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How I Saved Money Cutting the Cord

This week I’m focusing on my family’s decision to cut the cord and drop kick our cable package. On Monday I gave some tips on cord cutting, Tuesday I talked about things you could watch online and today…let’s talk money. As in, how much can I really save cutting the cord?

Well…it’s going to depend on what you’re spending on your pay TV package, isn’t it? I can only tell you how it’s working for us, and we had AT&T for all our communication services: landline, internet, TV and cellphone. How much money can I save if I cut the cord?

First: Get the Discount 

It’s ok if you’re on the fence about cutting the cord from pay TV! In fact, you might be able to pull off some tremendous savings just by talking to your cable provider about your bill.

When we first signed up for AT&T’s Uverse we got a heck of a new customer deal. But those discounts can wear off in as little as six months. There’s no need to threaten to move your service to another company, because they have whole departments of people who’s job is to keep your business. (At least AT&T does.) Even old customers are likely to get a discount just by asking for it. You may need to switch services or agree to an extended contract…but they can usually find something to keep you happy.

In our case, we lost our “new” customer discount after a year of signing up for Uverse. And then I got THIS bill. Yikes!

ATT unverse bill

This bill from 2014 shows I was paying full price for the AT&T Uverse 300 package, high speed “Max Plus” internet and a landline. Sadly, I didn’t know how easy it is to get a discount. I thought we just had to pay through the nose for our TV. Then one day I complained about my AT&T bill on Twitter. Since I’m a blogger, I used @ATT in the tweet…because that’s what bloggers do. You never know when companies are listening, and I wanted them to know I was NOT a happy camper. texting

I was surprised when I got a tweet back! It turns out AT&T has customer service people wandering around the Twittersphere. The best part is, you don’t have to be a big mouth blogger to talk to them! They’re at @ATTcares and they are actually very nice people who want to make sure you’re getting the best deal with their service. I didn’t feel like tweeting all my details, so we finished up on the phone. He signed me up for continued service, reapplied a bundle and my bill turned into this:

uversebill

That was a $75 savings just for saying that I wanted to stay a customer. I did NOT drop any channels or internet speed.

If you’re old school, you can call AT&T at their customer service number on your bill, and ask for “customer retention.” They’ll sift through your bill and make sure you’re getting all the discounts they can offer.

What you DON’T want to do is waste time at the AT&T store. Though it’s a nice idea to talk to a real human being face to face, the people working at the brick and mortar store only know how to sign you up for new services and sell equipment. Sadly, I had to figure this out on my own. contract

Are You On a Contract?

Once you’re sure you can live without your DVR and a bazillion silly channels you can make the next step: cord cutting. I called customer retention and told them I wanted to drop my landline AND my TV package. 

…and the very nice lady on the phone said, “you can’t do that.”

Huh?

Yep. I couldn’t remove my TV package the first time I called because I was still on a contract. Oh, they’d could shut it down, but there would be a $180 penalty for leaving early. I wasn’t THAT desperate to end my service, so I waited until after my contract was up on December 28 and called back.scissors

So Cut the Cord Already!

I called customer retention again, and talked to another nice person. Seriously, I think AT&T puts their best people in customer retention. Or gives them happy pills. I did have to stand firm, because the rep I talked to wanted to go over all the ways she could save me money. Maybe I wanted to switch to their new Direct TV package? Or go to a lower tier? What about a cheaper landline? 

Nope, nope, nope.

I knew she was doing her job, so I was polite but firm. I was ready to let pay TV go.

And then it was done. She tapped a couple keys and said my service would end at midnight. I would need to return the Uverse boxes, remotes and cords (at no cost) and then it was over.

What Did I Save?

I’m saving $73 dollars over my last bill and $148 if you look at the non-bundled bill from 2014. I am having to pay full price on my Internet service, since there’s nothing left to bundle with it. My Max Plus service is $62, plus $7 for the modem. uverse bill

We’re not cutting our internet speed, because, duh, we’re going to use our internet to stream TV from now on. But I’m no longer paying for a landline or dealing with cable boxes.

As a side note, my friendly customer service rep offered to look at my wireless bill–also with AT&T–and found a newer package for me. I’m now saving about $30 on my wireless and getting more data. It pays to ask, because AT&T is constantly working up new deals and packages. 

Could I Save More?

It’s possible I could save even more money if I switch providers. It’s very difficult to get a straight answer out of communication providers, especially when they only want to show you bundles. Charter might save me another $20 bucks if I switch to their internet. But that would require having techs out to my house, digging up the yard and goodness knows what else when they look at the spaghetti of wiring running through my house. Seriously. It took AT&T eight hours to hook me up to Uverse because of my weird wiring and finished basement. And the Charter deal is a “new customer” package which would just go up later… Plus, I have no idea if their speeds are seriously better than what I’ve got, and if they are as reliable as what I have. If you look at the forums, a lot of people grumble about Charter not being as good as they advertise.

Don’t Forget the Subscriptions Charges

Once last thing to remember is your cost for streaming subscriptions. If you’re not already subscribing to Hulu, Netflix or some of the other services, you may need to factor that into your bill. If you’re just about the savings, you can buy a digital antenna for access to local TV or just watch DVDs from the library. Personally, we’re cutting the cord to save money by stopping a service that we weren’t using anymore. We still want to watch TV, and we’re gonna to get tons of the programming we’ll actually use! 

 

This is part three of a three part series. You can read my 7 Tips for Cord Cutting here and how much we’re saving here.