Why is my DirecTV bill so high?
Various factors can contribute to the fact that a DirecTV bill might be slightly higher than expected. Here are the most common causes of higher-than-expected DirecTV bills and what you can do about them.
1. Promotional pricing expired
That is why many subscribers initially subscribe to DirecTV with attractive price rates like the first year at a cheaper price. However, once the promotion period is over, the price will go up to the normal price which is most of the time much higher. This may come as a shock to some customers if they had not known that the offered prices were only promotional ones.
2. Additional receiver fees
Every additional receiver that you have apart from the primary one has a mirroring fee that DirecTV levies. So if you have receivers in 3 rooms, you’ll be charged an extra mirroring fee for the extra 2 receivers. Such fees may vary from $5 to $10 for every additional receiver per month. It takes its toll after a long while.
3. Premium channel add-ons
Most customers subscribe to other services such as HBO, Showtime, or Starz for their DirecTV. However, these cable programs attract extra monthly charges that add to your cost of consumption. Just changing one premium channel package can increase to $15 or even more per month.
4. Regional sports fees
Some of the fees that might apply depending on your market location are the regional sports fees. This enables carriers such as DirecTV to offset some of the high costs of acquiring programming rights to regional sports networks. These fees which may range between $5 to $8 per month are often not included in promotional offers and prices.
5. Taxes and other fees
In line with this, DirecTV charges other incremental programming taxes and fees such as broadcast fees, Sports TV fees, and regulatory fees among others. These additional charges which may appear insignificant on their own can cost you an additional $5-15 on your monthly bill.
There are things you can do to cut down on your high DirecTV bills and some of them include the following:
Here are some tips to save money on your DirecTV bill
1. Establish when the promo pricing is due to end
After your promotional period with the lower discount price on your products, kindly call DirecTV and inquire whether there is any other promotion currently running that will enable you to enjoy their services at a cheaper price. Usually, this is the case given that I am a regular customer of this store.
2. Audit your channel lineup
DirecTV packages come bundled with up to 200+ channels that you will probably never use. Scan through the list of channels in your cable package that you do not require and eliminate them to reduce your expenses each month.
3. Downgrade your TV package
You may want to reduce your current DirecTV package to its essentials if you feel that you are paying for more than what you need, and in doing so, you stand to save a lot of cash as per the details above. It just needs to be in front of any of the ‘need to have’ channels if they are present.
4. Buy your equipment
Leasing DirecTV receivers and Genie DVRs on a long-term basis is very costly. Rather, buy your own approved equipment which is quite cheaper as opposed to having to pay monthly lease charges.
The only way through which costs can be controlled is by being an informed consumer when ordering DirecTV and then periodically auditing the account to ensure one gets the best deal. I’ll also show you adjustments that can probably bring that terrible DirecTV bill down to a reasonable range.
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