Why do security monitoring costs vary so much?
1. Like cell phone plans you can pay more up front and less per month or less upfront and more per month.
2. There are many additional services such as late to close, early to open, web access, auto arm/disarm, elevator monitoring, schedules, lock control, lighting control, garage door control and the list goes on. Depending on which services you have the rates vary.
3. Analog phone line monitoring could be right around $26.00 dollars per month
4. Cell phone monitoring could be as low as $35.00 per month
5. Interactive monitoring where you can arm and disarm may be as low as $40 per month although if the price is a bit more you can lower the upfront costs.
6. There is no such thing as security companies giving you free equipment. If you lock into a 36 month agreement with Peak Alarm for $44.00 per month and you pay $99 upfront your overall costs add up to $1,683.00 over the 36 months. With a 60 month is it much more money.
7. A company that claims to give you free equipment normally has a 40 or 60 month agreement and normally the interactive starts at $49 per month so over the period of 60 months you are paying $2,940.00 even if it were at the same monitoring rate of $44 it would still be much more $2,640 so the FREE equipment is not really free.
8. Know that if you are getting rid of your landline (analog phone line) to upgrade to a cellular that will give you interactive arm and disarm often you will need to upgrade your alarm panel so the cost to do so varies from system to system depending on how old it is. Radio is another option for monitoring.