Sometimes we write about topics that aren’t necessarily about mounts but kind of close. Today is one of those days. We’re going to discuss how to lower your Sirius XM subscription price.
Don’t Pay the Rack Rate
I recently reviewed my Sirius XM bill for two cars and realized I was spending over $340 annually. That’s a lot of money. This isn’t streaming TV, it’s a radio. And it’s one that I listen to for maybe an hour each day. That’s almost $30/monthly to listen to music that I can hear for free. Enough already.
Pick Up the Phone
So here’s where it got interesting. I called Sirius and told them I wanted to cancel the subscription. They connected me to the cancellation department and they asked why I wanted to cancel. I told them that I have better things to do with $340 per year. They apologized which seemed so silly. If you have to apologize for something, shouldn’t you simply stop doing it? Anyway, they then offered me a deal for $89 per year for each car. That’s almost 50% off what I was paying. I asked what happens after a year and she told me it goes back up to what I was paying before. I told them no thanks.
Well then the lady from Sirius XM offers me a deal for $25 for six months. That’s less than one-third of what I was paying. I asked her again what happens after six months, and she informed me it goes back up to what I was paying. I again told her no thanks and disconnected my radios.
A few days later I was doing some searches on Sirius Radio subscriptions to see if there was something longer term in the way of deals. Turns out there are a lot of people who take the 6 months for $25 deal then mark their calendars to call Sirius and request an extension of the deal. According to what I read, they typically do that without an issue. I’m sure your mileage may vary, but the point is that a phone call can likely yield you a better deal than what is offered off the rack.
So you might be asking yourself why didn’t I grab one of those deals. That big Sirius XM bill forced me to think out of the box. I came to the realization that radio applications like RadioIO, TuneIn Radio and iRadioNOW offer thousands of radio stations. Much of it is as good as what I was hearing on satellite radio. The bandwidth needed to stream a radio station isn’t very much and barely made a dent in my data plan. I can use Bluetooth or an audio cable to listen to my iPhone over my car’s speakers. I simply activate the application when I get into the car and attach the audio cable and off we go. If you have an Android OS phone, it’s even easier. Using NFC technology, you can program your phone to start-up the application when you attach it to the car mount.
Summary
So I’m saving over $340 per year. Sirius XM Radio is a fine product and is especially useful if spending a few hours daily in New Jersey rush hour traffic. If you really like your satellite radio, use some of these ideas to reduce your bill. If you want some information about car mounts for Sirius XM Radio, here’s a link to our article on that topic.