Thinking of Switching to Dish from Cable

Hey C..

I do think a bundle can save you some $ but DO NOT GET DISH - go with Direct - unless you don't care about having WFAA (I knew it as channel 8 - before we moved here - one Life to Live and General Hospital in the day, Brothers and Sisters, Octpber Road, I can't even remember all the favorite TV shows I watched before I got dumb Dish network and they say I'm locked in for two years! Blah. Plus that was AFTER I specifically asked if I would have all the local channels - they totally lied straight out.

wish no dish

We use the bundle, but what I don't like about Dish is that we have NO local channels. And we can't get ABC, CBS, and NBC. We can pay extra for them, but I'm unwilling to do that. So that is my complaint about dish. Also the Dish network is a lot more confusing to use. It isn't just changing channels, you have to learn to go through this whole maze. And when it rains, you lose the signal, so you don't get tv.

I went from Comcast to Dish and was able to save a lot. The cable bill got larger each year, and in the 4 years I've been on Dish not one increase. Plus Dish has continously added new channels and any new channels comcast has added has been just an excuse for a price increase and they still don't offer all that Dish does.

Heck. Drop TV, period! That will definitely save you money. Both directly and indirectly, because you won't be seeing all those commercials for stuff you and your kids don't need but they convince you all that you want.

And you free up a lot more time to do quality stuff with your family, and might spare your daughters ADHD, behavioral problems, etc.

Really. Go for it and experience the freedom! Replace TV time with family activities and after just a few weeks, no one will miss it. I did this, and have never looked back. We enjoy the occasional rented movie, and without TV, we actually have time for other stuff. We love it.

L.

Hi C.,
We have Cox cable for TV, internet AND phones. Our rate is great but best of all the tech support is ALL AMERICAN !!!!! NO FOREIGN TECHS. NO communication problems. Keeping American dollars in America, giving jobs to American workers supporting American families. They don't offer cell phone service yet but it's coming I'm told.
You mention wanting to cut expenses. Is the cell really necessary or merely a nice convenience ? I would also bring to your attention that the dish is wonderful (we also have it through Direct TV) HOWEVER, clear reception depends upon CLEAR exposure to the transmitting satellite. So bad weather, cloudy skies or other obstructive environmental conditions may cost you that season premiere you've been waiting 3 months for. Good luck whatever you decide and God bless.
A.

I should clarify about having cable and Direct TV dish....2 TV's are on cable and the third is on dish.

our bill runs about $175/month, with my moms cell, home phone with caller ID (not sure what else the home phone extras are), high speed internet, and dish with 1 receiver and we have encore as the only premium channels

My husband and I used to be bundled with AT&T, but it was costing us about $300 a month for everything, cell phone, home phone, internet, and satelite t.v. We ended up keeping the high speed internet and switched our phone service to Vonage and that took us down to $200 a month for everything. I truely wouldn't bundle because you have to pay for all the extras if you want the deal, and then it doesn't really become a deal.

There are other options that are WAY cheaper!!

Check out magicjack.com for a very inexpensive option for a telephone, but you have to have a high speed internet connection. It's worth it when you consider that you get the first YEAR for about $40 (which buys the device) and then each year of phone service after that is just $20. It gives unlimited long distance and you can even call free to anyone in the world who has a magicjack. Drawback is that magicjack does not necessarily have local numbers nationwide yet.

I would bundle Cox's internet and basic cable.

I do not know where you live, but look for a company called "cricket" for your cellular service (they also offer high speed internet cards for laptops). You can get unlimited packages with cricket for anywhere from $30 to $70 a month, depending on what you want to have free. Best of all- they don't require contracts! Drawback is that cricket is not nationwide yet.

Do your homework a little more. I think you will find other options that are way cheaper than bundling with AT&T.

I too was looking to cut expenses when my husband was recently diagnosed with cancer. Instead of changing to dish, I went with the bundle from Comcast. I got internet, digital tv and telephone all for $99 a month. Really saved me money.
Good luck.
S.

Hi C.,
I use Cox Cable. Basic cable is 12.97 a month. My internet is 19.99 a month for the slower speed which is not that much slower. My long unlimited long distance is my largest portion, 55.60. You could save a lot if you just use local calling. They are always having specials so if you go with them, call them every month when you are ready to pay your bill and see what they have to offer for that month

We did that and ARE NOT saving any money in fact it is more expensive.

That being said, we are considering using AT&T for the basic phone line and then going with Earthlink for internet and viewing all of our tv through our computers. We dropped cable back in November to save money but we HAVE to have inet for my husband's job. Earthlink actually has monthly bills that are not added to with extra fees and taxes.

Also I have had lingo.com as my phone service for about 7 years. 24.95 a month with unlimited long distance and many features. The AT&T phone is simply to lock down a landline phone number so we have access to the other things like dsl.

I prefer cable myself. We have the bundle with Cox. Have you tried to call Cox and ask them what they could do for you if you switched your phone to cox...and tell them you may be switching to AT & T and Dish. See if they get competitive.

A real way to save? - Drop cable all together. We have rabbit ears on top of our TV and don't have to pay Cox or Dish network!

I don't know what you pay now but we currently have Cox for our home phone, internet, and cable. It runs us about $130.00 per month. On top of that we have our cell phones. I have never checked into it but it might be cheaper to bundle your cell phone in with everything else. My parents have Dish and like it okay. The only complaint they have is when it storms the satellite goes out. Hope this helps.

as Barbara says with cox being local you can try but do not think it will help.
I have Direct TV bundled with the phone and computer and save a little.
Remember if you are in the Baton Rouge area and go to Dish you will not get channel 2.
Have you looked into cancelling Cox and use netflix or there compeitor. If you both work this may be your solution.
Good Luck

I can't answer personally because we don't watch TV at all, so we don't have any kind of cable bill... And my cell phone is one of those tracphones, which I don't really use unless I have an emergency (which hasn't really happened).

However, my parents just switched from separate phone, internet, and cable (they were using AT&T for phone and internet, and Cox for cable). They ordered the Cox bundle to get all three and I think they are saving about $30/month.

My personal opinion if you are trying to save money and pay off other bills is to look at your lifestyle and figure out what's really necessary and what isn't. And start cutting that which isn't necessary.

I don't know how much your famliy relies on the television...but my family decided long ago to not have cable or dish. We can pick up the local 4 chanels with a digital receiver for the news... we simply watch family oriented videos or DVDs when we want to watch TV- or rent a few movies for the week at the movie rental place...we save a bundle that way- plus, it brought our family together by not watching so much telvision. The kids play more, and we have more conversation in our house! Its wonderful.

hi there C.: Don't know if this helps but what we did was
1) Beg off from our land line phone Bell South Now we pay $10.00 to keep it because the number was on all banking items.

2) Buy the cell phone at Wal Mart. Trac Fone. $14.00 that it no contract no what ever pay for minutes as needed. They work off of Sprint towers.

30 Cut the TV people back to bare . The channels repeat the movies until we have them memorized . Beside the new shows will start soon. Cut bill in half. We were on dish. Changed ITT providers. We found one cheaper.

4) We will get notebooks and YIFI's. Again bill will be less.
5) Go to the library use their computers! Kids learn to read.!!!!!!!!!
There are too many varibles. But this is how we cut our communication costs in half.

C., we have dish, phone, and internet all together on one bill from At&T and I just paid a bill that cost $127.40, that is about normal every month. All the basics except for dish, we have no pay per view channels but we do have the next step up from the basic channels,although we do have 4 tv's on this which cost $5 a tv more, 2 are on regular dish and 2 are on the dvr...........hope this helps!

Check with Cox about their bundle services. I have had AT&T and would not have it again, there were too many times that the services were down and it was hard to get service. Since switching to Cox I have had very little problems. When I have had problems, all I had to do was unplug and restart the modem and the problem was fixed. If that did not work, I was able to call Cox and they would be able to walk me through to a solution. When I had AT&T all they would do is set up a service order and send someone out to fix it but it would be several days before the technician could get to the order. At that time I owned a busineess and even my business phone could be out for days. I would never go back to AT&T.

We did the same thing and we actually cut costs. Our Dish bill is $111.00 a month (including tax) but we have the everything package (all movie channels). I remember my Cox bill being $118.00 just for basic Digital Cable with HBO. I have all the movie channles for less than I was paying Cox. Yes, it does go out during bad weather so we have a weather radio and a TV with rabbit ears which we will have to get a converter for. All in all we are happy with our AT&T service and it is very nice to have everything all on one bill. Hope this helps! M.

For abotu 5 years no matter where we have been living we have always used the cable company for phone tv and internet, and never paid over $110. WHere as if we wanted all the services they gave us and paid seperatly we would have been paying about $200 a mo. so I think you save by using one company.

We switched from Cox to ATT&T and I like it. We actually talked to the customer service today about getting better rates and they always have promos going. We have cable through them though and not dish so that might be different. We get more channels than we did with cox for the same amount or less really. But, the internet was slower but, we got that fixed with a promo deal so now we have better for cheaper. I have heard good and bad from people about it. When I disconneted with cox they really bad mouth AT&T. It turned me off a little of them because of that. The way I told my husband is we can always switch back.

we just switched from dish back to cable again. Every time it rains we lost tv. And that isn't good when it's serious weather and you can't see what's going on. And also it was always losing signal and they would come adjust it but it wasn't any better. And we thought cable would be a better solution. And don't put your land line phone on your cell phone cause it's a mess to get it back to a land line. They don't tell you that you could lose your # you've had forever. Just a little advice since we just went through all of this recently.

I have it all. We have our home phone, internet, dish, and cell phones through AT&T. I like it. We do save money. We also have the bundle. It would be more expensive to have them all separate.
With Dish, we got the DVR. I know being a mom you can't always watch your shows when they are on.. I would die without my DVR. I get to watch my shows when my children go to bed.
I am a very satisfied customer of AT&T

The only thing I can tell you is that everyone we've talked to (and this is quite a few peeps) regrets switching over to AT&T, and are breaking their contracts to switch back to Cox. My fiance switched our cell service over to them and I cant even stand it - I get great reception everywhere in the city but my own home, which kinda sucks because I have a home-based business. They all say there is VERY poor customer service, the services they offer are crappy, and the costs just kept climbing - way over where they had them with Cox. I look at it this way, any company that offers $250 in cash to get you to sign up has GOT to be pretty bad. :}

I hate satelite. I have the bundle from Windstream which includes Dish. I am going back to Cox as soon as my contract is up. You will have to sign an 18 month contract. I swear I am calling Dish once a month for some malfunction. And it goes out even on a clear day. I hate sattelite. Cox has a phone, internet and tv bundle. Have you checked in to that? My bundle at Windstream is about 130 a month which is running about the same as Cox.

We have ATT for everything. Our cells, dish, internet and phone. Our bill without the cells is $107 a month and our cells are about $70 for two lines. It was cheaper than cable for us because you get like 200 channels for like $40 and a free DVR and instalation and the one dvr covers 2 tvs from the same box.

We have the same as you right now, except through Comcast cable. I called them yesterday and am going to switch my phone to them in 1-2 months when they have digital cable up and running in my area and save $35 a month!!!