need advice on may be canceling cable

[homeschoolmomma1]

We have decided the only way to start feeling like We are going to get out of debt is to finally cancel our cable.

I will say though I LOVE TV and this seems like a hard thing to do for a few years. My only issue is I try watching TV online and some of the shows require having a cable company to view.

These are the channels we view

TLC

Lifetime

Hallmark

ABC

NBC

FOX

CBS

PBS

We could live without Nickelodeon and Disney lol

If we cancel cable I was going to look into

Hulu plus

Amazon Prime

netflix

The website of the network if possible

Would I have to pay for 19 kids and counting? I like to watch that within the week it airs.

I do like watching the shows a few days after they air.

I worry I won't see a lot of my shows anymore. Anyone have any experience.

Right now we pay about 90.00 for cable... It is bundled with our internet and we pay in total 151.00

[takers401]

We only have Netflix and Amazon Prime. I watch 19 kids via iTunes. They do charge per episode but if you buy the season package it tends to be a few dollars cheaper. I've found with most broadcast channels you aren't allowed to watch the 'current' episode until a newer episode airs. So you are typically a week behind. It's annoying but doable. We don't regret cutting cable and it's been three years!

[doggie]

You may be able to change your cable so it is only a online version. with Comcast i was able to use my daughter to sign me up so I could use hers online.

[keen23]

I have Netflix and Amazon Prime on top of cable. I love Netflix, but it's so not up to date. For bingewatching, it's great. For staying current, it's not good. I also do the free Hulu. Sure, you're about a week behind on most episodes, but it's better than nothing. I don't even use my Amazon Prime streaming. I get Amazon Prime for the shipping, and always forget about the movie/tv streaming part of it.

[Phoenix]

The big three local news channels and Fox can be obtained for a one time expense for a digital antenna. It is possible to make one for about $10 in materials.Or you can spend around $100 for a commercially made one. I went the $10 home made route and my frugal, penny pinching neighbors were so impressed they took pictures to make one of their own. That is how I get my local digital TV and a few extra channels like Ion Television, FOX, Joe TV, and Antenna TV (golden oldie shows like Maude, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Green Acres and Alfred Hitchcock presents).

I do have all three services you mentioned, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus and Netflix. Sadly none of them have current season let alone timely access to 19KAC. I saw last season on about a week delay via uploads on YouTube.

Hulu Plus does have most popular cable TV shows the next day but not everything. They tend to hold episodes for the current season. They can be misleading by promoting a show and when you search for it, they only have clips so caveat emptor.

One benefit to being obliged to wait for an entire season of a favored show to be available on Amazon or Netflix is the joys of binge watching. That sounds silly but it has it's advantages if you find a show or series you love and the writing is good over the course of a season to not have the story line broken up a week at a time.

Amazon Prime gives the most value for your money. I have it for the shipping savings, the TV and movies are icing on the cake. That cake is getting more elaborate as last April (2014) Amazon and HBO did a deal where HBO shows that are three years old are now shown as part of Amazon Prime. (Also Amazon Prime music is nothing to sneeze at.) As someone who never had access to HBO before, (refused to pay for premium channels) I found some great shows I never knew existed.

There is also rumor in industry rags that HBO will finally break away from sole cable distribution in about six months and offer something called HBOGo with current content via streaming services. It seems like they might partner with Amazon on that too, but jury is out who else may join the fray. I haven't been able to find any pricing on HBOGo via streaming yet.

If you are researching cable access just a note, no matter what the sales departments tell you, a regular family household can have TV, games, and online access on 12mbps. (This may change with the battles over internet neutrality and bandwidth up for grabs next year but for now it is fine.) A household I know has two separate big screen TV's, two mega gamers and the entire trio of streaming services mentioned earlier. On any given day there are two people who play WOW or Diablo III 24/7 while others are watching TV in different rooms and not notice a lag.

Best of luck!

[homeschoolmomma1]

Okay to update.

My kids like the kids programming on PBS and I like Downtown Abbey, however I think that airs on PBS.com or something It is also at the library.

On TLC I watch

Leah Remini

19 Kids and Counting

Honey Boo Boo (I'm sure it is just because it is on and not that is is really all that interesting lol)

Some of my shows are ending this year and I don't know if I will add anything new so I can binge watch a new show. So many shows end up being canceled.

I forgot to mention I watch a lot of ABC FAMILY

I really enjoy it and it is the hardest to find.

I watch...

Switched at Birth

The Fosters

Melissa and Joey

Baby Daddy

I started watching

Chasing Life

Young and Hungry

Mystery Girls (not that good so who knows if it will continue)

I used to watch the ABC family on the weekends for the movies and background noise.

ABC family and TLC are actually why I have extended basic with Charter otherwise I could get basic...

[keen23]

Much of the ABC Family stuff ends up on Netflix. My oldest kid loves those TV shows and movies.

[louisa05]

We have a bundle with cable, internet and landline. If we cancel one, the price of the other two goes up significantly. I would check that out first and be sure that you are really gaining enough to make it worth it.

[JHeathen]

We have our high-speed internet bundled by Cox cable, along with phone and cable tv. Last year my DH was furloughed by the government TWICE. (No pay checks). So I called Cox and told them I needed that bill to get below $100 right quick, without killing the internet. What they did was put us down to Starter Cable, considered below Basic Cable. Starter is basically, you plug in your cable wire and you take your chances. We still have almost all of the channels we watched before. Offhand, I know for sure that we have TLC, SciFi, Discovery, Lifetime, ABC, NBC, CBS, fox, PBS (all 5 or so of them on our main tv...but the very old tv in the playroom does not pick them all up), weather channel, CNN, HGTV, Cartoon Network....and many more. We do NOT have BBC America, sadly. (We love Dr. Who and Top Gear)

Hope that helps. Obviously YMMV.

[PennySycamore]

We also bundle our services. I have looked a bit into ATT&T U-Verse, but the phone part is only cheaper if you call another ATT&T customer. I have three daughters that are long distance and I frequently need to make very lengthy, long distance calls for my volunteer work. I think we might come out ahead just sticking with what we've got.

I will tell you what a Charter rep told my son-in-law a few years ago. Tell Charter that you'll cancel your service if your rates go up. Your rates won't go up because they don't want to lose a customer.

[cindyluvs24]

Phoenix: how did you make the digital antenna? Tell!!!!!

[Lillybee]

My Charter service will be switched to Comcast in the near future. What do those of you who have Comcast think of them.

[RosyDaisy]

Something to think about here. If your cable tv is bundled with internet and phone, dropping one of the services invalidates your discounted bundle price. You will then have to pay full price for the other 2 services, which will not save you money in the long run. A better solution is to choose a cheaper bundle.

I would call customer service, explain your financial situation. They may have special prices and bundled for people with limited incomes, or they may offer you some kind of discount for up to a year.

I know this because I used to work at a call center for a cable company. Based on what you said in your post, homeschoolmomma1, you would have been a customer that I would have worked with to find something that would fit what you could afford.

Netflix, Hulu, online gaming, and other devices that require an internet connect will work just fine on 12mps with no lag time. In my own house I have my laptop, 2 tablets, fiancee's laptop and Xbox, nieces laptop, 3 tvs and home phone, not to mention. No lag at all.

[Maggie Mae]

I dropped cable a few years ago. At first I watched Netflix and Amazon on a regular basis, but after a few months I pretty much stopped watching stuff at all. I might watch an episode or two of something at bed time and once every few weeks I might watch a movie, but overall I find I'm much less interested in TV than I was when I would watch it because it was there. My house is not any cleaner, though.

I think most of those shows are on Amazon & Netflix though.

And one other thing to remember. Depending on your internet provider, unlimited usage might not be actually unlimited. Some have caps on to how much you use, and streaming HD Video all day adds up quickly.

[nomoxian]

My brother watches all the popular shows on Family Channel (pretty much stuff from Disney TV) on Youtube. I watch Arthur on Youtube as well.

Adult shows are even easier to get. I always watch 19 Kids and Counting the same week they air, and I like to watch other Trash TV like Honey Boo Boo. I usually don't need to download stuff because it's all on Youtube. If you like shows like Doctor Phil, a couple users upload them the same day they air.

TL;DR - all you need is Youtube.

[Phoenix]

Phoenix: how did you make the digital antenna? Tell!!!!!

It is pretty simple. This DIY video from YouTube takes you through the basics.

We used copper wires for both the board and the antenna since we had the guts of an old phone system laying around. Also chose to use heavier duty bolts and washers, because you can tighten down the wires more securely and get better reception.

Since I didn't want to scar or gouge the wallboard in my living room, I sunk the back ends of the bolts into dense packing Styrofoam blocks salvaged from packaging that came with a separate electronic gadget. Saved the wall and didn't impact reception.

Best of luck!

[Phoenix]

My Charter service will be switched to Comcast in the near future. What do those of you who have Comcast think of them.

Comcast is evil. They constantly break their promises to customers, raise their rates like clockwork and their customer service centers tend to tell you different things each time you talk to a different rep. I have had their supervisors lie to me outright over the phone.

I signed a two year commitment on the promise my rates wouldn't go up. They went up after one year and the only explanation I was given was that it had always been in the works for my rates to skyrocket, so why was I so upset? It was a routine practice, get over it and pay up.

Comcast tells customers they need many, many times over more speed than they will probably ever use. Here, pay for 50 mbps when a household of gamers and TV fanatics have done just fine for two years on 12 mbps and Comcast's own basic cable service has long been at 13 mbps.

If Comcast gets their way and runs roughshod over net neutrality (The FCC commissioner in charge of the final decision is a former exec.) then it may be necessary to have higher speed internet for residential use. Right now though they are selling it ahead of need because they are convinced they will be calling the shots in the future since they have their people firmly entrenched in government agencies and positions making the key decisions.

They couldn't even get my conversion upgrade order right, they sent TWO full boxes and when I returned them checked the boxes like I was a thief who wasn't going to return their property to them intact when I cancelled service.

Another fun wrinkle, they refused to give me any kind of written confirmation that my service had been canceled. Told me I would have to take their word for it. Funny thing about that. I had tried to cancel six months earlier and they didn't cancel, in fact they delayed it a full month to get more money out of me after saying it would be done by a certain date two weeks from my call. So I wasn't too keen on trusting them that they had actually cancelled my service when I returned all their equipment. Finally got a manager to write down it had been cancelled on his business card but he nastily told me, "This doesn't mean anything and it is all you are going to get."

Just know you are getting in bed with the Evil Empire and watch your monthly statements carefully. Many areas there are no other choices. I have exactly one competing service in my area. I am trying to hold out until FiOs is available. It is a half mile down the road on the other side of the street, but not my neighborhood.