Increasing (?) costs for communications

[Spanky]

Qwest (land phone): 26
Comcast (internet): 42
Cingular (cell phones): 60

almost $130 .. ..

[OAG]

We cheat - Verizon "friends and family" plan. Costs us $10 a month plus the one time $25 to activate or program the plain bolts excess Cell phone that was lying around. I know this does nothing for the person that has the base plan but it is a great way to save your kids or others some money if you can live with adding them to the plan. We do not use the phone very much. Mostly, we call others with the same Verizon service which makes the call free to both of us. Very good emergency phone for on the road calls or when the internet phone is not working.

Otherwise we pay for communication etc.,:

Internet -- Time Warner RR
Phone (Local and Long Distance) -- Time Warner
Cable TV (Expanded Basic) -- Time Warner

Package Price: $89.95 + 5.23 Taxes: $95.18 (Locked for a year)

So along with the F&F Cell Service the total is $105.18 a month. Way too high and we are considering dropping back on the TV -- since we do not watch if very much and the local stations on Rabbit Ears works fine for what we usually watch.

[fluffy]

Just a tip for those of you paying $40+/mo for cable internet... Many if not most cable companies (including Comcast and Time Warner) will usually give you $19 or $29/mo for 6+ months (depending on promotional offers available) if you call in and tell them you want to cancel cable internet because you are switching to cheaper DSL available in your area. After the 6+ cheap months are over, you can call in again.

The actual availability of cheap DSL and your willingness to switch to it are irrelevant . If by chance, the rep calls your bluff and goes ahead with cancellation request just tell them you'll call back with cancellation date, hang up, and try again (some reps are more flexible than others with this).

[BarbaraAnne]

For TV: Using FIOS (fiber optic) Verizon service with 2 hi def TV's and DVR: $75 (after tax).

For Internet: FIOS (fiber optic) Verizon $41 after tax (DH company pays for this)

Cell Phone: $60/month for 850 minutes and unltd nights and weekends (DH company pays for this but we add $10/month plus taxes each for 2 kids -family plan)

Landline: Verizon $36 after tax/month. Would love to get rid of this but waiting till younger kid goes to college. Maybe we'll do it sooner...

[magellan_nh]

Monthly communication costs (including taxes)

$14 - TV: Comcast basic (feeds a paid up Tivo)
$44 - Internet: Comcast high speed
$17 - Home phone: Vonage, 500 minutes free anywhere in US or Canada
$8 - My cell: Tracfone
$8 - DW cell: Tracfone
-----
$91

Basically happy with all of these, although the internet cost is a bit high...

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I was down to a cell phone and a cable modem at one point, then added VOIP service for home.

Problems came when I moved. I got no cell signal inside the house except for right at the front door. And the various VOIP providers I tried either gave me lousy/non-existent service or had product quality problems.

We used a regional cell provider that gave us unlimited minutes for $39/mo and if you signed up for 2 years at a pop it was $29. Surewest Wireless but there was another one called metropcs that services many areas. Great if you talk a lot.

T-mobile to-go is what we're on now and its great if you dont talk a lot. $100 buys 1000 'anytime' minutes with roaming and long distance included. Minutes are good for a year and if you recharge before they expire they roll over. We got three phones for about a hundred bucks total and we never use the whole 1000 minutes before having to recharge after 364 days.

Seeing $70 for 700 minutes, its the same price and you dont 'lose' the minutes you dont use.

Comm costs have gone up a lot. My cable tv and internet went up a lot the last 5 years.

Martha...might want to be careful mentioning the word 'inflation'...seems to invoke all sorts of visceral reactions in people.

$25 for land line
$25 for Dsl
antenna in attic - free HDTV - better picture than cable
$10 a month for Car Satellite Radio
use phone card for long distance - 3 cents a minute
-------------------------------------------------------------------

total $60 a month - Costs have gone down over the last year since getting DSL - Dropped a land line and saved over 30% a month

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I always wondered "Who the hell would pay ten bucks a month to listen to the radio in their car?!?"

Now I know.

[Baxter]

Land line: $20
Two cell phones, Page Plus prepaid: about $5/mo each
TV: rabbit ears
Cable modem: $35

Total is $65/mo, not too bad. That's quite a bit less than in years past, before prepaid cell phones and mass-market high speed internet. Back then we were paying on the order of $30 per month per cell phone and $80 per month for ISDN.

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny I always wondered "Who the hell would pay ten bucks a month to listen to the radio in their car?!?" Now I know.

He can afford it............ Besides, with a Lexus, you might as well have it all........so the audio matches the car..........

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I wuz just wondering how he listens to seven stations at the same time.

I have a lexus, no satellite radio.

But then I find that people who listen to the radio when they drive are distracted and therefore bad drivers. I'd like to see state laws passed that allow you to have radio's, but not listen to them while driving.

Oh yeah, costs...

$107/month for directv (minus $20/mo for customer problems); full package with three receivers
$25/month for three prepaid cell phones with more minutes than we can use
$42/mo for land line with call waiting, caller id, and unlimited long distance nationwide
$58/month for cable ISP

I could cut the directv costs down by dumping the premium channels, but gabe likes a lot of the hbo family shows and we watch enough of the shows like sopranos, dexter, etc that we get our moneys worth out of it. I could wait a year or two and rent them, but bah...we're rich.

I'd LOVE to have an ISP alternative. No dsl or wireless options for me.

Tell me the details on the $25 a month for 3 cell phones. I might actually get one if I could get one this cheap

[Khan]

$53.62 - Landline/DSL
$104.79 - cable (how did that happen? will call tomorrow to lower)
$39.07 - cell

$197.48

[Martha]

I am intriged by the pay as you go plans like CFB and Al have. But given that we have no land line and like being able to talk to each other without using minutes, I think we will stick with the Verizon plan we have for now. We also cable the phone to the computer to get internet on the road. Though this option will not be long for the world as Verizon is pushing us back door internet people into buying data plans.

T Mobil also doesn't seem to have the best signal around where we live when I check the coverage maps.

CFB, I understand the T-mobile pay as you go plan where you get 1000 minutes for $100, with the minutes lasting up to a year. You mentioned having three phones. Do they each share those minutes ? Do they have separate phone numbers or are all the same? Just curious for future reference.

Martha,

Off topic, but we ate at the Vietnamese place again a few days ago. They know us now as the 'people from the western suburbs' - Had the shrimp with spicy vegetables and eggrolls. :P

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Read a little further back. Go into Target or Walmart or to the t-mobile web site and buy a t-mobile to go phone that suits you. Usually $29 for a basic phone, more if you want something like the razr that'll bluetooth to the lexus' nav system.

Then go to www.cheapphonecards and buy a $100 1000 minute tmobile card. Use a coupon from here:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...hreadid=546489
Like "thanks5" for 5% more off. You should be in the range of $90 now. After successfully charging your card, they'll email you a card code good for 1000 minutes.

Activate the phone per the instructions in the box; basically call an 800 number, enter your phones serial numbers,pick a local phone number and plug in the el cheapo $10 or $15 minutes card that comes with the phone. Thats good for about 50-100 minutes for 90 days. Before the 90 days expires or when you run out of minutes, follow the instructions in the email for the $100 1000 minute card to charge up the phone. You now have 1000+ minutes that are good for a year.

If you buy another 1000 minute card and charge the phone again before the year is up, all the minutes roll over.

Some folks claim they've done a $10 refill card and their residual minutes rolled over and stayed good for a year. Some folks say they tried that and the minutes rolled over but were only good for 90 days. I've tried the 1000 minute card rollover trick and it works.

At this price, I just threw a phone into each car and put a thousand minutes on each. We seem to be using about 500 per year. Two el cheapo nokias for the two cars I drive and the bluetooth razr for the lexus that I only seem to get to drive when its out of gas. No forgetting to bring a phone with you and perfect for quick calls or emergencies. Not so good for yapping for hours at a time.

$300 per year (actually 270 after discounts/coupons) / 12 = under $25/mo for three phones.

Tracphone has better coverage than t-mobile in some areas but t-mobiles minutes are cheaper if you're actually going to use them. At least they were the last time I looked.

Martha - each phone has its own "minute" pools and separate numbers. They work exactly like every other cell phone i've used except that theres no monthly fee, only charge is when you use it.

[Martha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cut-Throat Martha, Off topic, but we ate at the Vietnamese place again a few days ago. They know us now as the 'people from the western suburbs' - Had the shrimp with spicy vegetables and eggrolls. :P

Yeah, we have been going there about once a month, "the friends from up north."

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Heres the charges from cheapphonecards after using the 'thanks5' code. All three of my phones are up for rollover in the next few months.

You can also setup the tmobile to go thing to automatically add a chunk of minutes at specific periods and just charge your credit card.
-------------------------------------
Subtotal: $ 300.00
Discount coupon: $ 14.55
Discount: $ 9.00
Shipping: n/a
Tax: n/a
Order total: $ 276.45

Thats 3000 minutes good for a year I can use on three separate phones, or I could apply one and keep the other two in reserve. They dont expire if you dont use them.

They sell airtime for other prepaid plans as well...about the best deal around. Been using them for a couple of years now, no problems.

[Martha]

Interesting. Maybe CT will end up with a cell phone or two.

I will have to keep an eye out on whether T Mobile's coverage improves.

For now, we will keep the Verizon plan and rethink when they start making us pay for a data plan.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

By the way C-T...if you need to use the phone while driving, you can save a bundle on those 'hands free' devices by just using a large rubber band to hold it to the side of your head.

Then...10 and 2 and keep that dang radio turned off while you're driving!