How to Lower AT&T Costs: 8 Ways You Could Save Money on Your AT&T Bill

There are a few ways to save money with AT&T, including minimizing the hidden fees, negotiating with a sales rep when you sign up or renewing, or opting in for the various deals they offer. 

I’ve been trying to save money with AT&T from every angle, and now I’m ready to share with you exactly what works, and how much you can save.

Here are the key tips and tricks. Make sure you stay tuned to find out more about them:

So let’s find out more about each of those.

#1 Sign Up for an AT&T Bundle 

Looking to take up more than AT&T products at the same time? Combining them together in your billing could save you some money in one way or another. Here’s a look at some of the AT&T bundles right now.

Wireless and Internet

Most money can be saved by pairing up these products. But it’s best not to take them both up at the same time: sign up for one after the other.

That’s because the deals come as follows:

  • If you’re already an AT&T Wireless customer, you can get a $300 reward card when you sign up for one of the AT&T Fiber plans (not regular Internet)
  • If you’re already an AT&T Fiber or Internet customer, you can get 25% off AT&T Wireless Unlimited plans just as long as you sign up for four or more lines

DirecTV and Internet

You’ll notice on the AT&T website that DirecTV and Fiber bundles are available. However, upon closer inspection, you won’t save any money doing this. The price of these ‘bundles’ is simply the same as the cost of the two services added together.

The only real advantage of doing this is that it will make your billing a little easier each month.

#2 Get AT&T Deals for Veterans and Military Personnel

AT&T also offers deals for specific groups of people: teachers, veterans, military personnel and seniors. However, the only one of these groups that AT&T extends its support for friends and family to is veterans and military personnel.

So, if you have a friend or family member who has been or currently are in the military, you can get discounts. However, there’s just one deal for this group of people at the moment: 25% off AT&T Wireless Unlimited plans when you take up four or more lines.

#3 Don’t Pay More for More Than You Need

All internet companies, AT&T included, like to try to get you to pay for more than you need. But there’s really no point in doing that! You can save money by restricting your payments to the services you need.

Here’s a look at how that might transpire across the three services.

Internet and Fiber

When it comes to regular Internet, you won’t have a lot of choice, unfortunately. AT&T will simply put you on the fastest speed they can for a flat rate.

However, with Fiber, you get a lot more flexibility. There are five Fiber plans: 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gig, 2 Gig and 5 Gig. And each of them costs more money than the next.

Realistically, most home users aren’t going to need anything more than the AT&T Fiber 300 plan. We wrote about it here so that you can find out for yourself. But at the end of the day, this is a super fast internet plan that will serve most people well.

Wireless

There are various Wireless plans for various prices. The more features you get (premium data, international calling etc.), the more you will have to pay. So what do you need?

Our recommendation is to take a look at our Wireless guide. There, you’ll find everything you need to know about the plans so that you can make an educated decision about which one to go for. You’ll never need to spend any more money than you need to. 

DirecTV

There are four levels of DirecTV packages: Entertainment, Choice, Ultimate and Premier

Entertainment is the most affordable package, and then you’ll go up in prices as you go through the tiers and get more channels as a result. But do you need the extra channels? You can take a look at the channel lineup to decide for yourself.

There’s no point going for one of the higher tiers and paying more money per month if Entertainment has all you need. Plus, you might be able to save money by bolting on additional channels rather than upgrading to a new tier.

You’ll also need to choose between streaming and satellite services. DirecTV Stream is a lot cheaper than Satellite and there is no minimum contract, compared to the 24 months of Satellite.

DirecTV Stream has fewer channels and will be no good for those in slow internet areas. However, it will be the better option for most people looking to save money and still get great TV.

#4 Use Your Own Equipment

There are a couple of cases where using AT&T equipment will cost you more money than leasing or buying what they have to offer. They are as follows.

Buying your own router

There’s an equipment fee of $10 per month if you’re an AT&T Internet customer that you’ll need to pay to get the AT&T Gateway router. So, over a 12 month period, that’ll cost you $120 [1].

But here’s the thing. You can actually buy a pretty good router for yourself for less than that. There are a lot of great budget routers out there these days that would definitely save you money over a 12 month period, let alone more.

And what’s more, routers can often last for many years. So you’d be well in the money in that situation.

Need some help in choosing a high quality but affordable router? You’re going to want to take a look at our guide to the best budget routers.

By the way, the router equipment hire fee does not apply to AT&T Fiber. If you’re a Fiber customer, Gateway comes included in the price. The only time you’d need to pay an additional fee here is if you want a separate modem.

Buying your own DirecTV streaming device

If you opt for DirecTV Satellite, you won’t need to pay any equipment fees. But if you go for DirecTV Stream, AT&T will try to sell or lease you their streaming device.

This would cost you $120 to buy outright, $5 per month over a 24 month contract or $10 per month over a 12 month contract. 

But you can save money on that. Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire Stick or others will work out cheaper. And you can use DirecTV through these, as well as other apps such as YouTube and Netflix.

So, it’s always worth shopping around for a third party streaming device if you opt for DirecTV Stream.

#5 Avoid AT&T Hidden Fees

AT&T is notorious for being one of the worst providers out there for hidden fees. But with a bit of street smarts, you can avoid a few of them. And doing that could save you a lot of money on your bill.

We went into detail on AT&T’s hidden fees and how you can avoid them here, but here’s a quick summary of some of our best tips from that article:

  • Set up yourself: Fiber or Internet installation could cost you up to $99 but you can often get around this by setting up yourself. You can speak to AT&T to find out if this is going to be possible based on the setup in your home and your local area.
  • Choose Autopay and Paperless Billing: All the prices on the AT&T website are listed with a $5 discount included. That’s for Autopay (basically direct debit) and Paperless Billing, where you’ll receive your bills via email instead of in the post. This is a good idea!
  • Avoid extra data usage fees: If your internet plan has a data cap, it can cost you a lot of money if you go over this. That cost is an additional $10 for every 50 GB used, up to a maximum of $200 per month. Ouch.
  • Don’t miss a payment: Depending on which service you opt for, various fees will incur for missed or late payments. That’s another good reason to go with Autopay.

#6 Negotiate a New Rate

It might just be possible to haggle with AT&T to get a better price. This could be if you’re an existing customer coming to the end of your contract, or if you haven’t been with AT&T before and are interested in getting started.

If you’re coming to the end of your contract, AT&T may be more inclined to get you a better new deal as a kind of loyalty discount. If they don’t, you could always try threatening to leave. That might shake things up again!

If you’re new to AT&T, speak to a sales rep and tell them you’re considering a few other providers. If there’s competition involved, AT&T will be more inclined to get a better rate for you. They do want you as a customer at the end of the day!

#7 Apply for the Affordable Connectivity Program with AT&T

Those on a low income could save some money on their internet or your cell phone bill (or even get them for free) as a result of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACT).

Your household income will need to be at or below 200% of federal poverty guidelines or you will need to participate in a qualifying federal assistance program. 

You can find out whether you qualify or not once and for all at this site.

#8 Grab One of the AT&T Deals

If you’re not already an AT&T customer, or if you’re coming to the end of your contract, you could save some money with an AT&T deal.

Depending on what you’re looking for, you could find a deal from AT&T that saves you some cash. We’ve written a whole article on the AT&T deals that you can check out but for now, here are a few of our favorite ones:

Get paid to switch

There aren’t a lot of internet deals for AT&T that everyone can take advantage of, but one great one is being paid for moving over from another provider. [2]

You’ll be able to claim either a $150 or $200 reward card (depending on which plan you go for) plus AT&T will shell out further to cover any cancellation costs, depending on certain conditions.

However, this is only available for AT&T Fiber customers. You will not be able to get this deal if Fiber is unavailable in your area and you have to settle with AT&T Internet. To find out if you can get Fiber, check out our guide to AT&T availability

Save money on your first two months with DirecTV

There’s currently a deal with DirecTV where every single plan will be reduced for the first two months [3]. This is available for both the streaming and satellite services and for all four tiers of either. 

The amount that can be saved varies from $15 to $20 for a total of $30 to $40. Plus, with the Satellite services, your next ten months will be at a lower rate than the final 12 months of your 24 month contract.

Confused? We get it. But you can find out everything you need to know in our guide to DirecTV.

Discounts on certain Wireless handsets

Right now, AT&T is offering some awesome deals for trade-ins. If you have an eligible device, you can get the brand new iPhone 14 Pro for as little as $5.56 per month [4].

That means up to $800, and it’s not the only deal going. You can find out what’s on offer over at the AT&T website

Saving Money with AT&T FAQ

Got more questions about lowering your expenditure with AT&T? You may well find the answers below.

What’s the best DirecTV streaming device I should get?

Earlier on, we established that you could save money by ditching the DirecTV Stream device and going to a third party. But which third party should you choose?

Generally, one of the best options is Google Chromecast. It’s cheap, effective and easy to use. But they all have similar functions, so just go with the one that gets you the best deal. 

Could I save more money by signing up with another provider?

We’ve talked a lot about saving money with AT&T, but one thing we haven’t mentioned is that you could actually save even more money by going elsewhere. But that depends on a number of factors.

Ready to do some homework to find out which provider is best for you? Check out our providers directory here. It’s growing all the time!

How often should I shop around to save money?

The answer to this question depends on the length of the contract you have with AT&T. If it’s a 12 or 24 month contract, I recommend you compare providers at the end of every term and negotiate with AT&T to see if they can put you on a better deal.

If you have a one month rolling contract, like AT&T Fiber, you have more flexibility, of course. Here, just keep an eye on what’s available! There’s no harm in testing the market every few months, or even more frequently if you wish.

Last Thoughts on Lowering Your AT&T Costs

There are loads of great ways to save money with AT&T, and a combination of a few of them could see you take a huge chunk off your bill each month. Think about all the things you could do with your money saved!

I hope you’ve found some inspiration for bringing the costs down with this article. And when you’re ready, you can go and find out some more information about AT&T here.

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