Bundled by Cable Company?
Do you pay a cable bill? If so, I want to take a moment to pass along some information that could save you a lot of money...
A little over two years ago, I was paying over $100 for my cable bill and I thought that was the average price. I think I was actually paying something like $139.00 on average. I went with Cox Communications because they seemed to be the best company in town and they agressively pushed a service they call the 'Cox Bundle.'
Now, you may not have Cox Communications as your cable provider, but chances are your local cable provider is pushing a similar "bundle" deal as well, so please keep reading.
What they offered me is A) Digital High Speed Internet, B) Digital Cable, and C) Yes, even Digital Telephone.
I went ahead and got all this in one packaged deal dubbed the 'Cox Bundle' because they sold the idea that this was the best deal in town. They may be right. Compared to other companies, they may have had the lowest price for their digital service, however...
I took a look at my bill a few years ago, trying to find ways to save money, and I started to question what I was paying for. Why was my bill over $100, anyways? Do I even use everything I'm paying for? Am I getting the most basic service?
1) Digital High Speed Internet - The first thing Burr and I did is we invested for our own cable modem. If you don't have one, the cable company will RENT you one and add that to your monthly bill. That could me a minimum of $20.00 right there. So, we already started saving a little by having our own equipment that we would never need to return. We would not be limited in what time of modem we would get either. We decided the quality and name of the product.
2) Digital Cable - I thought were were getting the most simple, basic cable service. We did not have HBO, Showtime, didn't pay for any movie or PPV channels, etc... We just had your basic run of the mill cable channels... or so we thought. When I called and asked about what cable service I had, exactly, they said I didn't have "Basic" but "Standard" cable channels. WTF, isn't that the same thing? Nope. I was paying more for a small handful of about 20 to 30 extra channels above basic cable and in digital quality service.
That word "Digital" makes it sound like anything less is crap. Well, I told them that I wanted to downgrade my cable selection to "BASIC" and LOSE the digital quality. That was an option. That was their BASIC service. The person on the other end tried to warn me that I'd lose quality of picture, but I told them I'd take my chances.
Sure enough, I don't see a difference in the picture quality. There's no static or snow on the screen. The channels are clear enough and I'm not missing the channels that got dropped because of the downgrade. Boom. Even more money saved there.
3) Digital Telephone Sevice - Digital telephone?! Really? I had to stop and think about that. How much better could a landline be? This isn't 1947. Technology has improved since then. Unless the other person is walking around with a cordless phone, landlines have always been fairly clear sounding to me. How much more clearer can a phone with "digital" technology be? I thought about that and then I realized something else...
...Wait a minute, everyone in the house has cellphones anyways. No one uses the phone!
I realized the only reason I really wanted a phone at the house was for reverse 9-1-1 calls (which are now available on cellphones) and for voicemail, but that could easily go to voicemail on a cellphone as well. I had no reason for keeping a home phone. I completely dropped the phone service.
So I went from "Digital" everything, all packaged together neatly in their bundle 'deal,' to simply internet and "Basic" cable.
My monthly bill dropped to $60.00.
Let me repeat that. I now pay $60.00 a month!
..don't get all bundled and bound up by your cable provider. Don't let them sell you a deal THEY want to sell you. Look at your needs and downgrade to just that. You'll saves TONS of money in the long run. I easily shaved $50.00 a month on my decision, possible as much as $75.00 to $80.00 a month. If you're having trouble with money, take a look at your bills. Chances are you CAN do something about them!