 a month for max speed. $10 Netflix. $8 Hulu plus. $60 a year for Xbox gold for Espn sports.

We cut it in summer which is easier since not as much tv. We have plenty to watch and have no desire to get cable again. Yes we lost shows we liked but we adjusted. Love the savings.

We also have an HD antenna for live tv. There is a website that tells which way to turn for best signal for certain channels.

We have the same set-up minus the Xbox portion since we don't watch many sports.

In addition to the antenna we have an HD Home Run box which records the live tv to any computer. Using the network we can then play the files right on our tv.

[Susie]

We currently spend about $105/mo for one iPhone + one regular cell phone.

Our cable bill just went up from $113 to the low $170s for home phone + internet + one HD TV (no DVR). Last year I talked them into a promotional rate that just expired. We'll be switching to Verizon Fios soon I think, partly in hopes of getting a better rate, even if it's just promotional.

I had Calvin try to re-negotiate a better rate, but they said they couldn't renew our old rate.

[patches31709]

We just switched to FIOS because our bills with the cable company were out of control. We pay $110 for cable, upgraded internet, phone, and HBO. The prices are locked in for two years, and we have a free multi-room DVR. I've been really happy with them so far.

[Deleted]

Oct 12, 2012 11:18:40 GMT -5 patches31709 said:

We just switched to FIOS because our bills with the cable company were out of control. We pay $110 for cable, upgraded internet, phone, and HBO. The prices are locked in for two years, and we have a free multi-room DVR. I've been really happy with them so far.

You got a far better deal than I did. How did you score this? I have 2 dvr boxes, 2 reg boxes, phone, and slowest internet and I was paying 170.

I called last night and got it dropped to 120 if I return the box that has been sitting around my house and dropped the phone (which we dont use).