Chrissy, one thing you might be able to do is switch your phone to a different company like BasicTalk, which is who I use. My triple play type contract had ended, and I still have TV and internet, so I wasn't hit with an unbundling charge to do that. I was paying around $30-$35/month for the home phone (VOIP), and with BasicTalk I'm paying just under $13. It runs off the AT&T router, so I still need that (or any router/service, not specifically AT&T), but at least I'm paying about $25/month less. I'm still not sure if I'm going to end up cutting off the local channels or not, but I will probably keep them for now, assuming when I finally get a regular bill at the new rate in I believe October, it's what they quoted. I also want to get another Roku or other streaming device before cutting them off.
Is it still a landline? I need that for ADT but I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of that. $55 a month and I don't even use it anymore. The pic above is what my charges are...voice is $23.36.
It actually seems cheap to me because we pay separtely for all this good stuff. as only very limited bundle packages are available and don't include phone. We pay a fortune here for utilities, if my ex wasn't helping me pay some of them..I would be screwed. I am going back to Direct TV because I am totally disgusted with Dish, and I think I can get a 300 dollar gift card if I go through Costco and I need that for some home projects. Maybe you can use the Basic Talk like Diane Lane suggested.
I guess I shouldn't complain then. I wouldn't even mind if I actually watched TV, but they have it rigged that even if you watch one channel like TBS it's in the 200 pkg. I'll leave my Uverse alone for now and cancel my ADT which I don't use so a total waste of $55 a month. If I can keep my stickers in my window saying I have it....that's enough.
I had that quandry about needing to pay for a higher plan because I liked HGTV and Lifetime. I haven't seen the lower bill for cutting back to local channels only yet, but it should be here next month. If not, I'm returning all of the equipment but the router, unless I get totally fed up and call the guy who visited me from Xfinity the other day. I wasn't all that happy with them when I had them either, but supposedly they've improved. I would still like to check out Sling at some point, but I need another Roku, blu-ray player or smart TV (a newer one, where the apps actually work), and I don't have the $$ for that right now. I just got back from returning the router, and I got a receipt, thankfully, because I don't trust them at all. If they didn't get the router within 21 days, it was $150 charge...for a broken router...stupid.
I was thinking of switching to Direct TV but my friend talked me into staying with Dish. They supposedly have a deal where you can pick the channels you want to watch and just pay for those. A cafeteria plan if you will. I haven't talked to them about this yet, but I plan to. I am still very annoyed with them for axing CBS for two months. It is back now, but seriously..that is absurd. Of course in the summer time..no great shows are on..but they were in violation of their contract as far as I was concerned. Sigh!
I'd love a deal where you could pick the channels you wanted! Axing CBS? I would be livid, that's the station that has Big Bang Theory!
I was thinking of switching to Direct TV but my friend talked me into staying with Dish. They supposedly have a deal where you can pick the channels you want to watch and just pay for those. A cafeteria plan if you will. I haven't talked to them about this yet, but I plan to. I am still very annoyed with them for axing CBS for two months. It is back now, but seriously..this is not customer service!
One thing that really irritated me last time I cut the cord was the lack of CBS. For some reason, I could get NBC (which has a weaker signal in this area), and ABC, but I wasn't able to obtain CBS at all, and that has always been a channel I watched. I would be upset if I were paying for service and still wasn't able to obtain CBS programming. They do have their own app for about $5/month, I think, so that would be a possible way of watching the shows, but if you're already paying for service, you shouldn't have to pay additionally just to see what should already be included. It seems Dish has had issues with various channels over the years, so that's probably going to continue. I think DirecTV may have had an issue like that or two over the years, but people do seem happier with them, other than the price. I was trying to explain my issue to a neighbor when I had to borrow her phone to speak to the provider when my service (and thus my phone) was out, but she doesn't seem to comprehend that broadband / internet is something totally different from cell phone service. Her boyfriend (her old man, she calls him) has internet at his place, so I guess he understands the difference, but I gave up after a while. She is a great neighbor and is nice to talk to, but apparently her internet/technological skills are at about the same level as my mom's although she's only about 10 years older than I am.