Anyone else getting subscription exhausted?

[Mulligan]

You download their app on to your phone via Apple or Google store. Then have a wireless speaker and just bluetooth it. I also downloaded it on my Ipad and Bluetooth it to the speaker. In fact I can hear the music blaring from the bathroom now as she must be showering.

I have an android phone and use it too, but we mostly use the idle third string Ipad for the streaming at home to the speakers.
Added thought. There are a lot more music options on the app than the car channels.

 

[ShadowBloom]

I do a whole thing with the NYTimes every year. When it gets ready to renew at a high price I call them to cancel. Then they ask if I want to resubscribe another year at the low price I am paying. I say yes and continue on.

I use a virtual credit card number for a most of my online subscriptions and set the expiration date to make sure automatic renewal at increased rates doesn't happen. Last year I let my card at NYT expire and they left the subscription active for a month before ending it and shortly thereafter offering the same low rate. Back then you had to talk to a person to cancel, but now it's changed so you can cancel online. With my $4/mo special offer ending again and 17.99 the new rate, I was planning to cancel and switch to Apple News @ 9.99/mo, but the online cancellation process offered to change my NYT subscription to All Access (more features) for the same $4/mo that was ending.

 

[ychuck46]

Similar to my approach

Whether I drop something depends on how often I use it and whether there is any financial advantage to subscribing for a longer period of time.

Same here. I recently stopped Netflix, preferring instead to keep Amazon Prime only for their other services as well. Since I am doing more reading now than watching movies and shows I didn't need both. I also only keep streaming TV (YTTV) from Sept-Apr so I can get college football and basketball, and some pro football games as well, cancelling it the rest of the year. No interest in NFL Sunday Ticket. We travel for the winter and there is a local Cleveland Browns fan restaurant in the city we are in, so we go there for the games to root with others with similar interest.

 

[Mulligan]

Same here. I recently stopped Netflix, preferring instead to keep Amazon Prime only for their other services as well. Since I am doing more reading now than watching movies and shows I didn't need both. I also only keep streaming TV (YTTV) from Sept-Apr so I can get college football and basketball, and some pro football games as well, cancelling it the rest of the year. No interest in NFL Sunday Ticket. We travel for the winter and there is a local Cleveland Browns fan restaurant in the city we are in, so we go there for the games to root with others with similar interest.

I dropped Sunday Ticket this year as its going to Google. But I found NFL has an app for $9.99 a month that lets you see all NFL games immediately after the conclusion of the live broadcast. Since I was taping quite often to watch later, I am going to use this process and pay for it from August to January and save some cabbage.

 

[skyking1]

we dropped prime a few months back and did not miss it, until prime day came along and we had some retail therapy built up in our mental shopping carts.
I got the free month and we are now debating cancelling before it renews.
I was considering youtube TV until I saw the subscription is in the 70's now. yikes!

 

[Koolau]

Oh, the other thing we "subscribe" to is our phones. Consumer Cellular (with all taxes and stuff) runs about $50 for two phones with 1 meg or gig (whatever) of data. Unlimited talk. So we've gotten used to two phones, but could cut back and save maybe $20/month. Not gonna do that unless something hits the fan.

 

[ikonomore]

FYI,
Sirius now plays via Sonos speakers and the app is in Apple CarPlay now.

 

[audreyh1]

For things that are month to month, I do sometimes cancel if I won't be using for awhile. We were going to be selling our house and moving so I cancelled YouTubeTV. We will probably resubscribe at some point (although we haven't missed it that much).

One group of subscriptions I have to watch is subscribing to online magazines or Substacks. I've occasionally done a Substack if they offer a "sale" or discount. Then I cancel when that is over. Sometimes they offer a reduced price.

I do a whole thing with the NYTimes every year. When it gets ready to renew at a high price I call them to cancel. Then they ask if I want to resubscribe another year at the low price I am paying. I say yes and continue on.

The NYTimes thing you don’t even have to call. I managed it online.

We have several streaming services that I got at a very good discount for a long period. The discounts will run out in September, so I’m going to cancel them and stick to the ones already included in other bundles. I just don’t watch nearly enough TV to justify the extra channels.

 

[statsman]

we dropped prime a few months back and did not miss it ...

I would love to do that, but that won't get past my DW. It took me nearly four years to get her to cut the cord. Giving up prime would take longer than that, I fear.

 

[ychuck46]

Thx!

I dropped Sunday Ticket this year as its going to Google. But I found NFL has an app for $9.99 a month that lets you see all NFL games immediately after the conclusion of the live broadcast. Since I was taping quite often to watch later, I am going to use this process and pay for it from August to January and save some cabbage.

I'll look into that. Thanks for the headsup.

 

[Mulligan]

I'll look into that. Thanks for the headsup.

I need to get subscribed soon.

https://id.nfl.com/subscriptions/se...landing&redirecturl=https://www.nfl.com/plus/

 

[skyking1]

I would love to do that, but that won't get past my DW. It took me nearly four years to get her to cut the cord. Giving up prime would take longer than that, I fear.

I can't get her to step away from the cable, so I feel ya there.

 

[Surewhitey]

A year and change later we've survived the Prime - less life. We used to share our account & now they share with us. We still don't buy much though.

Still using Spotify and just fine there.

Added Peacock addless for around $80/yr. Lots to watch there. I'll churn into Paramount after that ends.

Got a Fidelity CC & am enjoying the 2% simplicity of rewards...

 

[statsman]

We'll be cancelled this coming Tuesday. This will be the second time in the eight years with SiriusXM that we will have gone through with a cancelled service. The last time, maybe five years ago, an email offer arrived shortly after the cancellation, just like above. Now, I am not sure what happens.

According to our SiriusXM online account, our radio is no longer active. It should have been inactive starting yesterday. But on a short errand run this morning, with the radio playing about 15-20 minutes total, the SiriusXM stations were still available.

I recall in the past when we cancelled service that it took a few minutes for the stations to become unavailable after starting the vehicle with the radio turned on. I double-checked the online account and our credit card for any billing or charges, but there aren't any. Does inactivation take longer these days with SiriusXM?

 

[athena53]

I sigh at BF's subscriptions. This is a guy whose finances are tight and who carries balances on his credit cards. We have no plans to marry or cohabitate so I try to avoid expressing an opinion, but he has-

Amazon Prime (he has a VERY bad "gadget" habit and Amazon just feeds it)
Apple TV (for the sports programming, I think- his son-in-law is a professional soccer player)
Car wash subscription
He does on-line gaming so I'm guessing that has a cost
Sirius (mentioned earlier in the thread- "free trial" with used car he bought and he got hooked)
And of course whatever Internet service he uses.

Every once in awhile I encourage him to review his subscriptions and pare back the ones he doesn't use but I think he "needs" all of them.

 

[Jerry1]

According to our SiriusXM online account, our radio is no longer active. It should have been inactive starting yesterday. But on a short errand run this morning, with the radio playing about 15-20 minutes total, the SiriusXM stations were still available.

I recall in the past when we cancelled service that it took a few minutes for the stations to become unavailable after starting the vehicle with the radio turned on. I double-checked the online account and our credit card for any billing or charges, but there aren't any. Does inactivation take longer these days with SiriusXM?

It will reset the next time you start the car.

 

[statsman]

It will reset the next time you start the car.

That was my understanding as well and previous experience. Yet, I started the car this morning as a quick check, and the stations were still there (last active day was supposed to be Monday). 30 minutes later, I started the car again to drive to a grocery store. It's about an 8-10 minute drive one-way. I was in the store for about 20 minutes. I then started the car again to return home.

I just checked again a few minutes ago, about an hour after returning home. Still there. I have some more errands to run later this morning, so maybe it will reset then. Or maybe not. There are no charges on our SiriusXm account. It actually has a link to activate the radio, so the account thinks the radio is inactive. Rather strange.

 

[JoeWras]

That was my understanding as well and previous experience. Yet, I started the car this morning as a quick check, and the stations were still there (last active day was supposed to be Monday). 30 minutes later, I started the car again to drive to a grocery store. It's about an 8-10 minute drive one-way. I was in the store for about 20 minutes. I then started the car again to return home.

I just checked again a few minutes ago, about an hour after returning home. Still there. I have some more errands to run later this morning, so maybe it will reset then. Or maybe not. There are no charges on our SiriusXm account. It actually has a link to activate the radio, so the account thinks the radio is inactive. Rather strange.

The way they do this is really cool for satellite radios. There is no permanent back and forth communication, it is one way. What XM does is send a "kill signal" on some sub carrier. Now they can only send so many of these. There are millions of radios. When you cancel, they send a lot of these kill signals in the first days. That usually works. But what if you miss it or have the car off for a long time? Well, they still send the kill signal, but only intermittently. They are sending kill signals for long dormant accounts. Literally millions of them.

I learned this back in the late 2000s when there were good XM forums. People were noticing back then that the kill sometimes took longer than it did when XM first came alive. I can only imagine it is possibly longer now.

Upshot? Enjoy your radio while you can. It will get the kill sometime, some day. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to have it for weeks or months. Some people have!

 

[statsman]

Upshot? Enjoy your radio while you can. It will get the kill sometime, some day. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to have it for weeks or months. Some people have!

During my errands late this morning, SiriusXM lasted two blocks! LOL! Oh well. Now I wait to see if they come up with an offer we like or if I can find one for our now "inactive" radio.

 

[HI Bill]

Things I've cancelled:

MS Office: Now using LibreOffice (Free!)
United Airlines Explorer Credit Card: Now using free version.
Norton Utilities: Now using MS antivirus that comes with Win11.
Scuba Diving Magazine: Now get DAN magazine free with insurance.

Current Subscriptions:

Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime Credit Card (extra % back)
Amazon Music HD (better sound quality, free downloads)
YouTube Music (no ads, better quality audio, can save music)
COSTCO Executive Membership (extra % back)
Airline Master Card (pin & chip, + miles)
Photoshop and Lightroom: $10/MO (cheaper than when I had to buy upgraded software)
Netflix Streaming
Netflix BluRay (BluRay is being discontinued in 2 months)
Cell phone service
Internet service

 

[JoeWras]

During my errands late this morning, SiriusXM lasted two blocks! LOL! Oh well. Now I wait to see if they come up with an offer we like or if I can find one for our now "inactive" radio.

Some get it two months, some get it two blocks.

 

[Mulligan]

During my errands late this morning, SiriusXM lasted two blocks! LOL! Oh well. Now I wait to see if they come up with an offer we like or if I can find one for our now "inactive" radio.

They seem easier to deal with on getting price discounts than Direct Tv. I just signed into my account and used their direct message system to tell them I was going to cancel. And within 5 minutes I was set up with $5.99 a month for a year and didnt have to say a word to anyone.

 

[rayvt]

It will reset the next time you start the car.

No. Not necessarily. They send the "disable" signal only periodically. If your car is off when it gets sent it will stay active.

We cancelled the Sirius/XM on our convertible because we were not driving it much. But when we did drive it, the XM worked. It was active for 6 months before it finally got disabled. The XM was playing music when we left the house until a couple of blocks away, and then it went off.

 

[statsman]

During my errands late this morning, SiriusXM lasted two blocks! LOL! Oh well. Now I wait to see if they come up with an offer we like or if I can find one for our now "inactive" radio.

It took SiriusXM a week from the time our service stopped for them to email us an "offer". The offer is more than what we've been paying for the past 4-5 years ($5/mo previously).I suppose if everyone else was getting this as the best offer for their Music & Entertainment package, we might bite the bullet

But many are posting they are getting the $5/mo offer (rather than the $6-8/mo limited offers - some channels missing, etc.). Some are getting a 3yr/$99 ($2.75/mo) offer and/or a 5yr/$149 ($2.50/mo) offer. Either of those sounds appealing as it would eliminate the need for the yearly cancel dance for a few years.

We must not need the service bad enough to pay more.

 

[rayvt]

My current 1 year subscription ($5/mo, $6.49 after fees & tax) expires in 4 days. Just yesterday I chatted to ask for the 3yr/$99 deal. They claimed that there is no such current offer. I figured the $5/mo would not last forever, they started that in 2020 because of covid, it lasted 2 years though.

My previous best deal was $108/yr, $11.68/mo after F&T. We have had Sirius/XM for 6 years, and I always hated the song & dance of threatening to cancel every year to get a decent rate.

After going round & round, they eventually offered me $6.99/mo ($9.07 with F&T) forever, no having to call every year. No discount for paying for an entire year up front. He claimed that only 2%-3% of their customers got that offer.

That's finally a reasonable price, so I took it. That's in line with Pandora & Amazon Music.
$7/mo is right in the middle of "the $6-8/mo limited offers", plus I won't get fzcked if I forget to call before the subscription renews at $23/mo.
Comes to $109/yr, which is less than we pay for each house cleaner visit.

Huh, and Fidelity CC just came out with a $10 credit (1000 points) if you pay for a streaming service with the Fidelity card. After that, I'll switch to a privacy.com card with a $10/mo limit.