I was ready to cut the cord and quit cable. Instead, I saved more than $1K a

Every January, my family pledges to cut the cord, quit cable and find another service for our television and internet needs.

And every January for the past four years, I’ve called Optimum, my cable company, and instead of quitting, I walked away with discounts that made it worth sticking around.

New year. New attempt.

This time, we were more serious about making the change. Most of what we watch is from a streaming service, and while we still wanted news channels, most of our cable television package went unused.

Before I share my call, let me tell you a little more about my current bill and the alternatives.

We pay $206.51 per month for a triple-play of television, internet and a phone.

The internet costs $89.99, but after discounts and credits, we pay $44.99 for 400 Mbps, which is short for megabits per second — the speed of the internet connection. Through the COVID pandemic and working from home, our connection was really reliable, so we didn’t want to mess with that.

The “premier” television package costs $151, including three cable boxes and cloud DVR storage, after some discounts.

And finally, we pay a big $10 for the phone that only rings when it’s a telemarketer, and even then it only rings once because we use the free Nomorobo robocall blocking service.

Include the taxes, and the bill comes to $206.51 per month.

Digging deeper, we only really watch television in one room, so we no longer needed the two other cable boxes. We never use the DVR or the phone.

My planned alternative, instead of the current the triple-play bundle — which is always cheaper than each service priced separately — would be paying for internet alone and getting a separate subscription for YouTube TV, the service we determined fit our viewing needs.

(Yes, there are cheaper alternatives, so each family should research what’s right for them. CNET has a great comparison guide to help you.)

YouTube’s service has gone up in price since the last time I considered a change, currently at $50.99 for three months and $72.99 per month thereafter. We’d also probably add $15.99 for the ad-free version of MAX, formerly known as HBO.

The all-in television cost would be $88.98 a month once the YouTube teaser rate expires.

Next, internet.

That was harder to price out online. Optimum’s website said before taxes and fees, if you choose paperless billing and autopay, new customers could get 300 Mbps for $40, 500 Mbps for $60 or even higher speeds for more.

But we are existing customers and currently have 400Mbps, so I’d have to call to price it out.

MAKING THE CALL

Having done this before, I knew that not every customer service agent is authorized to offer discounts, and if someone says they want to cancel service, they’re sent to the “retention” department. That’s where I wanted to be.

It would be a fruitful 70-minute phone call.

I explained the whole shebang to the agent, who put me on hold to check my account.

When he came back, he asked why I wanted to cancel service. It costs too much, I said.

“Pricing? You don’t need to worry about pricing,” he said. “We have promotions. You’ve been a customer since 2000 and for that reason, we need to take care of you. We can get this bill for less than $200.”

He put me on hold again to investigate.

While waiting, I did some quick math. By getting rid of two of the cable boxes and the cloud DVR service and if the current discounts were extended, my bill would go down by $36, or put me at $171 for everything.

He’d have to do better than $171 for me to consider staying.

When the agent came back, he mentioned several discounts and promotions that would lower the bill to… guess how much?

Exactly $171.

I told him that wasn’t enough to keep my business, and I switched to asking about pricing for internet-only service. For the same speed, it would cost $119, he said.

Add that to my self-created television package of $88.98, and I was up to $207 — a buck more than I’m paying today.

Before I could ask for more discounts, he put me on hold again and came back with another promotion, bringing the bill down to $151.

We went through the discounts together, line by line.

“So if getting rid of the two boxes and the DVR cloud on my own, without an agent’s help, would have brought my bill down to $171, you’re really only saving me an additional $20,” I said. “Can you do anything more?”

Once again, on hold, and this time, the agent came back with an offer I wouldn’t refuse.

“I’ve got good news,” he said. “I found another promotion that brings your monthly cost down to $121.99.”

Ding-ding-ding. We have a winner.

That’s a savings of $84.52 per month, or $1,014.24 a year.

We set up an appointment for a technician to install a new box and take away the three older ones for free. Three…