Saving on TV/Internet/Cell?

[WDELTA]

Quick question for everyone.

I'll be moving in the next month or two, and I'm hoping to start really saving some money on internet, cell phone, and possibly cable. I see comcast at&t and I'm sure many others have deals for everything, just wondering if anyone has experience bundling everything together (specifically cell phone)

Cable/satellite is definitely not a must have. But if the bundled price is only a little more expensive it would be worth it I think.

[disneysteve]

I don't know anything about it but I know Comcast now offers cell service. I would assume they offer bundles. That's at least worth looking into if it's an option where you will be living.

[phantom]

I don't know what options there might be in your area. Why not just call and get some quotes? As long as the numbers you get include the cost of renting equipment and other fees, you should be able to compare and see what each option will cost you.

Definitely watch for the fees though. Companies love to leave those out of their advertising so they can lure you in with the idea that it's just a little bit more to get some extra features you'd enjoy. Then when they hit you with the fees, it still feels like just a little more.

[WDELTA]

yeah that's pretty much why I posted. I know how they love to throw out 12 cheap months while they lock you in for a full 24. and the low rates typically don't even include the fees

comcast does look interesting. almost too good to be true at $45 per phone unlimited (plus fees)

[kork13]

I've always viewed Comcast as something equivalent to pond scum... Personally, I'd do just about anything necessary to specifically avoid working with Comcast.

How many cell phones are you looking to have? My family shares a 4-phone unlimited plan with Verizon for ~$165 ($41/line, taxes/fees included. Full disclosure, we do get a $15/mo discount through my job). T-Mobile and AT&T have similar/competitive unlimited plans. So I would defer toward that, sticking with a known, reliable, straightforward option as opposed to the who-knows-what that you'd get through Comcast.

In my opinion, bundling your services almost never works in your favor. Sure, it might be a few bucks cheaper initially, but over the long term, they inevitably jack up your rates every year or so. Maybe you can fight/cajole them into another promotional rate later on, but what do you do if not? Either love with your now-ballooning cable bill, or you cut ties & go through the same mess with a new company. No thanks.... I prefer simplicity in my life.

...I suppose it helps that I have zero desire to have cable service at home. An antenna & streaming services work great for us at a fraction of the cost.

[WDELTA]

its just my wife and I.

Like I said I’m not requiring cable. I guess I was hoping someone had a magical service including just home internet and cell phone service. Those are the big ones I was hoping to save money on

[kork13]

For cheap cell phone options, look into the various MVNO services. Cricket, PagePlus, and Republic Wireless are some that are often cited. Metro PCS is good & cheap in certain cities. I haven't looked in a while, but T-Mobile used to have a few good prepaid options that were quite good. Lots of resources online for finding the best options to for your needs.

For internet, unfortunately, you're basically hosed. Face the fact that internet service is probably monopolized by the 1 cable company & 1 phone company in your town (in most smaller cities, anyway), and bite the bullet on paying $50-$70+ for decent internet.

[thegoat]

I just went through this process. I was paying $187 for xfinity cable (I had tons of channels that I didn't need) + internet and $110 for 2 cell phones with at&t.

I ended up with the following:
$39.99/mo 1yr promotion for Verizon fios internet (2nd year is 54/mo and thereafter is like 65/mo).

$70 for cricket wireless for 2 lines -- haven't really noticed a big difference in coverage, they use at&t towers anyway.

$45/mo for psvue streaming, has more than enough channels for me now and gives me the ability to add other packages if I want. Directv NOW is another option too that has tv streaming, very reasonable too. I've used both, since I prepaid for DTVNow for an Apple TV and I can say for the 3 months I've been using the streaming service, it's been like 98% perfect. There are some hiccups here and there but to me worth the savings.

Once the Fios promo is up, I'll basically be saving $100/mo.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Here is my recommendation;



And for cell service Google Voice for free. I don't have any of these services but I am looking into Google Voice myself.

[porkpistol]

I've always viewed Comcast as something equivalent to pond scum... Personally, I'd do just about anything necessary to specifically avoid working with Comcast.

How many cell phones are you looking to have? My family shares a 4-phone unlimited plan with Verizon for ~$165 ($41/line, taxes/fees included. Full disclosure, we do get a $15/mo discount through my job). T-Mobile and AT&T have similar/competitive unlimited plans. So I would defer toward that, sticking with a known, reliable, straightforward option as opposed to the who-knows-what that you'd get through Comcast.

In my opinion, bundling your services almost never works in your favor. Sure, it might be a few bucks cheaper initially, but over the long term, they inevitably jack up your rates every year or so. Maybe you can fight/cajole them into another promotional rate later on, but what do you do if not? Either love with your now-ballooning cable bill, or you cut ties & go through the same mess with a new company. No thanks.... I prefer simplicity in my life.

...I suppose it helps that I have zero desire to have cable service at home. An antenna & streaming services work great for us at a fraction of the cost.

Did you buy your cell phones outright and then buy the plan or are you paying off the phones through your plan?

[kork13]

Did you buy your cell phones outright and then buy the plan or are you paying off the phones through your plan?

It's no longer any different. There's no advantage/incentive to do the monthly payment plan, nor do you save anything buying outright. I did mine on a payment plan, my wife's we bought outright. No difference to the monthly rate, besides me paying the monthly amount for my phone (I checked when I bought it --the payments were 24 equal payments, totaling the outright purchase amount). Also, I didn't include the phone payment in my numbers above for the monthly cost.

[porkpistol]

It's no longer any different. There's no advantage/incentive to do the monthly payment plan, nor do you save anything buying outright. I did mine on a payment plan, my wife's we bought outright. No difference to the monthly rate, besides me paying the monthly amount for my phone (I checked when I bought it --the payments were 24 equal payments, totaling the outright purchase amount). Also, I didn't include the phone payment in my numbers above for the monthly cost.

Then you didn't post the correct cost for someone to evaluate. That's the reason I asked. I knew for a fact Verizon isn't that cheap paying for 4 lines as well as 4 phones. Thank you for clarifying.

[kork13]

Then you didn't post the correct cost for someone to evaluate. That's the reason I asked. I knew for a fact Verizon isn't that cheap paying for 4 lines as well as 4 phones. Thank you for clarifying.

But it is the correct cost for the service. The cost of the phone is completely irrelevant to the cost of the service. The industry as a whole has moved away from that practice.

I could have continued to use my 3.5 year old phone, and that would be the cost of service. I chose to get a new phone, but doing so had no impact on the cost of my service. You're never required to get a new phone, but if you choose to do so, you can get a super cheap phone, or a top-of-the-line phone, or something in the middle (as I did).

If one could only use my service plan upon purchase of a new phone, I might agree with you. But it's not contingent on your phone, which is where your argument doesn't hold water. The phone is a separate transaction that happens to be with the same company.

If I had bought my phone at Best Buy, walked around the corner to Verizon & purchased the phone plan, would you still be trying to argue that I had misstated the cost of my service?

[Tabs]

I've always viewed Comcast as something equivalent to pond scum... Personally, I'd do just about anything necessary to specifically avoid working with Comcast.

I feel the need to quote this. Elsewhere on the internet, there are lots of horror stories about how the likes of AT&T and Comcast are screwing people over. At best, people need to remember that these companies are out to make money. And that's at best.

To add my own experiences, I've always purchased my own modem/router, but Comcast talked my parents into leasing one instead, and that leasing fee is easily broken even, if they would just buy one of their own. Also, I've tried to activate the built-in WiFi on their gateway, but to no avail. To do so requires that you purchase their additional home WiFi service that, last I checked, added $40 a month. Again, this is something you can do yourself for free with your own modem/router combo.

When dealing with these telecom companies (and they're not the only ones), I would do some homework and shop around first. They can be a bit shady with their business practices sometimes. For example, they up-sold my parents on faster internet that they didn't understand. The sales rep simply told them you want this, and all of a sudden, they're now paying $30 extra per month.

Oh and why not cancel or haggle it back down? They don't want me to mess with it. I've already offered to help and they said not right now. Fine. We are stuck with Comcast here anyway. Unfortunately, Google Fiber canceled their infrastructure plans here, so they and AT&T have walked backed availability of their own services. I can't even get U-verse fiber even though I've seen them install the fiber cable across my front yard. So that leaves my parents and I with only Comcast. And yeah, they're doing that thing where they will up-sell you services you don't need for more money like the way they did to my mom... without really telling her or letting her understand what's going on.

Oh yeah, I told my parents not to buy the extra home WiFi package, and that I would set it up for free for them. They agreed at least that much, so I came by and did that. However, something didn't work quite right at first (in retrospect, maybe because WiFi is deliberately disabled?) so I made the mistake of calling tech support, because I've done it in the past, and it wasn't a problem before. But now, they've locked me out of my own hardware. Yes. My own wireless router that I've purchased for my parents to use. They've locked me out of it. I know what the IP address is. I can even IPCONFIG it, but I can't access it. Luckily, after fidgeting with it on the hardware side, I managed to at least get it working, albeit it only with the old settings that had been set before I brought it over to their house. However, my parents are happy enough that they have WiFi now, so I just threw up my hands and called it a day. I read online that Comcast can backdoor into gateways and lock out features like this to make their extra $$$ on you. Not entirely sure if that's what it is, or just my own ignorant fumbling, but I've never ran into this kind of problem using my own hardware.

Either way, buyers beware.

[Gailete]

We have some rabbit ears wrapped with foil on top of our one TV, We have satellite only for the internet that runs us about $75/month but that is needed for my business. I have a pay as you go cell phone plan. I was given a brand new Sony smart phone and I still don't have it set up yet - cell phones and I don't seem to communicate the same way. I see the numbers that some of you are paying and it makes me dizzy with all the figuring you have to do to get the best deal.