Cheap Monitoring
We charge $7.50/mo for basic dial up service (radio backup costs significantly more) - but you normally will want to have someone nearby who can talk you through changing your panel over to their company's monitoring service.
A little known alarm secret is that there are really only a handfull (4 or 5) of monitoring companies. They offer all sorts of services, including answering "your" toll free number in "your" companie's name and monitoring your customers. The cost to setup one of these makes them efficient in large numbers. The company we use has over 300,000 accounts on line, and passes the savings on, making our costs lower as well.
It is helpful to have a local company unless you have the manual to your system and know how to change the dialup phone number and the codes - without this you are pretty much stuck with having someone come out and do it for you. If your system is working now, moving it to a cheaper monitoring company is not a big deal - you must change the phone number and account number in the panel, plus sign a contract with the new company.
Most contracts will be for a year's monitoring - fortunately at our prices that is under $100. They will also specify all your devices in your house, and will list the order you want to have people contacted when different alarms come in (i.e. call the house first, then the police if nobody is home, or call the fire first on fire alarms) - these are all your choice decisions.
Nowdays you can also view your alarms on line - we give our customers that option. It helps to make sure the "kitchen window" isn't listed as the "front door" on the monitoring company.
|
