Internet Providers

You can get free dial-up in western washington. It's called No Charge. I think it's nocharge.com. We had it for a long time. You just use the number that's local for you. Pretty easy and free!

this is cheaper if you're in the area

http://www.onlinenw.com/index.php?pr=Highspeed_Wireless

http://www.onlinenw.com/index.php?pr=DSL

First of all I would not give up internet! I would call Comcast and tell them you need to do something less expensive or else they will loose you as a customer. My husband called and asked them to lower it. We are paying 35.00 for the same speed. It's crazy that people are just paying that much for it, when in reality, they can just lower your plan. Good luck! If that doesn't work, I would call Qwest or even that new Clear internet!

Last spring we got rid of cable TV and watch our shows on an Apple TV or the Internet, and you can watch them whenever you have time. It's soooooo much cheaper. We save at least $100 a month. The kids watch WAY less TV now too. It's nice. They still have their DVDs and we get PBS for real tv, so they are just fine. I thought I'd miss the ability to channel surf and watch random stuff, nope! It's much better when you can just head to Hulu.com and see whatever you want, when you want. Plus, with the Apple TV you can download the good stuff (your favorites) in HD or regular for a per show or series fee. We spend about $10 tops on TV now each month. Sometimes none.

We bundle our home phone, internet and cable TV with Comcast. We WERE paying about $180 for all three, and what I did was call Comcast and tell them I was leaving for Verizon that was offering the same 3 services for $99 a month (for the first year). They lowered my monthly bill to keep my business. It's only for another year, but hey, every penny counts!! Good luck!

You can also try asking Comcast for a lower rate. If you tell them you will cancel service otherwise, they will find you a lower rate. We pay 19.99 right now for our comcast internet. We also don't have cable because we can watch all of our favorite shows online so that is where we cut costs from our budget, we also only have cell phones so we don't have the cost of a home number that only soliciters call us on anyway. :) Just a few ideas, hope it helps.

We use Qwest and pay about $60 for our Internet and phone line combined.

Hi J.,
We did a package deal (phone, internet, cable) with Wave Cable. Not sure if their in your area, but it's around $100/month for all 3. And the internet is the high speed :)

Hi J.,
I would call comcast and talk to them about your price. I just signed up for comcast with no contract, and they are charging me $36/month. They have a special that is cheaper than that if you sign a 12 month contract but I'm sure you have to be a first time customer. I had verizon last year that was $40/month. Good luck.
S.

Not knowing what you pay for a home phone and cable but Comcast has what is called Triple Play. Where you bundle all 3 services for a discount. I'm very happy w/mine and I think they might still have a promotion going on for it.
I understand trying to streamline expenses. I'm a single mom on SSDI and it's not easy.

T.

We use bendbroadband and our bill is $47. Also, we have Vonage through the internet for our phone. Long distance is free and our phone bill is a flat $30 every month. you might also check into Magic Jack for phone. We can't get it where we are, but it is something like $30 for the whole year...

Comcast won't offer you the cheaper option unless you ask. My mother had that happen. She called to ask for a cheaper package and they gave her the run around. Eventually she found out that she could get a cheaper package if you have a slower speed (still high speed). Just call them.

If you live in Pierce County and can get Click! network go with one of their providers. We use Net Venture and the church I work for uses Rainier Connect. At home we pay $49.99 a month for a 10MB connection and that is a very fast connection (but I am a web designer so need the extra speed). Net Venture has a 5MB connection for $29.99/month.

The short of it is that Comcast is a rip off.

I don't have anything better to suggest. Before actually cutting it off, you could try just not using it for a couple weeks and see how much you miss it. I personally think it's pretty much a necessity in this day and age.

If you can get Verizon you might want to try one of their packages. I live in McMinnville and we got the Fios package for phone/tv/internet. We pay a slightly higher rate because of the tv package we chose, but it's still a good deal. By rolling all three together we're saving about $60/mo. We used to have Verizon phone, Comcast internet and Dish network. Always check into the bundles because you can save. When we were using Comcast internet we only paid $35/mo and that included the basic tv channels.

Try Clear... that is what we switched to to save money.

Check to see if Qwest is in your area. We have Qwest and I get phone with unlimited long distance, DirecTV,and Internet service for $112.00 per month. It would be cheaper for us if we had a cell phone on the plan but dont. I wish you luck!

We switched from Comcast to Clearwire over 2 years ago and have had no problems with it. It's high speed wireless internet. We pay $35.42 a month I believe, this is total with tax. It's such a great deal and although I can't remember the Comcast service, this works for us just fine. I can surf the net and my husband can play online games through x-box at the same time with no noticeable slowing at all. I think they have a trial period, and they have kiosks at most malls, you should give it a try.

Good luck, and if you find anything else cheaper definitely let us know!!
-V.

Oh, I also wanted to add to be careful at some of the kiosks, not sure how they are in your area, but I did see something a few months ago on the news (an investigator report) that some prospective customers were offered $100 and never received it. I guess it's something the kiosk owner was doing and not the company, and from what I recall the offer was handwritten on paper. I didn't experience this because it was so long ago, (I think this began more recently) but I have seen this offer posted at one of the stands at the Alderwood mall, not the one I actually got my modem and service from though. When I signed up, I did receive an electronic visa card for $25 to use online however, so they may offer deals to new customers. If you want to, you can also call them or go online. www.clearwire.com Their service people are friendly, same with the tech people. The thing is so easy to set up, just plug in to your computer and the wall for power. Sorry for the long post here, but I did want you to be aware of what I had heard.

If internet is so important to your husband then maybe he should just add that feature to his cell.

Call Comcast and ask for a lower price. We do this often.

We have Verizon DSL, it costs about $15/month (we also have Verizon for phone). I agree the Comcast price is too much, that's why we switched. We also dropped our cable and use an HD antenna, we get basic channels, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and a few others. We are saving almost $500/year by not paying for cable. Good luck with what you decide.

I pay $55 a month for DSL and my phone package (phone is $30 of that)... I have Qwest. Internet provider is MSN.

Try Advanced Stream.....I think it is for the Tacoma area but not 100% sure....We've had it for quite a few years and have never had any problems with it...We pay 30 something per month...can't remember the exact amount right now....hope this helps you!!!

I happen to sell business services for Comcast and I am surprised you are paying $60/month - it may be just your area but most are less anyway - and if you go to a dsl you may pay a few dollars less but your speed is going to be 6 to 12 times slower (ick!) but sometimes if you call in to Comcast and suggest that you are thinking of turning it off, there may be something they can do for you - a promo to help you during these times. - if they don't have anything to help you and you do use internet though (or your hubby) I would think hard before going somewhere else (ever hear of the SLOWSKIES?) lol