Are these reasonable charges for cable service?

Does Spectrum give senior discounts? Call and ask them. And ask them how they can lower your monthly bill...they probably have a cheaper package deal. Their phone number is on your bill.

Does your state have a program for low-cost internet for people on a fixed income? If you get social security, call the social security office and ask them.

I did all that and I pay $78/mo.
 
Why do they charge you for voice and what are the other charges?
 

It seems high to me, unless you have lots of cable tv, Netflix, etc. Are you locked into a 2 or 3 year plan. If you find something lower, can you leave this.
 
I am already on the basic plans, so I can't go any lower and they don't offer a senior discount. This IS a discounted bill, but I am losing my "promotional price" on Dec. 26. After that expires, I will be paying $92.88 a month for basic TV and $84.99 for Internet. I estimate that the next bill will be in the neighborhood of $224 a month.

Voice is a telephone landline service. That includes "unlimited long distance, phone line, and modem."
The "other" charges is a "broadcast TV surcharge".
 
That's a lot of services you're paying for. Are you actually using them?

You may be eligible for an Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) discount, I know Spectrum offers it. If you're below a certain income level you got a $30 per month reduction on internet and I think $10 per month on phone plan.

Other than that I would say eliminate services you don't use or look into other providers, your bill is more than I would pay.
 
Habits are sometimes expensive.
When my cable bill (not Spectrum) got to just south of $200, I changed my habits.
Now I pay nothing for TV. Not to cable anyway.
Have antenna for broadcast stations and Amazon Prime for ... well, a bunch of stuff including Prime Video for movies.
My TV's have ROKU built in and I have several free ROKU channels available.

Here is my most recent Spectrum bill.
The $30 "adjustment" is the ACP Internet Credit - Adjustment.
ACP is the Affordable Connectivity Program
The total also includes a $5 monthly charge for Spectrum's Wi-Fi router.
So ... Internet, phone and Spectrum router.



dKPp1qG.jpg


My current Internet speed from Spectrum. Test run just a moment ago with all household devices connected and streaming Internet radio onto my home stereo. So it's a real time real world speed.

15578505711.png
 
debodun said:
I am already on the basic plans, so I can't go any lower and they don't offer a senior discount. This IS a discounted bill, but I am losing my "promotional price" on Dec. 26. After that expires, I will be paying $92.88 a month for basic TV and $84.99 for Internet. I estimate that the next bill will be in the neighborhood of $224 a month.

Voice is a telephone landline service. That includes "unlimited long distance, phone line, and modem."
The "other" charges is a "broadcast TV surcharge".
Click to expand...
I have Spectrum also but my charges are very different. Probably the state you live in has something to do with it. I had 120 channels and internet. No phone service with them and no recording on my receiver. My bill was $134/month.

When my husband died I had to cut some things and tv was one of them. We never watched any tv programs, except hubby liked Nascar so we kept the tv part. I just returned the receiver to them and my bill will be $86/mo. They have a Xumo box now (I think they are phasing out the receivers) and it's like a Roku, which I already have and use for Netflix, Prime, and Disney+. The Xumo box is free for a year then it's $5/month. Even if I don't ever use the Xumo, I'd rather pay $5/month then the extra $50+ a month if I would have kept the receiver.

Murrmurr....No, they do not have a senior discount. You're kidding, right? There is no contract, which is the only good thing about them.

Deb.....To have them renew your promotion for your services, you have to call them. You can also get another tv option. I think it's called Choice Plan and you can pick 13 stations you want to watch. I think it's $54.99/mo. Your state might be different.

You can get a $5/month discount for auto pay. They charge you by how many receivers you have. I had one.

You need to call them and talk to them to get your bill lowered and ask them to email you the link for applying for the ACP discount. I didn't qualify but maybe you would. You have to do your own research. There are ways to lower that bill.
 
debodun said:
This IS a discounted bill, but I am losing my "promotional price" on Dec. 26.
Click to expand...

I think the charges look pretty normal (in Nebraska the charges were similar, tho after my mom died I dropped the cable TV and saved money by having a Roku TV and watching Amazon Prime Video & Freevee).

But, it might be worth it for you to call and try to get the promotional price extended. I did that in Nebraska and got it extended twice and then the third time they made it permanent.
 
@debodun ... your bill does not reflect cell phone charges ... just VOIP Spectrum Voice for phone service.
So IF you do have a cell, many people are doing away with their land lines and VOIP and just using their cell for all phone needs.
That would save you about $240 a year if you did away with Spectrum Voice.

I have both a cell and Spectrum Voice. My cell service is not with Spectrum. I just haven't pulled the trigger to save myself an additional $240 a year HA. Too old and set in my ways I guess ... as far as having a home phone available.
 
debodun said:
I probably don't financially qualify for the Affordable Connectivity".
Click to expand...
It might be worth checking into that one, known as ACP.
Many of these programs, no longer count some assets against it. Only monthly income.

You've probably already asked them if there isn't a way to bundle those, to lower the cost.
I do know that Spectrum is very expensive!
 
Call Spectrum and ask for the customer retention dept and tell them you're ready to seek another provider for services. It would probably help to have some idea of what the alternatives are, their costs, and ease of installation.

Cutting the landline is very doable, at the minimum.
 
As I mentioned in a previous post, we may end up losing ACP:

"The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides a $30 per month subsidy for broadband to over 16 million households (with the number continuing to grow) will run out of funds.
To assure that all were connected, the law appropriated $65 billion to broadband. Congress devoted most of the funds to network deployments in unserved and underserved areas, but there was another $14.25 billion allocated to the ACP to assure that broadband would be affordable to all. The program is projected to exhaust all its funds sometime in the first half of 2024."

Congress will be voting on this issue.
 
I think you should pay less because you have a bundle. Usually you get a discount when you have all their services. See if you can talk to the retention department and ask them to lower your bill.
 
caroln said:
As I mentioned in a previous post, we may end up losing ACP:

"The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides a $30 per month subsidy for broadband to over 16 million households (with the number continuing to grow) will run out of funds.
To assure that all were connected, the law appropriated $65 billion to broadband. Congress devoted most of the funds to network deployments in unserved and underserved areas, but there was another $14.25 billion allocated to the ACP to assure that broadband would be affordable to all. The program is projected to exhaust all its funds sometime in the first half of 2024."

Congress will be voting on this issue.
Click to expand...
They'll either renew it or bundle it with some other social services program. ACP is primarily for poverty-level school kids, homeless people, and people on soc sec. I really doubt it's going away.
 

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