I was researching about some cable TV services here in regards to the price and there was this one company that was offering a free TV valued at about $500 upon signing a three year term. I happened to know a person who was looking to buy a more modern day TV and at the same time they were moving to a new residence. So in many ways it would make sense financially right?
This is where the debate comes in as usually the advice I hear is to stay away from those three year terms as many view it as a trap. In some industries such as cell phone services they have made an agreement to get rid of three year contracts. I have kind of seen in from both sides of the fence personally when it comes to saving or costing more money.
When I first bought a cell phone I signed a three year deal as that phone would normally cost me about $300. So to me it made sense. Little did I know the plan I signed was pretty expensive in terms of what you can get if you negotiated a bit. Like in that case the savings of a better plan would have been greater than getting that free phone.
There was a time too where I simply went year by year only to end up paying the service for three years except in this case I didn’t get anything free and there was no better plan to switch to. I suppose with that in mind it’s all about making sure you get a good deal to the point where you are satisfied with the plan enough where regardless of the gift you know you will be saving money. It’s almost like those reward miles where you have to treat it as a nice to have bonus as opposed to the key reason to spend a lot of money on something.