How To Lower Your Optimum Internet Bill

Optimum offers several plans in every coverage area it serves. Are you sure you’re on the right one?

Many people are paying for way more internet speed than they actually use. Even if you use multiple smart TVs, laptops, and smart home devices on your Wi-Fi network, you could save money by switching to a slower, cheaper plan, while still powering all those devices.

Honestly, most households really don’t need gigabit internet. Unless you’re a professional gamer, have 10+ devices streaming at once, or work remotely on Zoom calls all day, you can probably make do with 500 or even 300Mbps. Switching from a 1 Gig Internet plan to a 300Mbps would save you a full $25 a month. That’s $300 a year!

You might be able to switch to a lower-speed plan and boost your internet performance in other ways, like upgrading your gear (we’ll talk about that more below). In any case, you can always go to a slower speed plan and then switch back if you find yourself stuck with low-quality video streams or lag in your Warzone 2 games.

One of the best ways to save money on your Optimum internet bill without losing out on performance is bundling with mobile or TV. In fact, Optimum makes our list of the very best TV and internet bundling deals. You can get tons of cable channels and unlimited mobile lines without paying an arm and a leg.

Here’s a look at some of our favorite Optimum bundles.

Another way that you can bundle with Optimum internet is by signing up for the company’s mobile plan. Optimum Mobile is available only to existing Optimum customers, but the bundle deals are pretty good. For example, get 1 Gig Internet with an Unlimited mobile plan for just $80 per month. It’s not the cheapest unlimited data plan on the market, but it’s a good deal compared to pricier plans from Verizon or AT&T.

If you’re an existing Optimum customer, then you might not be eligible for all of the latest deals that the company is offering for new customers. But it never hurts to call up customer service and ask for deals and discounts you’re seeing advertised. If you see a lower price for the same plan you’re on, you can always haggle to get the same offer.

You can also get bill credit if your internet is out for more than four hours. If an outage is completely Optimum’s fault, you can request a credit on your bill for the time lost.

To stay in the know, make sure you bookmark our Best Deals page which we update regularly with the latest deals. While Optimum does advertise snazzy promotions from time to time, you might find a deal from another provider that might cause you to switch.

You might be surprised at how far a little negotiation can go. Just be warned, it isn’t like bargaining down the price of a cool old lamp at a flea market. Negotiating down your internet price with Optimum is a delicate dance. One customer we interviewed said the best way to get Optimum to reduce its prices is to explain that you want to cancel and switch to a different provider available in the area. 

“Once Verizon Fios came to my street, it changed things,” says Josh Michael, an Optimum customer for eight years in Brooklyn, New York. Michael told a customer rep at Optimum that he would switch providers unless Optimum maintained his promotional prices. This tactic has worked for the last three years. “Now I’m getting a good deal. Before I thought it was expensive,” he says.

That’s why it’s important to arm yourself with knowledge of what providers are available in your area (see our availability checker below) so you can call Optimum and have several other providers you can refer to. Even if there aren’t any other cable or fiber providers, T-Mobile or Verizon 5G home internet plans are available widely across the country.

Once you’re speaking with an agent, you can lay out your predicament clearly: You think you’re overpaying for internet. This alone won’t reduce your prices. But, if you can demonstrate that you’re seriously considering leaving and there is a better deal offered by another company or another plan, then you might get somewhere. 

Optimum used to charge users a monthly equipment rental fee. But the company has done away with this charge, which we think is a great move. However, you might still be able to save some cash by getting your own modem and Wi-Fi router.

Why? While Optimum’s standard equipment works fine for most people, it is far from ideal for those who want to maximize speeds. So, if you’re on a 1 Gig plan from Optimum, but you’re using a subpar router, you might be seeing speeds around 500Mbps or even slower.

As one Optimum user puts it when discussing which Optimum plan to buy: “The speed won't be the issue, it's about the router you use and how it handles traffic.” So, if you upgrade to a better cable modem and Wi-Fi router, you might be able to downgrade to a cheaper plan and still see the same—or even better—speeds you got before.

Buying new equipment will cost you more in the short run, but you’ll be able to use it for years to come, even if you switch to another provider, like Xfinity, that does charge rental fees.

Hopefully one of the tips above worked to lower your Optimum internet bill. But if not, maybe it’s time to say sayonara, bon voyage, bye-bye. Now, with 5G home internet from companies like T-Mobile, there are high-speed alternatives almost everywhere in the country.

You can see all the best internet plans in your area with the zip code tool below. If you’re lucky, you’ll see some fiber internet plans listed there. While some of Optimum’s plans are fiber-based, many rely on older cable internet network technology, which isn’t as fast or reliable.

Either way, switching to another ISP can help you save money. And, if you wait six or so months, you might find an email or letter in your mailbox from Optimum, begging you to come back and offering a sweet, low-price deal.

We’ve been researching, testing, and writing about Optimum internet for nearly a decade. So we know what the provider does well (like offering fast download speeds) and what they don’t do so well (like having annoying price hikes). We also know a lot about Optimum’s competitors and the kinds of deals they offer.

For this guide, we used all of this deep knowledge about Optimum, consulted some of our own proprietary data, and looked at what real Optimum Internet customers had to say. We laid out only well-researched and verified solutions for lowering your bill. Not all of them will work for everyone, but hopefully you’ve found one or two that do.