Posted by The cord-cutting movement is on the verge of gaining mass momentum and we all know why. Traditional cable, over the years, has exploited customers with ever-increasing cable bills. The service quality has not improved and there are many problems associated with the service.
By cutting the cord, consumers subscribe to a streaming service. These streaming services offer a limited amount of TV channels according to your liking. There are many extras on cable that you don’t watch so it is baseless paying for them. Therefore, streaming offers you to customize the channel lineup according to your liking. Once you do, you pay half the amount every month. There are no cable boxes; you save on the monthly rental for equipment as well. The only drawback is that you get a limited number of channels when it comes to sports.
Cable bills can get annoying. If you think why your cable bill increased suddenly, here are some of the reasons why:
End of the promotional term
Once you sign-up for a cable provider, it is usually on promotion. These promotions are a great tactic to lure customers into signing for a service. These promotions are offered in bundles and the benefit of these promotions is that you get extra features and benefits, which would otherwise cost a lot. However, we do not pay attention while agreeing to all of this. These deals are for a promotional term. Once that term ends, the prices are bound to get higher.
For example, an average promotional term is one year. Therefore, after 12 months of the service, the prices would go back to normal. If your cable bill has increased suddenly, this might indicate that the promotional term is over.
Taxes, fees, or other surcharges
The prices you see on the websites, are not the exact prices you’d pay after getting the service. There are many extra charges on top. For example, these charges include the rental of the equipment, taxes, fees, and other surcharges. Apart from it, if you are stressed about money can learn ways to curb financial anxiety. The taxes vary from state to state. Everyone has to pay these taxes irrespective of their plan. The local broadcasters set up these surcharges and fees. These extra charges also vary from area to area. However, these charges are in the form of local broadcast fees and sports surcharges to get access to the local channels.
Any addition of state taxes, additional fees added or surcharges may increase your cable bill suddenly.
Rental for the equipment
Equipment rental is equally as important as all the other additional charges. On average, a cable box costs $10 every month. Moreover, if you have bundled internet and cable, you’d need to pay for the Wi-Fi as well that amounts to $5 to $15 per month. Are you selling on Amazon? If yes, here are some tips to remember. Ideally, one should purchase his or her own router/modem. This saves you a ton of money. In case you don’t, you end up paying more than the actual amount of the equipment. The addition of an extra box or change in its pricing may increase your cable bill suddenly.
Change your monthly plan
There are chances that the plan you were subscribed to, is no longer active right now, or somehow, you are on a different plan. As a result, there are price changes in your monthly bill. The change in the plan may be intentional or unintentional. Sometimes, the providers decide to discontinue a plan, and you are moved to some other plan with a similar value. In addition, the pricing of the plan may change and the notifications are usually sent through e-mail and you might have missed it somehow.
The pandemic
As we all know that it’s been more than a year since the pandemic began, companies are trying hard to keep everything afloat. Even then, the companies are facing great financial crises and they have to increase the prices to make sure that everything runs smoothly for them and they get customers the best possible service.
Final Verdict
Sign-up for a provider that provides a complete breakdown of prices in the first, second, and third year of the service just like Mediacom does. Moreover, whenever you think the bill is higher than the usual, just call customer service.