How to Save Money on Your Internet Bill


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I get asked all the time how you can lower your Internet bill. I have a few tricks that I find help us save money on our home Internet.

#1 Shop Around

Shopping around is most important when you are looking at downgrading from a bundle to Internet only. Cable companies especially seem to hate giving any type of discount to someone who wants to downgrade. For example, my local cable company will charge a new customer $29.99 for 100 Mbps down, but customers who downgrade to the same plan pay more than double that: $70 a month.

Take some time, do some research, and do not discount DSL. I often switch between DSL and cable TV. You may be surprised to see AT&T DSL in some areas even offers a 1 Gbps option and 100 down DSL is more common than you may think. Don’t want to go with AT&T or CenturyLink? Look into some of the smaller DSL companies such as Toast.net.

#2 Lower Your Speed

Often when people become cord cutters Internet service providers try to talk them into crazy high Internet speeds.

I cut the cord with just 10 down and later found that about 20 to 25 Mbps down is all you need. Once you get over 100 down it has little effect on streaming.

Here is what Sling TV says you need for Internet speeds to stream Sling TV. The following are the recommended speeds according to Sling TV’s Help Center:

  • Constant speed of 3.0 Megabits per second or more: Streaming video content on portable devices such as tablets and phones.
  • Constant speed of 5.0 Megabits per second or more: Single stream of video content on a TV, PC, or Mac.
  • Constant speed of 25 Megabits per second or more: Recommended for households that maintain Internet use on multiple devices.

Still struggling with buffering and have more than that? Check out our guide to fixing buffering.

#3 Buy a Modem

Most ISPs charge $10 or more a month to rent their modems; however, many, such as Comcast, will let you buy a modem from them and save $120 a year. This is a great deal when you consider that most modems cost less than $100 and you can start saving money the first year.

If you rent a modem for three years that will cost you $360. If you buy a $100 modem it would still save you $260.

Do you have a tip for saving money on home Internet? Leve us a comment and let us know what it is.

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