A little more than five years ago, we bought a brand new car (GASP! I know — how not frugal!).
We wanted a Toyota Venza and it was the first model year so no used cars were available. (see???)
If you’ve ever bought a new car within the last few years, you probably have a trial subscription to Sirius XM radio. I think our trial subscription was for six months.
SiriusXM is pretty great. You get high-quality audio, a bazillion different channels so you’ll always be entertained, and it’s available practically everywhere except if you’re surrounded by mountains or in a tunnel. It’s a solid service.
I just didn’t want yet another subscription and even at $10.99 for their lowest “Mostly Music” package. It was too much. Their $15.99 and $19.99 All Access are all reasonable prices (when our trial ended, it cost closer to $30 a month, and now the plan names have changed) given what you get but let me explain how easy it is to save 75%.
But… you should never pay full price for Sirius XM. Never. Ever.
SiriusXM is a prime case where negotiating your subscription rate will always save you money.
All you have to do is call in, threaten to cancel, and wait until they offer you their comeback offer.
The Best Deal: Here are the Cliff Notes to this post – to get the best deal, you have to call and threaten to cancel. They will then offer you the best deal. If they don’t, call back.
Or, you can take their current deal of 6 months of SiriusXM for $29.94. It is very close to the best deal I’ve ever seen and you don’t have to call to cancel. The “best” varies month to month but this deal for 6 months at $50 is close to the best – I haven’t heard of someone getting the absolute best in quite some time.
Table of Contents
SiriusXM Standard Pricing: $4.99 per Month
SiriusXM has a few plans but the basic one for your car is $4.99 per month for 6 months (new subscriptions only).
The tiers are (all these are plus fees and taxes, see offer details):
| Plan Name | Trial Terms | Regular Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SiriusXM Music & Entertainment | $4.99 per month for 6 months for 140+ channels | $17.99 per month | Get this offer |
| Sirius 3-Month Free Trial | 3 months free for every channel on your radio plus streaming online and on the app | $22.99 per month | Get this offer |
| Streaming Platinum | 3 months for $1 to stream online or on the app | $10.99 per month | Get this offer |
After each promotion period, you’re automatically renewed at the regular price but there’s no contract so you can always cancel.
Need to borrow money quickly and cheaply?
Monevo is a marketplace where you can find a low-cost personal loan in just 60 seconds. Enter in how much you need (as little as $1,000 and as much as $100,000) along with your personal details and you’ll get an answer in just a few minutes.
Checking will NOT affect your credit score.
The Absolute Best Deal: 6 Months for $25
The best deal I’ve ever heard of is getting 6 months for $25. This isn’t that much better than the promotional offer they’re offering everyone.
All you need to say is “I love Sirius XM, I just can’t afford that price. Is there any way you can help me?” — and they will help you.
If they don’t, and some representatives won’t, you need to hang up and call again. You may have to do this a few times.
You must take note of when your promotional period ends because they will start charging you full price immediately. There will be no warning, it’s automatic renewal at the full price, so mark it on a calendar somewhere and set up notifications.
When the time nears, call them up again. Sometimes they’ll cut right to the chase and offer to extend the deal. If you don’t, cancel it and you’ll get a “winback” offer in a month or two.
What If You’ve Called Several Times?
It could be a note in your account or just bad timing or luck, but if you’ve called a few times and they won’t budge – just cancel.
SiriusXM frequently will send a “winback” offer that is similar to the best price. They know that it costs them the same to run their service and each customer is just profit. They will attempt to win you back shortly after you cancel and you will just have to manage not having satellite radio for a little bit.
SiriusXM 25% Military Discount
If you are military personnel, which includes veterans, retirees, active duty, and reserves; you can get a 25% military discount. This is for the life of the subscription and you can call customer service at 1-866-635-2349 to learn more.
SiriusXM Promotions
If you only care about getting the very cheapest, then $4.17 per month is the cheapest.
If the price is less important (say, if you’re being reimbursed or it is a tax-deductible expense) and you want to take advantage of promotions, SiriusXM runs promotions periodically.
It’s really up to you.
Larry McKinney says
Good stuff here, but I must share my brother’s experience. After a visit he enjoyed my service and called when he returned home to sign up. He negotiated a rate of $115 for THREE YEARS for an upgraded service – all the music and sports channels. Enjoyed it. Until he bought a new vehicle and sought to transfer his service. Sirius would not honor the old rate. They offered a new deal at a mere 9 times the cost of his old deal. He is no longer a SiriusXM customer.
Graig Moore says
I just canceled….the last offer I got was $72 for a year of car and internet. I’m playing hardball, I’ll wait for a better deal. I willing to do $99 for 3 years of all excess
Em says
wow! what they offered you, and what you want are way off! good luck!
Dena says
Thanks for the info! My new customer subscription ($60 year + taxes/fees) expires in October 2021. My new rate would be around $20/month. I called in – agents were busy – told computer system “cancel”. The computer system offered me a special promo at $72 year + taxes/fees. I’m now getting the same service for a little over $7.50/month for the next year. Thanks again for the advice. Well worth the 3-4 minutes I spent!
Doug Goss says
Long time customer – have been with them since 2006 and played the renewal game repeatedly.
Somehow I let my last renewal end on 10/23 and called today, 11/2 to renew.
I had previously had the “promo” rate of 29.94 for 6 months which ended up being 36.35 with fees.
After badgering me for an extended period over what I listen to I made it clear I was fine with the current plan, select. I was offered 36 for 6 months. I may have considered that but when he added in the fees it would have been 52.50 for 6 months.
On the last billing of 36.35 the fees were 21.4% of the 29.94 promo rate.
Now they are asking 45.8% in fees on top of the 36 promo rate
Told him to cancel and he said if I reactivated I would have another 50 fee for that (though the website shows it as 15). Told him if that was the way they treated a 15 year customer they would never see me again. He then canceled and said they would send a bill for the 8.80 in fees accrued since the last contract ended on 10/23.
I’ll see what happens if they decide they want me back bad enough but today left a very rank taste in my mouth with this company.
N. Alex says
I waited to long to call in so I was charged $21 for this next month. I used the ‘chat’ option on their website and asked for the $4.99 per mo I had been paying and could they apply the $21 to that yearly subscription. They first told me I was eligible for $7.99 per mo! I said that was too much and that I saw a $5.99 offer on the website. He then said $6.99 per mo! I told him I was a loyal customer and it was just too much $. So then he offered $5.99 per mo! Since that was the main offer on the website, I went ahead and did the $5.99 per mo. They will credit me back the diff of $14 for this month, which I am happy about. It was too long of a ‘chat’ to barter for the best price. SiriusXM needs to just give their customers the best price up front.
Mary says
Been with them for over 10 years, at least. Always get to the cancellation department to get the best deal. November of last year, got good deal for All Access for $60 plus fees for a year, so $70 something total, what I usually pay. Called today, a day before renewal, chickypoo offered me the ‘deal’ for a year, with TT&L, came out to about $184. I said nope, thanks, need to cancel. Bluff was called, I waited for cancellation department to come, but she herself did the cancelling. Have to say I was a little deflated, but $200 a year when I paid $70 last year, not gonna happen. I’ll get a ‘please come back’ letter in the mail for the cheap deal. I can wait. I wonder if they’re getting wise or that gal just had the power to do the cancelling when all the others had to send it to the ‘Department’.
Trent says
Last couple years they offered me the 99 dollars (plus fees) for 12 months platinum package with all the extra channels. I did not have to haggle to get that rate. But this year they decided to play games like they did in the old days. The best they could do was 150 dollars for 12 months plus fees. As I did not want to play I just told the rep to turn it off. He tried playing more games and I cut him off abruptly and said TURN IT OFF NOW. Life is too short to quibble with Sirius reps. They are just so annoying. But I knew they would start sending offers in the mail. Surprisingly they still called me which I would just hang up. Already decided I would not add service back through a phone call. Was not going to happen. It actually took longer then I thought it would before they would finally send me the 99/year offer again. They sent a new crappy offer every month. I cancelled three months ago. On the third month they caved and finally offered my old plan. I really did not miss it but for 99 dollars it offers enough value for me. So my advice is don’t cave in to these guys. You should not pay more then 5/month plus fees or 8/month plus fees for the platinum package. If they don’t offer it threaten to cancel. If they still won’t offer it after that actually have them shut the signal down. I guarantee they will come crawling back. 99 dollars is better then nothing. Also make sure you right down the date when the offer will expire in a year. Because the service will automatically triple in price. Make sure you call a month before it expires to re-negotiate the deal. If they don’t, just tell them to shut service off after the last month on the plan which they can do.