You can find cheap internet access only if you establish your initial starting point – how much speed does your family actually need? Talk to your provider if you want a slower speed for when you want to trim your monthly bill, or go for anything from used cell-phone boosters to buying equipment (eg, modem or other router rentals) to lower your monthly fees.

Xfinity boasts some of the lowest monthly starting rates for internet service without contracts, at $25 a month for 200 Mbps.

Cost

Connecting to the internet might seem like a daily – or even hourly – obligation but few people realise how high the cost can be. if you can do without it for periods of time and don’t have a family full of constant gamers, then there’s no shame in putting off a change for as long as you can. Identify your needs as closely as possible because an internet plan means shovelling money into a big hole every month; after that, get on the blower and see if you can wheedle a better deal out of your provider. (They can and, come to think of it, they should.)

Avoid price increases. Service providers advertise lower package prices to get you in, and then bump up the prices after several months – some hikes are easier to spot than others. Get plans with no annual contract requirement. Buy your own equipment instead of renting – this saves $10+ every month; most providers also drop equipment rental fee as a benefit of new customer sign-ups; lists of providers and packages also show how much you can save by bundling together an Internet service with your TV service – some bundle deals savings can add up to $20!

Speed

The speed of your Internet access directly influences what you can do on the Internet. If your connection is particularly slow, it can be frustrating to watch videos on streaming services, try to work from home or use a number of devices that require an Internet connection; it can also slow completion of a task or download of a file. There are many factors that affect its speed, including congestion on the network at a particular time, peak Internet times of day, etc., and what is known as data throttling, where Internet service providers (ISPs) limit the consumption of data on your connection.

Internet needs must always come before an internet plan. That is, if you need only browsing through websites, you don’t really need to opt for high internet speeds, but when you work from home, stream HD videos, or play games, then you need more bandwidth; usually the cheaper internet service providers offer you better deals on these.

Make sure that the provider offers low monthly rates with no equipment fees and two- or three-year price lock policies with bundled discounts. Price lock policies and bundled discounts, and make sure that their network is strong where you live (otherwise you’d be better off switching providers rather than paying up an early termination fee).

Data cap

Your internet service provider records every time you do anything on the web, or download (see Data Usage).

If you go over your limit, your provider will ‘throttle’ your speed until the end of your billing cycle, making loading web pages and streaming videos difficult. To stay within your limit as much as possible, downloading files at off-peak hours, using Wi-Fi network and streaming videos with the lowest quality are some ideas.

Also, some providers have unlimited data plans that are great for heavy users but they can cost quite high, especially if you run out of caps daily – which most of us probably do sometimes, even just once. Which means looking for an affordable provider with caps is the better way to go.

Contracts

One way to lower your payment for internet service is to make sure your provider doesn’t require a contract. There are a few internet providers that ask for annual and maybe longer term contracts, so there will be early termination fees (ETFs) that could jump to hundreds of dollars, making sure that you have no way out of these early termination fees is your non contract equipmente charges. The simplest way to avoid this is to choose an internet provider with no contracts at all.

Many low-income families can’t afford internet service. Food or bills come first; that’s why PCs for People offers home internet to qualifying families for $19 a month, along with low-cost home Wi-Fi so that those families can stay connected to work, school, family and online health and wellness resources while reducing utility expenses at home and limiting the amount of megawatts of energy needed each month.