Do you have cable television? How about a cable modem? What do you use for your phone service?
Depending on your answers to those questions, you may have thought about using one of the packages of bundled services from the providers in your area.
But is it really a good deal?
In my neck of the woods, we have Comcast Cable TV as the local cable provider. At our house we have the Comcast cable service, as well as the broadband Interweb service. But we do not use their phone service as we have an all cellular household after we got fed up with using Vonage.
It seems like there isn’t a day that goes by that we do not receive one of the Comcast Cable Offers in the mail for their package of bundled services. With our use of the cellular phone for our home number, we would end up paying more to switch over to the bundled services because the phone would be more than we pay for our cellular plan.
You have to be careful with the bundled services because it is possible that you will overpay for one service in order to get a discount on another service. In our situation, it would not be a good deal to use the bundled services that require the purchase of the cable television, broadband and phone service.
However, I have noticed some Comcast Cable Deals that do not require you to bundle all three services. That is more attractive to me as a consumer, although since I am an existing customer these deals are usually not available.
If you are frustrated by the fact that you cannot take advantage of the deals that are offered only to new customers, you do have an alternative that has worked well for me in the past. Simply pick up the phone, call your service provider and ask them for a discount. I’ve done this successfully with my Comcast service a few times now and the discount has saved me a little over $100 each time.
While I don’t think that the bundled services make a great choice for me, I do think there are situations where you can take advantage of the package offers to save a considerable amount of money each month.
Bundling Services :: Is It Really A Good Deal?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Another way bundles get you is with add-ons. Quite often you’re paying way more when you get all the options and features needed.
I agree, but at the same time there is not eveyrhting I want/need that a single comany may offer in a bundle. For example, I had a hard time getting a very high-speed internet access with my cable/phone provider. So I either had a choice of T1 or T3 but not DSL or cable!
Paul
Great post, but would it be more appropriate for your other blog?
@Leo :: You’re right about the add-ons, as usually the advertised price is for the basics.
@Paul :: It can be difficult to find the right mix of services, which is why I am not using any bundled packages right now.
@Nick :: Thanks.
I’m so not the bundler. I have a different cable, internet, and telephone provider…IMHO the best of the best (but I think I just tell myself that to make me feel better). 🙂
You’re right, that offer keeps coming regularly these days. I don’t believe is a good deal though. $99 is too much for services I’m getting for a bit more than half that figure using DSL and basic telephone and cable services.