Dish Pay As You Go Plan

wiredgeorge · 09-06-2020, 11:18 AM

The plan named in the title... I currently have Dish in my home and get service for the camper for $7 a month. Good deal but Dish has been loosing channels of interest to me and the price is getting kind of out of hand for equipment, service and programming, I am considering Hulu.

If I go Hulu, the DishTV in my camper goes away. They have this Pay As You Go Plan and I can't figure out how it works. Their online description is VAGUE. You pay by the month. You turn it on and then turn it off. OK.

Say I can 3 days this month. I pay for a month programming and turn it on when I get to the campground. I turn it off 3 days later. I burned 3 days of my month's DishTV. What happens to the rest? Does it roll over to the next month or it it forfeit? We generally go out once a month and would really like to know what the heck this plan entails.

If you have this plan, please describe how it works (hopefully better than Dish does). Would appreciate hearing from first hand users of this plan (or former users).
PS: Not interested in smart TVs or internet streaming of any sort; campgrounds near us are lucky have wifi and my phone plan doesn't support it.

rhagfo · 09-06-2020, 01:37 PM

The remainder of you one months prepaid amount stays in your account, when you go to turn it on again, you will need to pay for the three days you used. Any time you restart service you need to have a full months payment in your account.

Rber1234 · 09-06-2020, 03:12 PM

Since your account is mainly for your home with the extra $7 fee for the extra receiver you have for your RV, you don’t want the pay as you go. With pay as you go you don’t pay the next bill and your service is shut off. That would mean your home service would stop also. Just call Dish when you want to use extra receiver for the RV and again when you want to shut it off. I forget if Dish charges a reconnect fee or not but if they do it may be cheaper to leave Dish receiver for RV on all camping season and just shut it off after you stop camping for the year.

skids · 09-06-2020, 03:57 PM

I have HULU in the home. I like it but it depends in a pretty good wifi connection Do the research because buffering suks. I will be kind of a crap-shoot from one campground to another.

**chuckster57** · 09-06-2020, 04:08 PM

I have Direct at home and simply take the receiver from the bedroom. No extra cost, no calls to make. Is that an option with dish?

NevadaRich · 09-06-2020, 04:12 PM

wiredgeorge, I have Dish pay as you go on my Truck camper, since you have Dish at home, I would leave it alone and just pay the $7 dollars a month, because I have Direct at home and for my Tow hauler I only pay the $7 dollars, because I had to get another antenna for my truck camper, I went with Dish thinking it was just $7 dollars, WELL you also have to pay for your channels, which I picked the Flex Pack at a cost of $43.04 a month. On my Tow Hauler I have the Traveler Antenna, so I had to go with Direct.....

amsoiltek · 09-06-2020, 04:15 PM

Like Chuckster, I too have DTV and will grab one of my DVR's and a HD receiver from the house. I have an extra SWiM dish and power supply for the trailer that stays with it.

That may all change when they install 1 gig fiber here at the house and I may ditch DTV and take on my ISP's TV package. I will have to figure out what to from that point on, maybe switch to Dish pay as you go.

rhagfo · 09-06-2020, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rber1234

Since your account is mainly for your home with the extra $7 fee for the extra receiver you have for your RV, you don’t want the pay as you go. With pay as you go you don’t pay the next bill and your service is shut off. That would mean your home service would stop also. Just call Dish when you want to use extra receiver for the RV and again when you want to shut it off. I forget if Dish charges a reconnect fee or not but if they do it may be cheaper to leave Dish receiver for RV on all camping season and just shut it off after you stop camping for the year.

OP, is thinking of dumping Dish at home, and using Pay as you go for the RV. We have done this for about eight years now.
It is an on off service, turn on when you use it, turn off when done. You only pay for time used. Turning it on and leaving it on until the month is up is a waste of money. We just turned our off (AKA Cancelled) our for this month as we can’t get through the mountains to get signal.
When we go to re activate we wii need to pay the difference between what credit is currently in our account and our normal monthly bill.

Rber1234 · 09-06-2020, 05:39 PM

If you’re getting rid of home service then it would make sense to go with pay as you go. You would be saving $7 a month off current bill if you keep same channels with the ability to choose which months you want to pay for.

wiredgeorge · 09-06-2020, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhagfo

OP, is thinking of dumping Dish at home, and using Pay as you go for the RV. We have done this for about eight years now.
It is an on off service, turn on when you use it, turn off when done. You only pay for time used. Turning it on and leaving it on until the month is up is a waste of money. We just turned our off (AKA Cancelled) our for this month as we can’t get through the mountains to get signal.
When we go to re activate we wii need to pay the difference between what credit is currently in our account and our normal monthly bill.

Thanks. You seem to be the only person who understood what I was asking. Our DishTV bill at home is way too expensive. I have fiber internet and can stream ANY streaming service and on multiple sets. I only kept DishTV for two reasons:
1. Spurs games broadcast on Fox Sportsnet Southwest
2. $7 a month for the Wally in my camper which carries the same line up as the house.

If I dump Dish and go with Hulu (which carries the Spurs games) I still want Dish in my camper; hence the question about "pay as you go". If I spend the bucks and get the most expensive package for $110 a month (I know there are other fees... this is an illustration) and use the service for four days in a month I would owe about $15 by my rough calculation. With Hulu and the $15 that would still be a LOT cheaper than Dish in the house.

That being said, do you have to CALL Dish to turn on (activate) when you camp or can it be done with the DishTV phone app and same with turning service off and making payments. I hate the thought of sitting on hold for half the camping trip.

I am not interested in Hulu in the camper as we almost never camp anywhere with decent wifi and my phone plan is inadequate. Think I already mention this.... thanks!

Rber1234 · 09-06-2020, 08:27 PM

I don’t think pay as you go works that way. You pay for a month at a time for months you want.

rhagfo · 09-06-2020, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rber1234

I don’t think pay as you go works that way. You pay for a month at a time for months you want.

Well as stated before I am a eight year customer and you can turn it on and off as needed, and only pay for days used.
The only drawback is you need to purchase the dish and receiver, but that is one time about $100 for receiver and $300 to $500 for an auto aligning dish.

wiredgeorge · 09-07-2020, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhagfo

Well as stated before I am a eight year customer and you can turn it on and off as needed, and only pay for days used.
The only drawback is you need to purchase the dish and receiver, but that is one time about $100 for receiver and $300 to $500 for an auto aligning dish.

Can you start/stop service using the Dish phone app? Every time I am camping and call Dish it takes a long time to talk to a human. Thanks

PS: Am a current Dish customer and have dish and wally receiver.

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