July 10, 2011

Broke A$$ Brotha Tip #3: Netflix Rate Hikes vs. Public Library

Politicians are bickering up in Washington DC about deficits and debt. It is the argument that many a Broke-A$$ Brotha has when (s)he runs out of money before they run out of month. This blog likes to share tips with y'all about ways to increase revenue and decrease expenses ... we call them Broke-A$$ Brotha Tips.

Today's tip surrounds Netflix. I got the following email message from Netflix today saying that they planned a 60% increase on my monthly bill.

Dear Broke-A$$ Brotha,

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

  • Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
  • Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $7.99 a month
Your price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99).

I love my Netflix Queue as much as the next guy. I probably have over 150 titles in my queue at the moment. I also enjoy watching BBC mystery television series episodes via the streaming option. However, I don't think it is worth getting ripped for a 60% increase in the monthly bill. Especially when I can get movies at no cost from my local public library.

Are you a Netflix customer? If so, what are you gonna do?

4 comments:

msladyDeborah said...

I gave up cable television when I began my undergraduate work. I didn't even bother to go and purchase a converter box to watch what is available for free from the major networks.

The library is one of the best alternatives availabe. Unless you live in a city that has a poorly supported library-then the fee for Netflix is not a bad alternative.

Daij said...

I just got off the phone with netflix, cancelling my subscription.

Rob L said...

We may switch to another service, such as Hulu plus. The pay version is still around $8 a month. Not better pricing than Netflix, but you can show them they have competition.

Unknown said...

All - I've allowed procrastination to get in the way of a needed change when it comes to Netflix. I see that my bill was up to $17/month for September because I still have both the mail and streaming options open. Netflix has since made another dumb decision to split the company into 2 parts. One with streaming and one with the mail-option.

OK -- I really don't need Netflix. Let me see if I can cancel the dayum thing this month!