Saving Money on Your Internet Connection: Tricks to Know

You incur a significant monthly expense when you pay for a high-speed internet connection. You may end up paying a bill as high as $100 or more each month. The bill might be higher for a bundled internet connection combining phone and TV services, standing at $200 or even more.

Moreover, a Consumer Reports article reveals just how important internet connections are. Furthermore, it emphasizes that consumers struggle to pay the monthly fees or find providers in their areas. In general, many respondents emphasized that broadband costs too much. And even those who have it complain about the high prices.

Thus, as soon as you feel like your internet connection becomes sluggish, do not hurry to sign up for even pricier deals. You can, in fact, try other techniques.

Negotiate the Price

Before you start bargaining with your internet service provider about the prices, you need to be in a position from where you can bargain hard. You can compare the actual speed of the connection with the advertised speed after doing a speed test. Here’s the information you need to collect to get a good bargain out of the provider:

• The bill you are paying every month
• The amount you paid while signing up
• How long you have been subscribed
• The issues you have faced while using the connection
• The internet plans offered by competitors in your location
• The sign-up bonuses and the special offers your provider have lined up for you

Equipped with all this information, you can bargain with your ISP. You shall be compelling the provider to design a package for you if you threaten to switch to a new provider. Of course, it is a gamble, as some users might not have other providers in the area.

Use Your Modem and Router

If you are planning to continue with your internet provider for some time, it would be more cost-effective for you if you were to buy your modem and router rather than rent them. There are providers charging anything between $10 and $15 each month to give out their equipment on rent. If you plan to stay with your provider for two years, you end up paying $240 to $360. On the other hand, you would be incurring a one-time cost of $200 if you were to buy your modem and router. Thus, consider all factors and whether this solution is worthwhile for you.

Go For Bundle Services

If you can’t do away with cable altogether, do make sure that you have bundled the cable service with your internet to form a package. If you opt for your cable package from one provider and the internet from another, you end up paying anywhere between $10 and $30 per month.

If you bundle your internet and cable services, you can save hundreds of dollars every year. Leading ISPs like Spectrum, Xfinity by Comcast, and Cox, all offer bundle packages combining TV and internet at under $90.

There is, however, a downside to this. A cable company might lure you into a subscription at a cheap promotional rate offering a TV and internet bundle. You are caught unawares by a sudden rise in the bills when the promotional offer has expired. You should read the fine print very carefully.

Choose For the Minimal Basic Packages

If you need an internet connection only for limited purposes, it would be a wise decision to downgrade to a hot spot plan offering limited data. For example, you may opt for the 1 GB data each month plan.

Such packages will do fine if you only need to check your emails or your social media profiles occasionally every month. These are, however, not suitable for streaming videos as you’ll run out of data soon. These plans can help you save up to $20 per month, giving you the option to live with a more relaxed budget.

Avoid ISP throttling with a VPN

Your internet service provider may resort to ISP throttling to restrict your internet bandwidth and the speed without your knowledge. It causes the internet speed to drop below what the ISP had offered. ISPs use throttling so they can control internet traffic on their network and reduce bandwidth congestion. Another reason is enforcing data caps. Heavy users of the internet usually face ISP throttling.

To avoid it, you can turn to a VPN program that will prevent ISP throttling as your ISP won’t know what you are watching on the internet. Your ISP can throttle your internet connection only on some services, not all of them. When you prevent them from seeing what you are doing online, your ISP can’t decide which service to throttle. As a result, your internet connection will remain stable regardless of what you do (like streaming or online gaming).

Conclusion

You need the internet for almost everything these days. Buying a connection is a significant cost, one that you would do well to save on. Our tips help you make considerable savings on your internet bills. You can save more every month and plan your budget better. Choose your options wisely to save more.