I called the phone company to check and see if I could save any money by switching to one of their new bundle plans. Yep! I sure can. The customer service rep called me back with the details. There are two plans I can upgrade AND save money.
We are currently at 8mb internet speed (we had like 50mb at our old house) with dsl, and it's been working fine for us. I have no problems remoting in to work, nor do we have any problems streaming like Amazon movies or On Demand (which uses internet), though I've never tried both at same time (since I'm working LOL). Occasionally it's a bit slow, but we knew that would be the casemoving here, where fast internet isn't available, and it really hasn't bothered us at all.
We can now get up to 25mb! There is a also another plan that is 15mb, almost double the speed we currently have AND it's $25 a month cheaper than I'm currently paying for my phone/internet bundle!!! Woohooo! I could still save $5 a month by taking the 25mb speed, but we really don't need it. The 15mb will be good.
I do have to get a new modem, but with their new bundle package plan it includes a new modem at no cost and they are waiving the service call fee for the tech to come out and set it up. Plus, we will now get unlimited long distance calling. The plan we are on now only covers 600 minutes. Which is usually enough, but there are times DH has gone over that for the month. He does not like to talk for long periods of time on his cell phone (where long distance is free) as his hand starts cramping. He calls his dad like once a week and usually talks for an hour, plus occasional calls with some friends.
I think I'll take this $25 I am saving each month and set it aside until I have enough to pay off DH's new phone that we are being charged $27 a month for (24 months, no interest). That way it will be paid off in about half the time - 12 months instead of 24 months. When I have enough saved to equal what the balance is, I'll pay it off in one chunk, while I keep making the $27 a month extra that's included in our bill, until then.
I got another small savings on Sunday when I stopped at Staples to buy another cardboard tube for storing plans. It was $5.99. There was a person checking out in front of me and the cashier was asking if she had a Staples Rewards account. I know I do, I have a little paper "card" in my wallet, somewhere, so I had a minute to find it while I waited my turn. I almost didn't bother, thinking what's a small purchase like this matter anyway........after she applied my rewards code it dropped the price of the tube down to $2.29! Now I'm kicking myself for not taking the time to use it on the first 4 tubes DH and bought a couple of weeks ago. I always look at any savings I can get while shopping in the city as money towards the gas it cost me to drive the 110 miles round trip, so another unexpected $3.70 was good.
Those savings really start to add up! With my seasonal job coming to a fast close, I'm paying more attention than ever!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have even known there were new bundle packages/pricing/and speed upgrades if my neighbor friend hadn't told me. She heard it from a friend, so was happy to pass it on again.
ReplyDeleteBundles only cost me more money. Usually, that special price disappears after a year. Plus, I had to rent the modem. Yes, they supply it to rent or I can buy my own. My 10 mb for $10 each month is fine. I am done with bundles. There is a device that can be attached to a cell phone that is same shape and size of old-fashioned phone that used to sit in the cradle. I thought about getting one of those for my hand's sake!
ReplyDeleteIn our rural area we only have one choice for Internet and its with the phone company and you can't just buy Internet, you have to bundle it with phone service and its costly
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