Sirius XM radio rates

[Tailgate]

Auto renewal this month..called to cancel our 'all access' subscription and they immediately dropped the price in half for the same package. Certainly worth the call.

 

[Dawg52]

I enjoyed Sirius XM last year when I took a long road trip. Stumbled on a 5 month promo and I think it was $5/mo. But other than for passing the time on long trips, I just didn't get much out of it at home. So dropped it. But would sign up for another promo if taking a longish trip.

 

[Car-Guy]

I have several cars with their service. Most of the time, I have had them cut the price in half if I tell them I want to cancel my service at the end of a term. Sometimes not. Depends on the agent you get I guess. But "twice" they would not make a deal and went ahead and cut off my service. However, in both cases, they called back in ~two weeks with an even better deal than half off. What a racket!

 

[Sunset]

I found it pretty repetitive, the station I listened to repeated about every 3.5 days so I didn't renew after the free 6 month usage of a new vehicle.

I got hounded by them to come back for 1/2 price, never took it, now they are down to I think $5/mo for 6 months. I'm almost tempted, but I do have 40 Gig's of music I like on a thumb drive ready to play in the car on trips.

I'm on the fence about signing up, maybe I would if I had a easy way to play it inside the house.

 

[Car-Guy]

I got hounded by them to come back for 1/2 price, never took it, now they are down to I think $5/mo for 6 months. I'm almost tempted, but I do have 40 Gig's of music I like on a thumb drive ready to play in the car on trips.

I like the many "gig's" of music on a thumb drive too. What I've found is I usually listen to one of the business, news or sports channels on XM instead of music. When I want music, I select the memory stick.

 

[freedomatlast]

If you have a car you only use seasonally, let your subscription expire just after you put it away for the season. The radio has to be on in order for the signal they send to effectively cancel your service. After many months they stop sending the cancelling signal and you will have XM for life. The best part is you will no longer have to play their stupid, time consuming subscription cancellation/renewal games.

 

[Car-Guy]

If you have a car you only use seasonally, let your subscription expire just after you put it away for the season. The radio has to be on in order for the signal they send to effectively cancel your service. After many months they stop sending the cancelling signal and you will have XM for life. The best part is you will no longer have to play their stupid, time consuming subscription cancellation/renewal games.

What about when they turn on all radios like they do a couple of times a year? (free promo periods) Won't that pick up mine again and then turn it off after the free 2 week period?

 

[Big_Hitter]

they don't play music i like to hear on the radidio so I use xm. not sure how much it costs 100 a year maybe?

 

[freedomatlast]

What about when they turn on all radios like they do a couple of times a year. (free promo periods) Won' that pick up mine again and then turn it off after the free 2 week period?

I don't know how they handle the free promotions, but I do know of several radios that have not had the signals turned off for many years (and are still on to this day), after doing as described above.

 

[marko]

Here's what I do: I sign up for their "intro rate" of about $5.50 a month for something like 5 or 6 months, then it is supposed to go up to $17 a month plus tax (~$23/mo).

Then when that offer is due to expire, I call and tell them to cancel. They send me to their "cancellation department" who then makes me a better offer.

I refuse several options ($12/mo, $9/mo, $8/mo) until I get back to the $5.50/mo deal. I agree to that for another 6 months.

Been doing it for years. I sort-of like Sirius mostly for the ability to listen to CNN, Fox, CNBC TV in the car. For $5 a month it's worth it. For more than that, not really.

 

[Car-Guy]

I don't know how they handle the free promotions, but I do know of several radios that have not had the signals turned off for many years (and are still on to this day), after doing as described above.

I have one car with an XM radio that I only drive a few times a year. Am tempted to try it to see if it works that way but, in thinking about this a little more, this seems almost like stealing, so I'll probably pass.

 

[Another Reader]

Here's what I do: I sign up for their "intro rate" of about $5.50 a month for something like 5 or 6 months, then it is supposed to go up to $17 a month plus tax (~$23/mo).

Then when that offer is due to expire, I call and tell them to cancel. They send me to their "cancellation department" who then makes me a better offer.

I refuse several options ($12/mo, $9/mo, $8/mo) until I get back to the $5.50/mo deal. I agree to that for another 6 months.

Been doing it for years. I sort-of like Sirius mostly for the ability to listen to CNN, Fox, CNBC TV in the car. For $5 a month it's worth it. For more than that, not really.

I feel the same way about the value and do exactly the same thing in negotiating the price. More than $5.50? Turn it off.

 

[zinger1457]

I found it pretty repetitive, the station I listened to repeated about every 3.5 days so I didn't renew after the free 6 month usage of a new vehicle.

I got hounded by them to come back for 1/2 price, never took it, now they are down to I think $5/mo for 6 months. I'm almost tempted, but I do have 40 Gig's of music I like on a thumb drive ready to play in the car on trips.

XM is repetitive and I also found that the sound quality of the music on my USB stick is much better than what I hear on XM.

 

[audreyh1]

They were so expensive I dumped them years ago on long road trips we've done amazingly well streaming to our iPhone plugged into the car sound system via USB. Lots of music channels from various free sources and if I really want news there is always streamed Bloomberg radio.

 

[EastWest Gal]

We got in before Sirius and XM merged and have 3 lifetime subscriptions, for which we paid $250. DH loves the big band/40s/Sinatra channels, DS listens to New Age and classical. In the summer they have a channel called Yacht Rock which is fantastic for pool parties. We can get them in the iPhone and just plug to a small Bose system outside. In Ictiber they have a creepy sounds channel that we send out the porch window to scare the trick-or-treaters. At Christmas there are two different style Christmas music channels. There is an entire channel devoted to Broadway music. Sometimes I tune into cable news or NPR. They also have many sports channels and major metropolitan traffic and weather. There are a few places we can't get it, but it is a nice thing to have on road trips and on very early drives to the airport.

It appears that a lot of people have tried it but haven't explored all it has to offer.

Our area no longer has a good classical music station, so we are grateful for it.

 

[marko]

Of course there's Pandora which has better and wider music for $4.99 per month, works in a tunnel and and can be streamed to any Bluetooth speaker (unlike xm)

 

[Beldar]

If you have a car you only use seasonally, let your subscription expire just after you put it away for the season. The radio has to be on in order for the signal they send to effectively cancel your service. After many months they stop sending the cancelling signal and you will have XM for life. The best part is you will no longer have to play their stupid, time consuming subscription cancellation/renewal games.

Yes, this is true. You can find used receivers at flea markets, garage sales,etc, that still "work". As in forever. I have a pair for several years now that I use occasionally.

However, IMO the audio quality s*cks. Its way too compressed and is really intolerable for anything other than voice.

_B

 

[T-Minus]

...Our area no longer has a good classical music station, so we are grateful for it.

How to listen - Classical KUSC

I listen to KUSC several times a week and love it!

 

[mh]

How to listen - Classical KUSC



I listen to KUSC several times a week and love it!

I listen to kusc every day - They have a pretty good iPhone / pad / Apple TV app in addition to the kusc.org stream

 

[Derslickmeister]

Don't pay more than $5 per month, otherwise you're getting ripped off. Be persistent when talking with their sales rep, they will give you the $5 per month deal if you hold firm, they have no choice really since their business model is under attack from many different technologies now.

 

[Katsmeow]

We just got a renewal on DH's care and I need to call and cancel. I did that once before on another car and did get the 50% offer.

We use it a lot to listen to MSNBC or CNN. There isn't just music on there.

 

[Another Reader]

I called to cancel this morning and asked to be transferred to customer retention. The rep stated there was no customer retention department and canceled the account. On my last out of state trip, I noticed the playlists repeating after two or three hours. No great loss not to have this service.

 

[ls99]

I had a 2 month free xm as result of visiting a dealer for oil change on my truck. They did not ask for a credit card info at that time. They wanted cell #, I refused to give it.

Anywhoo, it just expired. I have no intention of subscribing even for $5.- amonth. Mostly mountain drives, lots of "no signal". There was only one classical station on menu. Interrupted by far too much information. Yecch.

 

[Sunset]

I called to cancel this morning and asked to be transferred to customer retention. The rep stated there was no customer retention department and canceled the account. On my last out of state trip, I noticed the playlists repeating after two or three hours. No great loss not to have this service.

That was my biggest issue, repeating tapes of music.

My solution was to fill a thumb drive with mp3's , it's amazing how much music you can get on those.