09.23.26 How To Shop Home Internet / College Savings Strategies

“When's the last time you looked to see what they're billing you now per month?” That’s the question Clark Howard poses to anyone who hasn’t shopped their home internet bill in a while. The answer, for many, is “never”—and that inertia is costing them a fortune. In this episode, Clark draws a direct parallel to the landline phone gouging of the 2000s, then pivots to a second major topic: how to cut the cost of college by a full year, and why student loans have become a trap you should avoid if you can.

The Cable Monster Is Gouging Your Inertia

Clark opens with a history lesson. In the 1990s and early 2000s, people slowly abandoned their home phones for cell phones. The phone companies responded not by lowering prices, but by jacking up rates on the dwindling number of customers who never bothered to cancel. “Creatures of habit were being hit with higher and higher bills,” Clark says. “And it was a stunner.”

Now the same thing is happening with home internet, only faster. The “cable monster”—Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Verizon—lures you in with a six-month or one-year introductory deal. Then they raise the rate. Then they raise it again, sometimes twice a year. Clark’s point is blunt: “They know that there’s a segment of the market that lets inertia rule. And if you are that person… the game they’re playing is steadily pushing you higher and higher.”