Quote from Guest on January 29, 2020, 5:47 pm

Update: Thank you for the reply. I've been encouraged by the others here who got good deals. Well I just got off the phone with them (45 minutes!) but I would not call it terribly successful.  The best offer was my same package - Select for $59.99 - but that price now includes the $10 extra they had been charging for my HD DVR and another $10 extra for HD programming (even though my tv is not HD).  I still have to pay the $8.99 protection plan (the DVR is older than the Genie) but I may not keep that.  I did qualify for a $200 Visa gift card which is the only reason I took the deal since I can apply it towards the new $70+ bill.  Not the best deal in the world but adequate for now.  In a few months I am going to call and see if there are any other discount offers on the account.  Another downside is now I am under a 12-month contact which is not exactly ideal.

Quote from Savings Beagle on January 30, 2020, 9:30 am

Quote from Guest on January 29, 2020, 5:47 pm

Update: Thank you for the reply. I've been encouraged by the others here who got good deals. Well I just got off the phone with them (45 minutes!) but I would not call it terribly successful.  The best offer was my same package - Select for $59.99 - but that price now includes the $10 extra they had been charging for my HD DVR and another $10 extra for HD programming (even though my tv is not HD).  I still have to pay the $8.99 protection plan (the DVR is older than the Genie) but I may not keep that.  I did qualify for a $200 Visa gift card which is the only reason I took the deal since I can apply it towards the new $70+ bill.  Not the best deal in the world but adequate for now.  In a few months I am going to call and see if there are any other discount offers on the account.  Another downside is now I am under a 12-month contact which is not exactly ideal.

Thanks so much for providing the update!  And thank you for mentioning how comments from other readers were beneficial.  That's exactly why we began this discussion board.  To get up-to-date retention experiences that can help other DirecTV customers get an idea what to expect when it comes to lowering their DirecTV bill.

I completely agree the $200 gift card moves the needle when deciding whether a deal is good or not.  I used my gift card exactly as you plan to.  Thanks again for your comment and update.  Your participation is much appreciated.

Quote from Guest on February 1, 2020, 11:18 am

Was offered a $40 a month discount for 1 year no contract. Plus a $5 discount to offset the $5 price increase for Choice package. Got Showtime free for 4 months and it will drop off automatically. Won't have to call back. Don't know if I could have done better. May call back in a few weeks to see if I can get anything extra. I was thinking about youtube and philio for a total of $70. That would be about $20 less until they go up on prices, which I'm sure will happen this year. Wouldn't have taken anything less. Not having to change everything out and lose DVR recordings and learn a whole new system worth a little extra.

Quote from Savings Beagle on February 3, 2020, 9:18 am

From Lee via comment on the post How to Lower Your DirecTV Bill in 2019.

6 months ago DirecTV (Select pkg) lowered my bill to $20 which includes DSL by giving me a $50 6-month discount. I received my bill the other day and my discount was over and my bill was back up to $70. I called AT&T to disconnect and was not offered any deals, so I set up a disconnect for the day before my next billing month. Today, I had to make a rare call to AT&T while experiencing a “no audio” problem on my main receiver, the customer service guy recognized that I was scheduled to cancel and surprising offered me an additional $30 off my $70 bundled bill, plus 3 months of all of the movie channels (501-565), AND a $200 Visa gift card. So including the $200 GC I’m paying about $23 for my bundle for the next 12 months and just $3 more than I paid for the last 6 months. I think the magic of this deal might be that I had a Philippines based customer service guy on this call today versus the U.S. based agent I had the other day when setting up the cancellation. I think he had offers available to offer that the U.S. agent did not.

Quote from Savings Beagle on February 11, 2020, 11:03 am

From CindyLouWho68 via comment on the post How to Lower Your DirecTV Bill in 2019.

Hi. Beginning 8/2017, I was in a “new customer” package – after cancelling for several months due to a move and staying with relatives while our home was being built. For 2 years I was paying $73.48 for Choice (all included), after discounts and taxes. This included DVR and equipment for 4 TVs. In August, 2019 my bill went up to $132.49 for the same package. I called and they offered me a $45 discount, which I gladly accepted, dropping my bill to $87.49. My last bill effective February, 2020 increased to $93.99.

Anyway, I called again last night and they offered me an additional $10. I thought I could do better so I said no, cancel me effective March 8th, I was paid thru that date. Much to my surprise the rep did not offer me anything additional and we scheduled the disconnect. I was getting a little worried but then stumbled upon your website and saw the “answer calls from unrecognized numbers”. One hour ago, less than 24 hours after scheduling the disconnect, DirecTv called me and offered me the price of $68.99/month not including taxes, but including the regional sports fee and all equipment for the same package I currently have. I remembered reading one the comments where someone said they’d need to discuss with their spouse so I figured I’d give that a shot. Lo and behold, the rep said “let me check the next page and see if I can offer you anything additional”. hmmm…. the “next page” had an additional discount of $10 month for 12 months. I’m currently locked in for 12 months @ 58.99 (without sales tax, if applicable) for Choice (all included), plus free NFL Sunday ticket (which I also received last season). A 5-minute, 32-second call got me even cheaper than I was getting with the 2-year new customer deal. WootWoot!!! Thanks SavingsBeagle

Quote from Savings Beagle on March 13, 2020, 7:23 pm

From Beau via comment on the post How to Lower Your DirecTV Bill in 2019.

alright so here’s my direct tv story over the last few years. Back in 2018 i seen people posting on fb to call direct tv loyalty program and ask for their promotional offer to lower the bill. I saw in comments it was working for everyone some peoples discounts were larger than others. I guess depending on what package you may have had. anyway i called the loyalty program and they gave me the promotion at $75 off locked in for 12 months. One year later the promotion runs out and my bill goes to around $123 i call asking for it again and no luck. I ask to be disconnected and they did that exact day. I then called back the next day and gave a white lie that my service was disconnected without me asking for a disconnect. They also offered to reconnect free of charge and lock me in with the same promotion for another 12 years. Well here we are today in march 2020 and my promotion has ran out and bill back over $100 i called asking wanting to set up a disconnect date and the brought me to the retention program which she asked if I would like the $75 promotion for another 12 months. I gladly took it and looks like i will have to fight this battle once a year. Worth it at the end with a $43 bill for 12 months.

Quote from Savings Beagle on April 6, 2020, 7:44 pm

A really informative and helpful comment string from Ernie on the post How to Lower Your DirecTV Bill in 2019.

Comment One: Well, I just called. My current billing cycle ends on the 10th of April, as do my current discounts. On the 11th, my bill will jump to just over $200 a month, from around $80 currently. So I called DirecTV to see what could be done before the next billing cycle. The rep was really nice (retention department). Oddly enough, there was some sort of automatic $60 credit for six months added to my account on 3/28 already that was just made aware of today. Yet, with that, the bill only drops to $140 something for the next six months. Still not good enough. The rep said he had no other offers to give me and that his supervisor would have the same authorities as him. So I scheduled the termination date for April 10th.
I plan to go to YouTubeTV and Philo for a total of $70 as a Plan B. My internet speed is great and $70 compared to $140 is an easy choice. I already have Disney+, Netflix, DAZN, and ESPN, so adding those other two services would not be the craziest thing as we’re very used to streaming already. The only reason to keep DirecTV is if they match the $70 price range (without changing my current package and channels) and for the convenience of having everything under one umbrella. So the termination date is set for the 10th of April. We’ll see if I get another call from DirecTV before then. Fingers slightly crossed, but I won’t be holding my breath. 🙂

 

Comment Two [in response to my request to keep us update]:  Most definitely. I’ll keep you folks in the loop. I mentioned the current climate to the DTV rep and how DTV should be appreciative of this as well. I went this far a year ago, and got a call a few days after setting up the termination date at that time. Maybe it will happen like that again. It’s good to know I at least have a plan b should things not work out.
Either way, I will keep this up to date. Very interesting times, on many fronts, including such a service as DTV. I see streaming services making a huge boom in the upcoming months as quarantines unfortunately become more and more common. I sense a big ‘ka-ching’ for the streaming services. Will DTV respond accordingly? We’ll see sooner than later for sure.

 

Comment Three:  Okay, so here’s the update for April 6, 2020. I called the retention number noted in the article (619-752-1401). I spoke with a nice woman and explained my cutoff was set for Good Friday (April 10). I asked if there were any discounts that could be applied to keep me as a customer that would be comparable to me going to streaming services for $70 a month (YoutubeTv and Philo). She said she could add an additional discount on top of my current $60 discount for six months against my current XTRA package. It was about $70 on top of that. I asked if she could add anything else to lower it further, and she was able to make the discount a $75 with the current $60 (both start next month). The $60 is for six month, the $75 is for 12 months with no contract. Doing some math, my bill will be $72.95 plus tax for six months. Once I get to the six month period, I need to make another call to get the additional discount for the remaining six months. So, from a potential $205 bill to approximately $75 is not too shabby and very comparable to my plan b streaming cost of $70.

Quote from Guest on April 8, 2020, 2:01 pm

It' also important to note that the discounts recently applied are towards my XTRA Package only.  There are no current applicable discounts against HBO and STARZ, which I currently have.  Both of those will be approx. $30 to have and I really don't watch much on either nowadays.  I'm considering removing STARZ and HBO next month, as they aren't part of the discount anyway and should not affect them. Without those two pay channels, the monthly price could potentially drop to around $45 a month.  Not bad.

Quote from Savings Beagle on May 19, 2020, 10:31 am

From Jen via comment on the post How to Lower Your DirecTV Bill in 2019.

Thanks for this great info. I just called and told Direct Tv i was cancelling. I had a very nice lady that said “ooohhhh noooo” . She asked why i was
cancelling and I told her my bill was just too high. She asked if she could see if there were any available offers and of course I said yes. She quickly
came back on the line to let me know she could drop my bill to $56.99 (I currently pay $117.02) She said its Covid 19 relief program. It will only be for
3 months but I’ll take it. I will just call back in 3 months and start the dance all over again.