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Sirius/XM Costs - who's got the best deal from them?

Julian

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So I have Sirius/XM lifetime on a couple of radios (they no longer offer that)....but my new car doesn't have that.

They wanted $160 for a year.....I was able to get them down to $60 for the year without batting an eye ($74 including taxes and fees). I was wondering, since they caved so quickly to that number, if one can squeeze them to something even lower? Anyone beat that price?
 

sudoMakeMeASandwich

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$5 per month is the lowest you are going to get. What I do, is every 5 months, I call to cancel. I keep telling the person on the phone that the price is too high, until they hang up (I have no clue how I'm actually ever going to cancel the service). When they hang up, you know they have reached the end of their script and have offered you the lowest price. Sometimes its $5 for 5 months, sometimes its $6 for 6 months, sometimes even a year. I then put the date on my calendar to call and "cancel" again in a couple of months.
 

Dean P

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I subscribe to Spotify Premium (Family Plan) for $15 a month and split that with my 2 boys who share it with their girlfriends. Works out to 5/mo. Not bad.
 

Ronnie

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$5 per month for 5 months is the best deal I’ve ever been able to make and I usually just say that is what I’ve paid in the past if I don’t have a current offer from them. The thing to watch out for is the auto renewal and regular rates. If you wait to long after the rate goes into effect to cancel they won’t give you a refund. One way to avoid the auto renewal is to pay by check.
 

Farmdog267

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My wife had taken her 2018 Equinox in for service just before memorial day weekend to the local chevy dealer for the usual oil change tire rotation stuff. We got a letter from XM about 3 weeks later that because of her doing that; we got a 2 month free trial again. (Vehicle had 6 months when purchased new.) The 2 month trial was the All Access which was nice since I follow NASCAR and was able to get the channels for the race coverage.

They sent us renewals starting the beginning of August. It was $60 for the year of the select package and when I was online, it popped up and offered me the all access for $29 more for the year. With taxes and fees and crap it came out to $114 for the year of all access. My base model F150 don't have the pre-wired Satellite radio options but since you can stream off your phone, I am still able to listen in my truck and also in her SUV. I've taken it with us via a bluetooth speaker on the boat as well. Maybe not the best deal but I'll enjoy it here and there. It will be well worth it later in October when we drive to Louisville and then Nashville and back home to PA.
 

Dixie Highway

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I used to just automatically get a $5 rate, when I had a GE owned company vehicle they automatically gave us that rate. Since I had an account with another vehicle on it I told them I wanted that price for both and they obliged. When I switched the GE vehicle out they tried to raise it and I fussed, they lowered it right back.
 

Julian

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biffdotorg

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The past two years, XM has given us a seasonal boat plan. I told them, we have all of 4-5 months tops and I don't want an annual contract.

They were cool about it, and gave me 6 Months for $30. But they told me, be sure to call in prior to it expiring as it will auto renew. She said it was worth the hassle, as it's the cheapest rate and we will pro-rate a refund depending on when you store your boat. I got a credit to my account of $17 last fall.

So you can bet I did that again this year. As soon as it came out, I setup the same plan on the boat. I will call in next month and cancel it.

Worth every penny, I don't have to deal with tying up my phone or using data.
 

Whisky

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Its tough, I absolutely love SXM, there is something about music just playing and me not having the ability to skip songs that I appreciate!

That being said, by the time they tack on all fo their additional fees (maybe that's just a Canada thing), the monthly cost of the best prices usually doubles at least. Instead, I just pay 7.99/month for Google play music and download podcasts and audiobooks. I truly prefer SXM for listening in the car/on the boat, but for the price of Google Play Music, where I can just play any song I want anytime anywhere (have the house wired too) I just can't justify the cost for SXM.
 

2kwik4u

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I've been going on free trials of SXM on and off for the last two years. If I get so much as an oil change at the dealership I get a free 3 months coupon. Once that runs out they'll start calling, so I'll pick up once in a awhile and say I'm not really sure, and they'll tack on another 3 months for free. Of the 20 some odd months I've had my truck I've gone maybe 2 of those without, and I haven't paid a dime for it yet. I think I'm about out of freebies though, and don't intend to take the truck back to the dealership any time soon.

I don't think I'm going to bite and pay for it. The final decision came this past weekend. I didn't pick out my normal 16hr playlist for adult weekend ahead of time, we were just going to use my buddies SXM receiver on his boat. Well we had a group of 18 people on 3 boats, and couldn't find a station we all liked that fit the atmosphere we were trying to make. That playlist would've been nice right about then. It just doesn't pose enough value for me. Even at $60/yr or whatever low cost it is, if it goes away, meh, I'll be fine. If it stays, that's fine too.
 

Farmdog267

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Why wouldn't you just connect it via bluetooth to your boat stereo?
With only 1 battery on my 190, when we anchor out for a few hours I get concerned with draining the battery down to much. Plus the speaker is waterproof and floats so if we go swimming, it comes in without having to keep the radio on full blast.
 

2kwik4u

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With only 1 battery on my 190, when we anchor out for a few hours I get concerned with draining the battery down to much. Plus the speaker is waterproof and floats so if we go swimming, it comes in without having to keep the radio on full blast.
If you're just running the stock 190 head unit and speakers, you have about 6hrs of run time before you need to worry about a charge. I've run mine with the additional sound bar for 8hrs, and still had the boat start right back up like nothing happened. Keep in mind these little 1.8L engines don't take much to crank over.
 

Jgorm

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I stopped paying 10 years ago but it's still working! I probably will the "best deal" but I'm not sure how to get it again!
 

captainhook

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$5 per month is the lowest you are going to get. What I do, is every 5 months, I call to cancel. I keep telling the person on the phone that the price is too high, until they hang up (I have no clue how I'm actually ever going to cancel the service). When they hang up, you know they have reached the end of their script and have offered you the lowest price. Sometimes its $5 for 5 months, sometimes its $6 for 6 months, sometimes even a year. I then put the date on my calendar to call and "cancel" again in a couple of months.
This is exactly what I do. Make sure the reminder on the calendar is set for a few days in advance or you'll have to pay the ridiculous rate once you see a huge charge on your credit card bill and call in. They've always refunded me for the remaining part but it's easier and cheaper to just call a day or two before. You can be off the phone inside of 10 minutes now. I've been doing this for years and it used to take 30-40 minutes but I just keep telling them I will only pay the same rate I paid last time.

Another bonus, the app comes with a lot more subscriptions now so you can download offline content. It isn't worth paying extra for or paying for that alone, but it's a nice bonus that they just added a couple months ago.
 
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