Help me lower my cable bill!!

[jennmiller]

I just got our comcast bill that covers both DSL and cable and it jumped from $67 to $140!!! Apparently we signed up on some kind of promotional deal but there's no way I can afford this giant bill now. I don't watch tv at all, with the exception of the occasional DVD, but DH is a sports junkie so when he's home we have to set time limits in the family viewing area. Suffice it to say...the TV is here to stay and so is digital cable. Anyone know any tricks for getting Comcast to lower our bill? DH called twice and complained and they basically told him to pound salt. I'm hoping that someone here will have some magic trick for me. Otherwise I may have to take DH's suggestion of reducing our food budget in order to cover the difference

[rhiandmoi]

What package are you on? It sounds like you have a lot more channels than you need, and also more speed on your internet than you need. If you just need access to sports channels, you should be fine with basic plus whichever seasonal sports package your DH wants. That would be around $25 a month. And if he can live with just the sports that are on reglar tv and ESPN you can save $5 a month. And for internet the basic cable internet is also around $30. You will notice a difference if you stream a lot of movies, but for regular internet browsing you can hardly tell.

The first thing you should do is check the channel listings side by side and highlight the channels that are actually watched in your house. When we did this, even though we watch a lot of TV on a lot of channels we were able to drop to a much smaller plan with only missing 1 channel that we only watch if we are bored.

[nataliachick7]

This happened to us this month as well. our bill went from about 65 dollars to 113. promotion we had expired. they said if i wanted to go down to a more basic package, all i would have is like channels 2,5,7,9,11, and like 2 others. totally lame, and irritating!

[zebra15]

can you drop the cable and get directv? I loved them and used the service for years. When I moved and cancelled them last year I was paying $55/month for tons of channels. Plus they are forever having new client specials. As for internet check around for different service providers. I know in our area there are 3 to choose from at minimum. I use Cox and pay $45 (no bundle discount).

[jewelsJZ]

Is this the only service provider in your area? We have two here and some neighbors have negotiated a better deal with Company B, then called their current provider (Company A) and threatened to stop service all together because Company B is offering a better deal. Company A matched the deal to keep the customer.

[jennmiller]

Comcast is the only cable provider around here and we've had Direct TV before and didn't like it. But, I'm definitely not paying $100+ dollars a month to surf the net and watch TV! So I think I'll start by pulling out the program guides for Direct TV and Comcast, as suggested, and compare them side by side and see who can get us the best package. Then maybe I can get an internet only deal with the phone company or maybe just reduce our comcast service to just internet. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll go over everything tomorrow and let you know what I come up with.

[BetsyS]

Our promotion ended last month, and our bill jumped crazily, too. We ended up dropping the cable and we now watch antenna TV (and, because we live in a city, it's actually better reception than cable was, and probably 25+ channels).

Last year, I threatened to drop the cable portion, and they called back 2 days later with a promotional deal. This year, they didn't call.

We still pay about $90 for phone and internet, once they add all the fees and taxes. It stinks.

[Juvysen]

We dropped cable in favor of netflix with the roku (instant play device). The Roku now has a "channel store" where you can pick various things. I know they have a MLB one, but we've never used it (not too into sports here)... so maybe that could help? It works with your roadrunner (it can be wired or wireless). We love it You buy the roku machine *once* then it's yours - you're not renting it or something. It runs about $100, but again, it's a one-time thing. Netflix has lots of TV shows (though, usually not the newest ones...)

We also chose to keep roadrunner, so we decided to keep the $5 cable that just gives us clear access to the major networks (abc, nbc, cbs, fox... just the local ones, though also QVC, for some reason), but nothing else... we definitely get sports on those...

[daytripper75]

We dropped cable about 3 years ago and have not regretted it for a moment. We get cable tv shows on dvd from the library and enjoy about 20 channels via antenna for free.
Can your husband make plans to watch important games at a friends house or a sports bar? $140 is a lot of money each month just to watch sports!

[Youngfrankenstein]

Originally Posted by Juvysen

We dropped cable in favor of netflix with the roku (instant play device). The Roku now has a "channel store" where you can pick various things. I know they have a MLB one, but we've never used it (not too into sports here)... so maybe that could help? It works with your roadrunner (it can be wired or wireless). We love it You buy the roku machine *once* then it's yours - you're not renting it or something. It runs about $100, but again, it's a one-time thing. Netflix has lots of TV shows (though, usually not the newest ones...)

We also chose to keep roadrunner, so we decided to keep the $5 cable that just gives us clear access to the major networks (abc, nbc, cbs, fox... just the local ones, though also QVC, for some reason), but nothing else... we definitely get sports on those...

We basically did a version of this, too. We ditched the cable and bought a media computer that hooks up to our big tv. We get anything online and have netflix streaming and a digital antenna.

I can't say enough great things about the Netflix! It has soooo much stuff! And I can watch *most* other stuff online in my living room. The antenna is spotty can be annoying. We could get the basic cable back for $12 a month...we'll see, we're still seeing if we can get the antenna to work better. Our computer uses Windows Media Center, which runs the netflix and has a guide and DVR built in.

[sinsaratea]

My comcast here offers an economy internet for 24.99 a month. I can still watch streamed movies from my Netflix account and do all my online stuff. I haven't really noticed a difference from the higher speed one they have. I currently have the digital starter package that runs about 55 a month but i am going to move it down soon to just basic cable for another 25 dollars. I will miss the weather channel but i can get the same info online. and comcast is the only cable in town here. but if you like the dish services thats a good option too. and at&t has a dsl only package which was great when i had it because i don't have a phone line here.

[Drummer's Wife]

I don't know about getting cheaper cable, b/c we have never paid for it (had it free included in rent a couple times) but wanted to say depending on what sports your DH watches he might be able to find them online. Mine is able to stream games live, for free (though they have pay sites, which would still be cheaper than cable). I honestly don't know how he does it, exactly, but he can find any show that has already aired (it's how we watched Weeds and Dexter which are on showtime). someone, somewhere uploads them to the web. For sports, it's the same, but your DH is prob. like mine in that he doesn't want to wait until after the football game to watch it, so he does the live streaming thing.

We also have netflix, and use the instant play feature every day. It helps to have a bigger LCD monitor, of course, but buying one would be cheaper than paying a high cable bill every month. Also, there are sites you can pay monthly for ($10-20) that are similar to what napster was/is. Graboid is one we use, and we have been able to see movies while they are still in the movie theater. Hopefully this is legal otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

Just mentioning that with the Internet, it really is possible to see pretty much anything that is on cable. oh, yeah... my DH has figured out how to send the shows to our big screen TV, either using the wii or by conneting the laptop with a cord.

Good luck figuring out a cheaper way. I can't imagine spending so much on TV each month, but I know plenty of people spend twice that amount. We don't even have comcast in our city, so the choices are even more limited and $$$.

[pinksprklybarefoot]

I know this thread is ten days old or so, but I figured I'd chime in anyway. OP, we were in your *exact* same spot a few weeks ago, except our phone is through Comcast as well. We had a nice promotional deal that ended. I would have been just fine ditching cable, but DH had grown really used to the sports channels.

DH called, and called, and called, telling them he had lost his job and we just couldn't afford it (true). He chatted on the internet with reps quite a few times. Eventually, he got a guy over the internet that said (pretty much verbatim), "Well, you've had the promotional rate for a while now, you probably should start paying your whole bill. So I'll continue your promo rate on the cable, and I'll drop your internet and phone bill down a little." So at this point we are paying less than we were originally.

The moral of the story for us was persistence. Eventually, you'll get a rep with the "It ain't coming out of my paycheck" mentality. We didn't even get to our final plan, which was to call to cancel and hope they offered something. Around here it is relatively easy to switch phone/internet providers, but difficult to get anything other than Comcast unless you go the dish route. So we were prepared to go without cable for a bit. However, if you sign up again a month later, you are a new customer. Sometimes if make a big enough stink, they'll find a way to waive the installation fee.

Good luck, if you haven't solved the problem already.