SiriusXM
 

Bought a new car. Comes with 3 months of Free Sirius FM, then $4 per month for 12 months and then $25/month. I know people who have negotiated the $25/month down.

My question is. Why pay anything?

Our Sirius was 3 years free, because of concierge management discount. After that twice a year we received free offers for 30-60 days. Our yearly is $50 two months are free, but alway declined. Price gets cheaper, but our free offers were spring and fall, just in time for our north/south drive.
Rest of the time we Bluetooth from our phones.

We been fans of XM radio since 2009 and enjoy listening to the various stations commercial free. We have it in our car, on our cell phones and on our alexa. We have the basic plan which doesn't include all the channels like sports and talk radio. I renewed back in March, cost was $220.00 plus tax. If you pay for the year up front you get a 10% discount. XM used to offer two and three year plans at a huge discount but that stopped several years ago.

Sirius XM
 

We didn't use Sirius XM before but greatly enjoyed both the choices of content and the continuity of signal throughout Florida. We bought a new car 18 months ago and had the similar deal. I went online to Sirius XM and used the "chat" feature to ask for a reason to continue service without paying so much - it immediately offered the continuation of the $4 (plus tax) per mo. rate for another year.

Easy and didn't have to negotiate!

I just renewed mine via phone call at $5.32/month cancel any time but be sure to call or cancel before 12 months or the will bill you at $25.00+. I believe they will send you a notice prior to the 12 month increase and then you can call and renew at the low price. I have been using them for many years and always a good experience.

They offered me $4 per month (total amount including all taxes, fees, etc) and I declined.
Free is better, so I stream from phone. Both mp3 on the phone, and multiple web services. Huge selection and many different collections easily beats XM.

i pay because my car doesn't have a cd player, and i love the channels. i listen to the Boneyard & Grateful Dead channel ad nauseum. :MOJE_whot:

Convenience, selection, and availability.

- A number of channels with different music types and podcasts
- Integrated with my car audio system
- Dead spots limited to tunnels, underpasses, and some canyons

- MP3 player is limited to the songs I have purchased (so not really free) and the playlists I have created
- iPhone (or other) can play through my car audio and CarPlay makes it a little more integrated but still has gaps
- Even with the best cell service you will find dead spots when driving across country. There are even areas on 95 through SC and GA that are sketchy at best.

We might drop Sirius/XM when we stop driving cross country, Amazon music (or likely Spotify) is great at home.

Great for long drives, where you can listen without losing reception. Since there are plenty alternatives, it is easy to negotiate them down to a fair price. Anybody paying $25 a month is just plain crazy.

I heard years ago when Sirius XM started out, they were offering a lifetime subscription.

I enjoy Sirius very much. I've had it for perhaps 12 or 15 years. I listen to it in my car, but also in my golf cart (using the app and bluetooth speakers).

I pay much more than the numbers being discussed in this thread for basic channels. $25/mo is about right.

I'm not even sure what I'm paying, but it's worth it!

Canceled a few months ago, they constantly send offers for $4 or $5 a month. Used it primarily to listen to old time radio but found a podcast channel that has thousands of shows on it so I just play from my phone through Bluetooth.

I like that , in addition to music, I can listen to golf, NBA, MLB, and NFL when I am out and about. Could I get it cheaper? Probably, but I like the convenience.

Just call and cancel the service. They immediately will offer you a big discount.. If you hold on, and wait to talk to someone, they will offer even a bigger discount. The last I paid was $7.95 a month.

I still have that! Got it many many years ago.....

Me too. Mine was with Sirius when they were struggling and eventually merged with XM. I received it as a retirement gift from my kids.

Sirus
 

Just negotiated mine for $88.00 a year

For years I would call threatening to cancel and I would get it for $60-$70 a year. Even at this price, it was too much for what you got. How many times you listen to music that you don’t like the song? For us, quite a bit.
I ripped thousands of cds to my home server so I can access all of these tracks from my iPhones and tablets from home.
I stream high def music to my house so I have access to millions of tracks of music. For example, I have access to every track Led Zeppelin created, or Dream Theater or Sting at my fingertips.
Then I use Roon which is a graphical user interface to access this music and my ripped cd library using my iPhones, iPads, or computers.
I use Roon ARC to access my music on my server at home as well as accessing the millions of tracks of music thru Qobuz in my cars using CarPlay so there is a graphical user interface to get access. I can also use Siri to play music.
So instead of listening to low res music on Sirius and a lot of the times you might not like, I listen to music that I pick to listen too. I can also create playlists consisting of artists or just music tracks.
If I want to explore new music, I can turn Roon radio on which asks what artist you would like to listen too and then plays like music for many hours.
If you travel around the country or run into areas where there is no cell service, my phone has 1Tb of music on it so I can listen to many days of music without streaming.
Another option is to rip music onto a hard drive or ssd and plug that drive into your usb port on your car radio/receiver and access this music using CarPlay or thru Bluetooth.
I’ll never pay for Sirius again

Most of those packages are cheap ones that don't offer all the channels. So depends what you are after. The 230.00 a year plan is all channels and any device, not just your car. I stream Sirius on my Sonos speakers in the house, when I travel on any device, in any number of cars, etc. It all depends what you subscribe for, but I love the music and all the sports channels, comedy, and can take it anywhere. For all you get its a reasonable price.

Just renewed mine at $5.48 per month. All channels. Car, phone, Alexa included.

After all the taxes, royalty fees, etc. I pay $55.57 a year for the basic plan per subscription. I have the App on my ROKU TVs and can use XM in the house as well as the cars. Supposedly, it will not jump when renewal time comes, saving my having to threaten to cancel.

Tune In Premium?
 

Our truck did not offer AM nor SXM (which came with our last 3 cars.)
It did come with TuneIn premium which was in some ways better than SXM and other ways not.
They just started SXM which we will get after negotiating ( we will let it lapse and then wait til they approach us and then negotiate .

We got 4 free months with our new Suburu, then they offered us another 4 months for $2/month. Personally, I don’t think the choices are as good as YouTube Music which is included with my YouTube Premium subscription, so I’d prefer to not renew SXM when it expires, but hubby likes it and will likely renew if he can get a rate no more that $5 monthly. I just wear my AirPods in the car if we’re traveling for a half hour or more and listen to a podcast, which I prefer over music.

I do enjoy Sirius XM, especially when driving any distance, every year I call and get a discount usually around $120 for the year or $10 a month.

I don't have SiriusXM, and based on this thread, I would never buy it. They should set a price and charge the same price to all customers. They would make more money and their customers would not feel cheated.

Yes, the "subscription" was actually embedded into radios that were sold. I have several I bought a few years ago (craigslist, ebay, facebook marketplace). They get all the music / news / talk channels. I just have it connected to the audio jack in my VW and it works great. Haven't paid for Sirius at all in many years. If you poke around, you may be able to still find some of these radios on the market. The ones I have are Magnavox branded.

I never pay more than $4.00 mo.
 

I make sure to cancel prior to the 12 months then ask for supervisor if necessary.

My question is. Why pay anything?[/QUOTE]

I don't like the practice either but how is it any different from what we've read about Xfinity (and probably others)?

I have never negotiated with Xfinity, and my overall costs have not increased more than other services over the past 8 years. I do think that Xfinity should notify customers when to renew their contract. When an Xfinity contract expires, they automatically switch you to a month-to-month plan, so your bill increases because you lose the contract discounts. This causes many people to think that Xfinity raised their rates when they did not. Xfinity could improve customer relations by giving a prior notice to renew the contract before it expires.

I like SIRIUS ad free stations, but if you just cancel it when they go to $25/mo they will beg you to return with all kinds of promotions.

Oh definitely negotiate. I pay around $85 per year and have service in my car and in my house. It’s well worth it. Just keep saying “no, I can’t do that” until they come up with a number that you are comfortable with. And make sure they give you internet access too and then get a Bluetooth speaker.

I've had it for 4 years now and pay $48 a year ($4 a month). I have to call to cancel right before the year is up and they always re-offer the $4 a month. There was once they refused so I let it lapse and they called back the next week and offered to come back for the $4.

Your question: Why pay anything? You pay for it if you like the content. If you don't find value in it, then cancel.
Regarding the cost - I have a love/hate relationship with Sirius/XM. My wife and I enjoy the content - but absolutely hate their billing practices. If you don't call before renewal, they will charge you an exorbitant amount. If you call before renewal, they will give you a 50% discount. As a long time customer, I really despise that I have to make the phone call instead of just being offered the discounted rate for my loyalty. It just feels like a “gotcha” tactic that can only irritate their customer base.

I had Sirius for Years
I had the full package so I could listen to My Baseball and football Games and stream over my phone when I was driving all night while working.

Every year at renewal time I would call to cancel and told them I would renew for another year if they gave it to me at my current price, which was around $100 yr.

That worked for many years until a couple years ago when they would only renew it but downgraded my package to a few music channels and none of the premium stuff.

That's when I finally got rid of it.

Also never give them a CC, Tell them you want a bill sent to you and then send a check. If they have your card it is a lot harder to cancel

Their website says that a credit card is required.

They tell you to get certain specials it is required.

They will waive that if you negotiate.

We just got an offer for 3$ a month for 3 years. You need to cancel it over the phone and then they start offering discounts.

Sirius XM
 

I pay $7 per month. Just call in and tell them your budget no longer supports $25 per month. You will be surprised how quick the lower offers come!

Is tha for a basics package or the package with everything included