Cable company deals are easy to find, that is as long as you aren’t already a current customer.
The reason for that is because the cable television guys want to build their subscriber base, thus they are ready to give you a good deal, usually for the first year of your cable service. The cable provider understands if you sign up with them, you probably will set up a so-called bundled packages that includes not only cable TV, but also home phone and high speed internet setup.
Often you can get a triple play bundle for just $99 per month for the first year. Consider the following example with cable company pricing: Basic TV costs $55 a month, high speed internet is $45 per month, and phone service is $30 a month. With prices like this, your overall bill would be $140 per month plus all of the taxes and charges that are tacked on to the cable bill. An alternative is to subscribe to a service like Charter internet and then add on Dish Network.
But what kind of problems can this lead to? Well consider what the bill will look like once the promo is over. You will have all of your TV’s hooked up to cable TV, your internet connection including your e-mail account through the cable company, and of course your phone service with the cable company as well. But suddenly your price goes up nearly 50%, from around $100 per month to $145+ per month. Now is it easy to switch?
Maybe, maybe not. The best thing to do ahead of time is compare companies before making your final decision. Lining up satellite vs cable television ahead of time is the way to go.
While you might logically say it is easy to switch to some kind of deal from Direct Tv or something else from your local phone company like FiOS by Verizon. Some things though are easier said than done. Often the time and inconvenience of switching providers makes the customer yield to whatever service they have. Even though the monthly bill is high, the subscriber stays with the company because they have all the services on the same bill from the same provider. That is what the cable television company counts on when giving the subscriber a good short term deal.
