Best way to cut back on monthly fees

[EclecticViewer]

Does anyone have any ideas about how to cut back on Dish's fees? We currently have Classic Gold 250, Gold HD, Platinum HD, Local and DHPP (the warranty). This comes to about $100 a month, which my wife and I feel is kind of steep, and we're considering cutting out the DHPP but that's only a $5.99 a month savings. We have two TVs, both HD capable. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[shodobe]

I recently downgraded my service from the AEP to just the Classic Gold, Gold HD, locals and still kept the DHPP. I felt the premiums were just repeat after repeat and the Platinum HD was nothing I ever watched. I ended up saving close to $40 a month. I might upgrade to the Premiums later this year when there more newer movies and less repeats. I do this every other year.

 

[dangue]

I would definitely drop DHPP since if you have a problem you can add it right back on before you request service help.

 

[havana]

Does anyone have any ideas about how to cut back on Dish's fees? We currently have Classic Gold 250, Gold HD, Platinum HD, Local and DHPP (the warranty). This comes to about $100 a month, which my wife and I feel is kind of steep, and we're considering cutting out the DHPP but that's only a $5.99 a month savings. We have two TVs, both HD capable. Any suggestions are welcome.

I got rid of Platinum HD and I don’t miss it at all...get rid of that and the DHPP and you’ll save $16.00 a month.

 

[Laddyboy]

I never found much in the Gold package that made it required viewing for me so I dropped to the Silver package years ago saving $10 per month. Look at the comparisons at dishnetwork.com and see if you can get along with just Silver. I'm seriously considering dropping to Bronze just to save some money as it has most of what I watch. The rest I'll grab from the internet as needed. Since you only have HDTVs, consider one of the Turbo packages. You'll lose some content but save quite a few dollars. Which receivers do you have?

 

[voodooevil]

Hi...
I had the everything pack, with locals, HD, had it all.

I just downgraded to turboHD Gold platinum with locals and superstations.
I love the programing, and do not miss the movie channels. I use a movie rental service by mail and it is very price friendly.

I did miss the HLN news channel with nancy grace....I was hooked onto this casey anth**y case.

I just hope D keeps adding programing to the turbohd gold package.
I think by offering better packages at a better price they will gain more customers.

thanks Joe

 

[EclecticViewer]

I have the VIP722 DVR receiver; it handles my upstairs and downstairs TVs.

 

[theoak]

So you only have the 722.

You could as mentioned prior go with:

DDA TurboHD Gold: $59.99
PlatinumHD: $10.00

That gets you to $70 total plus taxes, or about a $30 savings.

You will lose a lot of SD channels, but if you do not watch them anyway, that should not be a biggie.

Do you really watch the channels in the PlatinumHD package? You could save another $10 there bringing the total savings to $40.

 

[theoak]

One other thing ... if you are not already ... and if you are willing ... you could go autopay and paperless and get all the Cinemax channels (SD and HD) for a penny per year. I think this offer goes till 2010 sometime.

 

[lb311]

Take the price of the basic bare bones TurboHD Bronze w/Locals pkg. It's pretty darn cheap! Now look at the additional channels you get when you upgrade-- do you watch those extra channels enough to justify the $10, $20, $30+ you'll pay in extra fees?

Same goes for assessing those movie channels-- do you get enough value for the price you pay each month? Or would you be better off w/Netflix or renting as needed via pay-per-view?

Finally, assess your receivers-- do you need a separate receiver for each TV? Or do you only really watch one TV at a time (and could nicely use the "TV2" feature of a single receiver like the 722)?

I used to pay nearly $90/month to Comcast for all those channels I thought I just had to have. But turns out, those channels were often filled with reruns & I usually only watched a couple basic channels & local networks. For everything else, I can watch it via the Internet or rent it from iTunes or Netflix.

I now have TurbroBronze HD and a 722 running 2 TVs and am saving $50/month. Very satisfied with my decision.

 

[KenSoren]

Kind of off subject, but consider replacing any movie channels you have with a Roku Netflix player - $100 plus shipping. If you have a broadband connection and a Netflix account you can access lots of movies - including those offered by Stars - over the internet and watch them on your HD TV. The box will display up to 720p resolution and is well worth the money - check it out.

Also, shortly the Roku box will be able to access the Amazon online movies which will contain a really large selection plus all the recent releases offered on DVD. This will cost like $4 per recent release and you can access them online when you want.

I bought the Roku last summer shortly after it was released and am impressed by what it can do - I highly recommend it!

 

[Stargazer]

Order movie packages, cram as many movies on the DVR as possible, then shut the movie packages off. You have a whole hard drive full of movies. If you have a 722 then purchase an external hard drive and pay them their $40 hard drive activation fee. It will more than pay for itself for the money that you save on not having to pay for movie packages every month. Once you record all of those movies you now have many movies on demand without the monthly fee. Reorder the movie packages as needed once you have watched all of those movies you recorded. An external hard drive can store a heck of a lot of movies especially in SD.

TV is just getting plainly rediculous in price.