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44 Comments
- Pattyo13, on 05/14/2009, -0/+23true, but the geek factor in pulling that off is at higher levels than most can handle
- rprins, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24In summary, do all/some/none of the following:
1) Bundle your services with one provider
2) Don't bundle and get what's cheapest for what you need
3) Read your junk mail and get burned in 6mos when that $19.99 cable deal is suddenly $49.99 (note, purchase magnifying glass to read fine print)
4) Call and beg for a discount
5) They say resourceful, I say cheap. Call mom and dad only on the weekends... because it's free
6) Sharing is caring. You get the cell phone today, I get it tomorrow, OK? - SouthernDigger, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23you could always just buy internet only.... download all your tv shows and use skype off of pda software. that brings you down to about $40 a month for tv, internet and cell. Pain in the ass though
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Totally true.
Snarky, jerk-ass comments are so much more worth reading. - antoniojvr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Make sure to save against the grain.
- ibeetle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I have never seen so called triple play bundled services save anybody money. I live in the north eastern New Jersey area, and cable is serviced by Cablevision. My triple play cost me 30 dollars a month more than going with 3 separate companies. My dad, who lives in Louisiana and my brother who lives in Florida have found similar cost saving by dumping their bundled services.
Bundled only means convenience of one bill. - zweben, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11This is ridiculous. 4 stories on the front page by the same person, and they're all pretty stupid. They were all dugg by the same group his of friends in almost the exact same order every time.
Digg really needs to find a way to stop this. - Madcowz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Haggle.
I got my T Mobile line rental reduced to £6 per month by phoning and saying it was too expensive and I wanted to cancel my contract (was over the 12 month period by then).
I got £10 off AA recovery service by haggling, that's a 25% saving!
Car insurance.... takes me about a month of phoning around and.... haggling.
saved about 9K on a Dell order for our company's new SAN equipment.
the moral is, try and haggle, they can only say no.
/Mad - joerod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@SouthernDigger,
I've thought about this alot, but downloading everything would mean not being able to watch live sporting events, and I'm a geek who loves sports. - drlha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This definitely works with cable companies, although they're more likely to give you something for free than give you money off. For example, I've never paid for Showtime or Starz, yet have had them for over 2 years by threatening to cancel my HBO.
However your (UK) experience with the phone companies won't work here (US), at least not with our phone companies! I tried this on with Verizon, just trying to get a deal on a broken phone, and was told by the customer service rep that basically they wouldn't give me a deal on a replacement phone (I was out of contract) and they didn't seem to care that I was quitting Verizon because of it. This is the trouble with big ugly monster companies, they stop caring about customer retention after a while. - Tiger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5OK, that's how to shave the costs.
now, tell me how to save 'em. - RandomGuySteve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Are you being sarcastic? Because thats what the reply was..
- lilrabbit129, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That's why you skip the landline and use a cell phone. I've been cell-phone only for 6 years now.
I've also been TV-less for 6 years as well, though that might change. - Desolite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3not to mention if there is a power outage, you'd get f-d in the a. you are best served to have cable & internet grouped and have your land line be a traditional telephone wire that works even when there is a power outage.
- awm4, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Tripple bundle services save you money? Only if you already own the services with seperate providers. The best way to save money is to not spend it. What most people do with these bundle plans is buy more features then the normally would under the false pretense that they are saving. It is just a marketing ploy to get you to spend more.
I also agree theloweman this should be common sense. This artcle is not worthy of a Digg post. - Arju, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It depends... in some places like Canada cell service is a ripoff.
I got Vonage for $20/mo to cover long distance calls, $50/mo for Rogers Cell (700 daytime, unlimited evenings/weekends, txt/voicemail) and another $50 for Rogers Internet. I bundle both and save $5...
If I even attempt to use my cell for long distance my bill DOUBLES. Its insane.
So if you add it up ($20 + $50 + $50 = $120) and I don't even have Cable. And I haven't added taxes yet! You really want to save money? Get Roommates. Split Cable, Internet and Vonage and watch the savings. I'm doing that next year.
Oh yeah... forgot another $25 for Giganews. :D - theweekend, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2One way to save is do what I do... Get Wifi from the dozens of available access points at your apartment complex, download all the HBO premium shows like Lucky Louie, Entourage, Sopranos, Deadwood and other shows from newsgroups to watch at your own convenience, and get a prepaid cell phone...
- SweetsGreen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Easynews is $9.95
Only 20GB a month, but the Gigs rollover to the next month.
And they index everything (unrar and add thumbnails), so you can preview and download via thier web interface...fast too I've gotten as much as 2MB (that Bytes not bits) a second thru their web interface. - ExSlashdotter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@oakj
Nah, I pay for just cable internet without TV. It is possible.
I also put up 2 wireless repeaters around our condos, and have 6 neighbors splitting the bill with me... - AF-Geek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1One tip on haggling:
If you cite another offer, be prepared to go with that other offer!
I recently haggled with my cable internet provider when I came off the promotional plan and my bill doubled (to US$40). I cited the local DSL service offer (US$18/mo x1yr) and haggled for half an hour. They wouldn't match it or come close, so I jumped. - josegutz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6 "How to: Shave costs on your Phone, TV & Internet"
How about putting down the cheetos, getting some half decent clothes on, and going outside the front door for once in you life...ride a bike... something. - ovejeromd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2im already doomed
- joerod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1forget the movies, entourage and sopranos..
- jesseroo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Where I live there is only one provider for most things, so there's no way to really save. Therefore we only have internet in my apartment.
- mattman59, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You could, get a fast web connection, bite the bullet a get a Linksys cordless skype phone, either get an Free to Air STB (set top box) and do your homework on how to make it "work" or just use bit torrent to get all your shows.
Its that easy, a fast cable connection might cost you $40 a month, using Skype out is now free so thats $0, using BT or FTA is free so that is $0. - DigitalBrian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It is all fine and dandy, but my cable company offered me ¤39 a month VoIP if I bundle, and well my "normal" phonebill is about $25 every month, so where is the sense in that bundle? I am sorry but I do not plan to call Costa Rica any time soon and they know it.
So I can get a bundle with the phone company, but I do not want my TV to be crappy Dish, so I say all that bundle crap is no good comprende? - astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Comcast is sticking it to people.... luring them in with $33 (EACH) for Net, Phone, TV.
They disclose in the VERY fine print that this is a limited offer and will go back to normal
pricing in 6 months or less. Net for Comcast alone is $49.95 a month, TV averages about $49 a month, and who knows how much they are charging for Phone. - LogicBomB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just wish cable and cell phones didn't bend you over the table.
I want maybe 30 channels total for cable yet I need to pay for 500 to get what I want... - xaryss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't even get just one bill. I have two seperate bills.
- 15charmaxwtf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sharing a cellphone seems a bit pointless. I dunno how it works in America, but here, in the UK, u can get a mobile phone for £20 and just use pay-as-you-go.
- SakuyasLove, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@lilrabbit129 - Exactly, I live on only my cell phone and I have the convience of having it with me wherever I go. If I watch TV it is usually a DVD or something streaming from my computer.
- JED9, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4How to Shave costs? my costs know how to shave already thanks.
- phuchead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1but giganews has newsleecher for free at the unlimited $25 a month level and that is WITH supersearch included as part of the free newsleecher. i agree with arju about giganews, and retention for 70 days and climbing now. text for like 1100-1200 days, well something insane anyways. and it is cheaper then cable, i find all the shows i want for it, and NO commercials, but AT&T throttles it i think, never get over 160k, but i only can get 1.5meg service, at school once i was getting upto 1meg over the wireless.
-phuc - bloodguard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you really want to save you can go in with your neighbor on Internet (share via wireless) and cable/sat. ($5/mo for the extra set top box in the spare bedroom + slingbox + 54mb/sec wireless between houses).
- acslat3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well in my case I went with the following:
Roadrunner High Speed Internet $44 a month
DVR LG MCE enabled open box $200 no guide fees and 30 second skip button
Free basic cable since in our area the basic cable has to be turned on for roadrunner(or they are too lazy to filter it when installing)
Vonage $25
I do ok I could drop the vonage and use a cell phone and be +$20
I couldn't share my internet with a neighbor without throttling of some sort providing each connection with 50% of available bandwidth with bursts of 85% that way I am not timing out trying to get into gmail because my neighbor is viewing "snoop pics" - Pattyo13, on 05/14/2009, -2/+2hit me if i'm wrong, but if you get rid of your cable and phone, you have no iternet. that is, unless you're using satellite...and that's a great deal
- fantasticjon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Get rid of services that you don't need. i.e. Cable, home phone.
Cell Phones are the way to go . no telemarketers! Plus, you watch too much tv. :) - aulyre, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0All I have to add is that Lingo costs less than Vonage and you can get an internation package that lets you talk to Canada/US/Western Europe for less than $25 a month (taxes included). Customer Service is great and I get all the extra features of a regular phone line (call waiting, caller id, voice mail.... ).
Also, for other VOIP providers you can check out:
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=VOIP%20Service%20Providers%20Residential
Why pay all those taxes on a tradional phone line when you're probably already paying for high speed? - Hitchhiker90, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1And what's a Sunday night without HBO?
A good night. I can't stand HBO anymore. When they start showing movies then I'll watch it, as long as they keep putting on crap shows like entourage and deadwood I will not watch it. - SweetsGreen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Or you could buy a WRT54G router ($40)...flash to DD-WRT(free)
Set it into client mode... use a neighbors signal. (free)
Plug your Packet8($20 a month) adapter into it, your computer, xbox, etc.
And download all of your TV shows via Bittorrent (or USENET) (free)
Total cost = $40 one time and $20 a month.
Or use Skype if you don't use the phone that much...just pay for the skype-in credits. - SakuyasLove, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1You know, I love how the orrigional comment from loweman was buried but the guy that says its so true gets dugg.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1...and certainly build your own TiVo.
Anyone who finds it's worth 45.00 a month or 10.00 a month for a crappy DVR with your cable provider when you can just jam together spare parts lieing around your room and dropping a hundred bucks or so for a decent capture card + 300g hd is just kidding themselves. Not to mention how much more you can do with it. - adamdigg, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0joerod: I don't think you can be a geek if you love sports. As a kid I sucked at sports, no one wanted me on their team, etc. I was good at thinking. Isn't that what geek means?
- theloweman, on 10/12/2007, -23/+8What a stupid-ass article to post on digg. These general info, for the brain-dead common man articles have no place here...
