[PennBF]

Thanks to all. You have provided a host of information to learn and look into. This is the reason the Village's are so good and Talk of the Villages so valuable.

[Cynthia Robinson]

My husband must have the NFL package so we’re stuck with Direct TV.

[Byte1]

I also got tired of the cable prices continuously going up and up, as well as unadvertised fees and taxes. Whenever I mentioned it to the cable co. they would give me a quote for a "great deal." When I asked them how much more would the fees and taxes add to it, they quietly said "about $25."
I ditched cable and bought Roku sticks on Black Friday, subscribed to Youtube TV that has ALL my channels. My wife wanted to watch something on Starz so I found a one day special of six months for about $20 TOTAL. HBO is an additional $15 if I decide I want it, AND I can drop it or start it whenever I wish without someone calling me and begging me to continue.
The quality of my streaming TV via Internet is even better than my cable was.
Cut the Cable.

[Islasea]

Who else offers HBO

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Islasea

Who else offers HBO

Most streaming services offer HBO as an option. Go to the website, "suppose.tv" and check off HBO and you will see all the services that offer HBO. Or, you can just go to HBO.com and subscribe to HBO as an individual channel for $14.99 per month.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by prntxpresn

Telephone - buy OOMA on Amazon $79. Set up $75. Monthly charges $5.46 for 911 & tax. Great clarity.

You could have landline service for zero dollars a month after it is setup. This is using Google Voice, which is free nationwide unlimited service with excellent call quality. It also has tons of features like voicemail and other things, which are included with the free price.

To use Google Voice, you need an Internet connection in your home. You also need an Obihai OBi 200 or OBi 202 set top box, which costs about $35 to $70. The OBi 200 is a one line model and the Obi 202 is a two line model. You could have two free landline phone numbers using two Google Voice accounts, one for voice, the other for a fax machine or a second landline for voice calls.

If you want to transfer your existing landline telephone number to Google Voice, that is not allowed. However, you can transfer your existing landline telephone number to a cheap "burner" cellphone with that has one month of prepaid service. Then the number can be transferred from the cheap "burner" cellphone to Google Voice.

After your Google voice landlines are setup, every month is totally free! The call quality is absolutely excellent, and there is unlimited free nationwide long distance. However, the "911" locator service will not work, unless you subscribe to a "911" locator service, which costs about $20 a year.

Google Voice can also be used as a free second telephone number for your cellphone. Calls to your Google Voice landline can be answered using your cellphone, and the voicemail can be accessed from your cellphone. The voicemail can also be automatically transcribed and texted to you. This is another one of the many free extra services of Google Voice.

I was going to drop my Comcast landline service and switch to Google Voice, however, if I drop my Comcast landline, but keep my Comcast cable TV and Internet, my price increases because of my grandfathered package that I subscribed to years ago. So, I use my free Google Voice service for my fax machine and for when I sell things on Facebook Marketplace or Craig's List. I now only use Facebook Marketplace because it works 20 to 30 times better than Craig's List, and is free.

[themarinos]

Cut the cord and get a streaming service like ATT Now , Prime TV, YouTube Tv ,
Hulu etc get internet for anyone and add internet all you need is a fire stick or a smart
TV usually there is no contracts and a free trial period

[retiredguy123]

Premium channels like HBO and Showtime are pretty much redundant with respect to movies. Many people pay a lot of money for a premium channel because they like a particular show that the channel produces. I have found that if you want to save money, one way to do it is to dump the premium channel and buy the shows you want on dvd.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by PennBF

Thanks for your help.

Well..................with all this input, whatcha doing???

[OhioBuckeye]

Originally Posted by PennBF

Currently we have ATT Direct TV and ATT phone as providers. They are growing in
price to the point we will have to drop them and go to a different provider. Would appreciate any suggestions anyone may have.? These providers have been raising their prices to the point we are ready to say good bye to them and move on. When they settled with Time Warner they bought HBO. They now charge $17.99 if you want HBO! That is just a small taste of their crawling up the cost ladder. We are serious about going to a new and different provider but want to look at options, Thanks for your help.

Hate to tell you PennBF, but I had Cable & Internet service with Spectrum for 8 yrs. & when we signed up with them our bill was 59 or $69. a month for Cable & Internet, 8 yrs. later it was $165. a month & still going up. Don't let any of these Dish or Cable Co. trick you into getting you to sign with them because they'll promise not to let your cable bill get that high that quick. They're just blowing smoke up your back side. In 7 yrs. you WILL be paying $150. a month & it will keep going up. I was surprised when we moved from TV that we got Cable & Internet for FREE, pay nothing my daughter were the first to move in this subdivision 10 yrs. ago & there's 15 to 20,000 living here & it's still FREE. Yea, 20,000 is about the size of one of your subdivisions. Anyway the only way you can beat the raising prices is to switch cable companies every 2 yrs. you're not going to get away from it long term.
Good Luck!

[pepfalcon]

We have had Direct TV for Eons. Every year, I call in when they raise our prices - ours went from $63 to $150. They kept saying they didn't have any deals. After the 4th try, I told them to stop our Direct Tv on Feb. 14th to give me enough time to switch. Miracles - they suddenly gave me $75 for a year for the same service I have been enjoying for years. Next year, I will simply call in and say discontinue my service to see what their price will be. We looked into cutting the cable but found we like what we have and by the time we got everything we wanted it would be more expensive than the $75 price.

[OhioBuckeye]

Originally Posted by pepfalcon

We have had Direct TV for Eons. Every year, I call in when they raise our prices - ours went from $63 to $150. They kept saying they didn't have any deals. After the 4th try, I told them to stop our Direct Tv on Feb. 14th to give me enough time to switch. Miracles - they suddenly gave me $75 for a year for the same service I have been enjoying for years. Next year, I will simply call in and say discontinue my service to see what their price will be. We looked into cutting the cable but found we like what we have and by the time we got everything we wanted it would be more expensive than the $75 price.

Yes, sometimes that works!

[2BNTV]

I've had Directv twice and found they doubled my bill after one year. A big sports fan but to make a long story shorter, I got tired of playing the game and switched back to Dish. They gave me a price guarantee two year contract with a $300 MasterCard for just less that $100. I record a lot so I really like how the hopper works and the remote is so much easier to use. I found that Directv recorded shows disappear after awhile. I like a lot of the classic movies and like to keep them available for viewing.

I find my aggravation level has gone down significantly!!!

The downside is that I will have to go out to watch my Giants when they aren't on local stations and I'll have to play the game with Dish going forward. Oh well!

FWIW - I found Dish more pleasant to deal with that Directv reps. IMHO.

Everyone will have an opinion so please don't attack mine. To each his/her own.