Sirius XM Retention Offers & Strategy
I neither love nor hate Sirius XM radio. The service is integrated into my car very well and I do like to listen to some of the talk and commercial free music stations, but to be honest I don’t think I get $15 per month worth of value. Thankfully I don’t need to pay that much because I can call the Sirius XM retention department.
When I purchased my car, it came with six free months of Sirius XM service. After that ran out, I waited a few weeks before doing anything since I was traveling anyway. Then the following offer came in the mail:
- Get 6 months for $29.94 plus taxes and fees.
Monthly, that offer worked out to a base price of $4.99 or a total of $5.68 per month once taxes and their “royalty fee” is factored in. Not bad, but my six month deal ends tomorrow, so I decided to give Sirius XM retention a call.
The Sirirus XM Retention Call
I try to be as efficient as possible when calling into companies, so I opted to make this Sirius XM retention call while I was driving. I began by dialing 1-844-711-8800Â which is the number shown on Channel 1 of the radio. After selecting option 3 to make changes to my service, I was connected with an agent after about a minute.
The agent asked how she could help and I said:
“My package is increasing in price tomorrow and I just don’t think I am listening enough to justify the monthly cost.”
She then said:
“If I can get the price down will you consider keeping the service?”
I replied:
“Yes.”
Available Sirius XM Retention Offers
Following our brief conversation, the agent then proceeded going through the retention offers available for my account.
- Offer 1: The first offer she gave me was $99 for 12 months plus taxes and fees. That works out to $8.25 per month which is too high. After hearing this offer I said, “I am not sure I want to pay that much up front and the monthly fee is still a bit high.”
- Offer 2: She then came back with a second offer of $47.97 for 6 months. That is only slightly better at $7.99 a month and still too high. After hearing the offer I simply said, “That is still too high for me.”
- Offer 3: Finally she put me on hold for about 30 seconds and came back with the offer I was waiting for. $25 for 5 months or $28.28 including all taxes and fees! After hearing this offer, I immediately accepted, she read some disclosures and the call was done.
Sirius XM Retention Call Time & Value
The total time from dialing the phone number to getting off of the phone was 8 minutes and 10 seconds. Considering my monthly rate was going up to $14.99 per month, the 8 minutes spent on the retention call was worth it. Over the next five months I will save about $50. I also have a reminder in my calendar to call back right before the price jumps back up again. Hopefully I’ll be able to get this offer again at that time.
Conclusion
If you are paying full price for satellite radio then you are paying too much. Making a Sirius XM retention call is simple and easy and it can save you a lot of money. $25 for 5 months is the best offer I have heard, but feel free to share what you were offered. How did your Sirius XM retention call go and how long did it take? Let us know in the comments.
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So i bought a 2008 f-150 and a lifetime (then offered) subscription for the vehicle. This spring i gave the truck to my son, and a couple of months later Sirius stops working. It turns out that Sirius learned of the registration transfer and shut it off.
Now i have two newer vehicles that i have (had) monthly plans with Sirius. They did offer to transfer the lifetime to one of those …… but insisted that my son (who could afford it less) had to have a monthly.
What possible difference could it make to Sirius if i pay two monthly plans while my son continues on the lifetime …. Or i pay 1 monthly (get a transferred lifetime) and my son is forced to pay the other monthly. Either way, Sirius gets two monthly plans.
So i cancelled the two monthly plans on my vehicles. So Sirius loses $50 a month.
Now the question of Connecticuts DMV sharing my transaction information with a private company is something that i’ve passed on to one (so far) of the local news tip
I go Neil’s route. I use a pre paid card. Wait for the offer in the email or mail and resign up. No phone calls no charging me again.
To all of those on autopay, have them send you an invoice. My dad has been doing this for years and taught me this. Don’t give them a credit card to auto-renew, send in a check and then you don’t get hit with the regulat fee when your 5-6 months are up.
(If I may shill for my own company for a minute:) If you’ve got an extra unsubscribed radio, 60 music channels are unlocked until May 31. If whoever drives the other car likes it maybe theres a retention offer that adds a radio ?(not my dept, so I”m not sure).
I’ve been using this $25 for 5 months deal for years. It’s a pain in the ass to have to call back every 5 months but the upside is even if you don’t remember to call before you get hit with the full rate charge, they will refund you the difference as long as you call within that month.
Whichever option you choose, thanks for listening. 😉
Yes I’ve been on plan #3 every 5 months since 2005! Takes me about 20 minutes a year to save a ton of cash.
I’ve gotten the $25 plus fee (something like $29) five month deal at least seven or eight times. I always call a few days before the current run expires (and in any case, usually put the charge on a prepaid debit card that will be emptied within a matter of days so no risk of renewal at the higher rate). No idea if package includes Howard Stern.
Instead of a pre-paid debit card, I buy a Sirius XM Gift Card that you can get from Best Buy. It doesn’t have a surcharge. The $25.00 deal is for the “Select” service, which doesn’t have Howard Stern. The best deal I’ve gotten on the “All Access” plan is $119.00 per year (with taxes and royalty fee’s, it’s about $130.00)
How do these retention calls affect accounts w/ only internet streaming?
I have gotten nowhere with the Agents, and they insist on charging for a full year at a time.
I just got an offer in the mail today. This is the third one they have sent me since my 3 month trial ended. Each one has been better and better. Todays is $20 for 5 months. I will probably actually get it this time.
Wow…thanks. I’ve done offer #1 for 4 years in a row because I thought it was a good deal (vs. the normal price). But I had never cancelled so had no other offer that I could compare. Once I called about a week before my expiration date. They wouldn’t budge, but I was told by the rep that I had to call the day before my subscription renews to get an offer. Now I just set a reminder in my calendar. This last time, earlier this year, they were not giving out the offer immediately as in previous years. The rep actually had to transfer me to someone before I was given offer #1. Next time I will hold out for offer #2 and #3. The thing that irks me about Sirius XM is that they have done nothing to improve their audio quality. Most channels are broadcasting at 96Kbps or less, generally lower quality than you get from the various streaming services through your phone via Bluetooth. For me, it is a total convenience factor – worth a couple of bucks a month, but not much more.
There is actually a $25 for 6 months deal that has been around for a while, my second time renewing under that. I just ask for it right away and they will do some banter (check with supervisor) and give it to me eventually.
Does this include Howard Stern?
Be careful, retention specialist pitched the full channel plan but were given the “Select” plan which is a diluted version of the full plan. The “Select” plan excludes, Starz, NFL, Howard Stern and many other popular channels. We cancelled immediately upon finding out.
Good point. I am on the Select plan already which works for me but people should definitely confirm they have all of the channels they want.
Select has NFL Network Radio but deletes NBA Radio.
$25 for 5 months is fine, but what are you going to do hammer retention every 5-6 months?
Current = $30 for 6 months Select
Just called retention…
Plan offered = $50 for 6 months. Prorated for unused months $24.xx (Bought offer back in Sept ’17)
Net = $32.xx or $5.33 a month.
Oh I should mention that’s for All Access….
Thanks! I just went from $24.52 / month – to $10.53 / month (both including all fees and taxes). I have all access which in theory means I get all channels in my car and on my computer and phone (which I do use a lot when I travel). This was quite a significant savings – BUT I had to pay the $126.44 up front for the next year, okay by me since it was over a 50% savings.
A few weeks ago, when I called, they went straight to option 3. I have always called and got similar deals.
What I have seen with them is that the shorter the term the better the deal. I think that it is probably because they hope you will forget and they can autocharge you the normal rate after the 5 months. It is the same with TV companies that will give you premium channels for free for 3 months. They hope you forget and then they can charge you a bundle.