Cable television offers aren’t hard to find, one seems to come in the mail every day if you aren’t a current subscriber.

The reason for this is due to the fact the cable television company wants to build their subscriber base, so of course they are willing to offer you a great deal, generally for the first six months of your cable service. The cable company understands if you sign up with them, you probably will set up a so-called bundled packages that includes not only cable television, but also home phone and internet setup.

You can usually get a triple play bundle for just $99 per month for the first six months or so. Consider what the typical cable TV company charges: Basic TV costs $55 per month, high speed internet is $40 per month, and phone service is $35 per month. With prices like this, your overall bill would be $140 per month plus all of the taxes and charges that find their way onto your cable bill. With prices like this, a promotional deal that offers all three services for $99, even if it is just for 6 months looks pretty good to the average cable TV customer.

But what kind of issues can this lead to? Well consider what the bill will look like once the promo is over. Then you will have all of your television sets connected to cable TV, your internet connection including your e-mail address with the cable company, and of course your home line through the cable company as well. But all at once your price goes up almost 45%, from around $100 per month to $140+ each month. Now is it easy to switch?

Maybe, maybe not. The smart thing to do ahead of time is compare companies before making your final decision. Lining up cable TV vs satellite ahead of time is the way to go.

While you might say to yourself it is easy to switch to some kind of Direct TV deal or something else from your local phone company like FiOS by Verizon. But that may be a situation of easier said than done. Usually the time and inconvenience of switching from cable to a different provider makes the customer stay with whatever service they have. Even though the monthly bill is high, the subscriber stays with the company because they have all the services on the same bill from the same provider. That is what the cable television company counts on when giving the subscriber a good short term deal.