fun with cable

[tripods68]

What exactly is the point of paying your bill late? Whether there is a consequence or not, what purpose does it serve? How does it benefit you to not pay it on time? You must get something out of it or else why would you do it?

It's called "Manchausen by-proxy" on internet.

[Nutria]

I have Comcast and I get a late fee every frigging month because they don't know how to charge my credit card. I have to call every month and put it on auto-pay, then open my bill and scream, "What is the definition of insanity??!?"

Use a bill pay service; they auto-transfer the money for you. I like CheckFree Web, but your bank probably offers the service too.

[sv2007]

I have Comcast and I get a late fee every frigging month because they don't know how to charge my credit card. I have to call every month and put it on auto-pay, then open my bill and scream, "What is the definition of insanity??!?"

Sorry to hear that.

There was a company that I kept getting charged late fees even when I paid on time; I can't remember its name now. It's almost a requirement to call them once a month to get those charges removed.

But, I'm happy to say Comcast in SF bay area isn't like that. I discovered this some years ago when I was late by almost 4 months; a combination of vacation and general procrastination. I was a bit scared that my internet was going to stop since I usually WFH, but nope, nothing happened (well, company had a bit of trouble with reimbursement as the bill was larger than normal).

[sv2007]

There is just no late fees for cable. An accidental discovery a few years ago.

[sv2007]

I've gone 3 months without paying and still have service and no fees what so ever. I've also put the cable on hold for 6 months at one of my houses and not paying the hold fee ($5/mo) until reactivation and was not charged anything extra (BTW, you can save some money by canceling and restarting, but it's a hassle to go to their office).

Comcast sucks in pretty much everything but not their billing department -- very customer oriented.

BTW, the increase in amount $48.46 is just my discount being over. I really don't know how why they are still giving me some discounts because w/o any discounts, my bill is about $60. Good enough for me to not call them for another discount... maybe that's why? Oh well.

Anyway, here's the follow up.

[DaveInPgh]

You should stick to offering bad advice in Real Estate threads.

Scratch that. PLEASE carry on with these ridiculous threads if it draws your attention from real topics!!!

[frugalNH]

I could never have an intentionally outstanding bill. It would keep me up at night! But for more fun, why not ditch the cable all together in favor of Netflix, hulu, Amazon, sling or whatever floats your boat? You could play your game and feel even smuggler by saving a bundle!

[FLA]

there's 10 mins of my life I'll never get back, lesson learned

[ExcuseMyIgnorance]

A thing I do that many don't is post completely truthful info to the best of my ability, withholding certain personal details, of course. Sometimes the claims sound ridiculous; I know, I'm a pretty sane person according to everybody except my wife.

One of my guilty pleasures is not paying my cable bills on time. I think it's a subconscious thing where I must hate cable companies or something.

Anyway, here's my past due cable bill that I was planning to pay just now until thought I'll post about not paying it. I'll no pay it. And try to remember to update this post on my next bill.

Why not just call them and ask for a discount?

[sv2007]

Why not just call them and ask for a discount?

Actually I did, because on the new bill (which BTW is also purposefully late) my rate increased back to $60.

Interestingly, not only did I get future discounts but Comcast also credit back for the lack of discounts in the past months (which I wasn't expecting). I wish Comcast would just automatically renew the discounts instead of needing me to call them every year. Now it is back to $35.

Had they kept the amoutn at less than $50, I wouldn't have bothered calling them. Win-win on both sides. Oh well.

[sv2007]

I could never have an intentionally outstanding bill. It would keep me up at night! But for more fun, why not ditch the cable all together in favor of Netflix, hulu, Amazon, sling or whatever floats your boat? You could play your game and feel even smuggler by saving a bundle!

I wouldn't too if there's late fees and interests piling up; but Comcast has none. I discovered it by accident when I forgot to pay the bill for 3 months; getting the company to reimburse was a bit troublesome because the submit amount ($180 for 3 month) was higher then the cutoff ($100).

We don't have cable TV, only internet.

We recently added over-the-air TV programming to bring our kid up to speed on the TV stuff. It was sad to hear one of his friends (who also doesn't watch regular TV) say "I'd like a toy appropriate for 6 year old" when our son asked him what he wanted to his birthday. Our son was a little better than this kid as he watch some TV at his grandparents house.