Recently I became aware of an impending increase in my DirecTV bill due to reaching the mid-way point on my 2-year contract. This wasn’t a new subscriber contract either. After subscribing to DirecTV for almost 8 years and having DVRs that were released when I subscribed, I had asked about getting upgraded to the Genie since it had better features and recent software updates to my existing DVRs had made them erratic. I was told the only way to exchange my equipment and guarantee I got the Genie was to sign a new 2-year contract. At this point I had been out of contract for 5-6 years, but since they had been reasonable with my bill and requests to decrease it in the past I didn’t see an issue with getting back into contract with DirecTV. This was a mistake.

When I contacted DirecTV recently about the impeding 46% increase coming to my bill, making it just over $125/month, I was told the best they could do was offer me $20/month off to make the bill still over $100/month. At this point I asked them to confirm what my Early Termination Fee (ETF) would be, $240 or $20 per remaining month, and what the process would be to end my DirecTV subscription.

So now I begin exploring my options of changing to Time Warner Cable, or cutting cord and going all online for my entertainment services.