PSA: saving on internet

[Craig234]

I have, unfortunately, Comcast internet. Have for decades.

Today, I was talking to them about an outage. They said is there anything else. I said, oh that's right, since you're on the line, I meant to ask if you have better pricing available.

They took a look and had faster internet for more than a third less cost.

So, ya, a lot of money wasted for years, just for not asking for a lower price. They said they don't promote such offers. Well, ya. And this wasn't even some big special deal.

Next up: I've spent thousands on a monthly modem rental fee. Time to buy that.

 

[vi edit]

Watch out, those rates are usually only locked in for a certain number of months and then they will start inching up again. The only way to *really* save is to switch to a provider with a lower rate and a lock guarantee. Assuming you live in an area that even has competition and more than one provider.

 

[Svnla]

This is what I do. Get on a special for a year ($35/mo), then the price would go up after 12 months. Call CSR and ask to cancel because the price is too high for my budget/competition promotion/<insert excuse>. CSR would lower the price back to the "new customer promotion". Rinse and repeat...and rinse and repeat.

 

[Craig234]

Ya, I've always wanted month by month even though there's no good alternative. This was for a 1 year contract which I did for the first time, and they said, call back in a year to negotiate the rate.

 

[vi edit]

Also, one of the only ways to really get better rates on your car/home insurance is to routinely change carriers as well.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

This is like 2nd grade level knowledge. Christ, who the hell doesn't know that ComCrap and other cable companies use those pricing models where it's based on slower price for the first 6 or 12 months?

I haven't paid a "regular" price ever. The moment I see it go up on the bill is the moment I call.

 

[Craig234]

Also, one of the only ways to really get better rates on your car/home insurance is to routinely change carriers as well.

Ya, my car insurance went way up, I use a broker, I called them and said I was going to switch, oh look, they were able to lower it.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Also, one of the only ways to really get better rates on your car/home insurance is to routinely change carriers as well.

For us, Progressive has continued to offer the best rate (we actually even get a higher level of coverage for that rate too). Now, it might be different if we went bottom of the barrel cheapest coverage, I don't doubt we could find cheaper, but Progressive keeps being cheapest (even when we look at lowering coverage). Because of the extra coverage I manually compared (as I don't fully trust their comparison things), and Progressive still offered the best rate. And then it'd be like $5-10 extra for the entire term (6 months) to like double our coverage so it was almost a no-brainer to do that.

Of course to get that rate we have to do a new policy and cancel the old one. If we just make changes to our current one I think it might was going to cost us extra for less coverage or we'd have to drastically drop coverage amount just to save a small amount.

Ya, my car insurance went way up, I use a broker, I called them and said I was going to switch, oh look, they were able to lower it.

A broker for car insurance? I get they exist, but I just can't see that saving you money. My sister started trying to do that and gave us a thing to compare rates. Had a bunch of companies I'd never heard of, and then I think some of the main ones, but it was consistently more expensive than when I did a rate quote myself direct.

Perhaps that'd be different if we had newer cars and/or loans (requiring full coverage insurance)?

Watch out, those rates are usually only locked in for a certain number of months and then they will start inching up again. The only way to *really* save is to switch to a provider with a lower rate and a lock guarantee. Assuming you live in an area that even has competition and more than one provider.

Right, but that's why you then change things or contact them after the promo pricing is up. And locking in can long term be worse (think CenturyLink was advertising permanent lock-in rate for the speed, which sounds good, but over time the prices will fall and speeds go up so you'd end up paying more for less long term, although for like a couple of years you might be better off on that; that seems to be better idea on cell plans where it seems it takes longer for them to make substantial improvements and often we even see them offering less for the same price effectively raising prices).

I've seen some people saying they just alternate between themselves and their spouse so that they can perpetually be a non current customer and get promo pricing.

 

[kn51]

Basically renewing a promo deal boils down to if you are a "high value customer".

I wheel and deal with comcast. I've been a long term customer, probably spend more than I should (but I get a lot out of them, versus a Verizon cell phone plan who I dumped.)

Never have been denied new promo pricing.

Now if you enter into the 50/2 plan $39.99 (or whatever) don't expect much from retention.

Reminds me of the DirecTV and Dish days when people would flip back and forth between them.

 

[Craig234]

A broker for car insurance? I get they exist, but I just can't see that saving you money. My sister started trying to do that and gave us a thing to compare rates. Had a bunch of companies I'd never heard of, and then I think some of the main ones, but it was consistently more expensive than when I did a rate quote myself direct.

I was surprised too. From time to time I have checked out the competitors I could find directly, and the broker always seemed to have the lower rates, so I've kept them. And I have liability on an old car, not full coverage.