‘They Are Gouging the Remaining Customers’: Clark to Internet Users on Autopay
Consumer advocate Clark Howard says autopay subscribers are funding a quiet price creep that most households never notice until the damage is done. Find out what your current bill actually says versus what you agreed to pay.
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On his September 23, 2026 podcast, consumer advocate Clark Howard put a name to what your internet bill has been doing: “Creatures of habit are getting crushed right now. The companies providing home Internet are gouging the remaining customers, steadily pushing you to higher and higher price points.” He then asked: “When’s the last time you looked to see what they’re billing you now per month?”
If you are on paperless billing with a cable ISP and have not renegotiated in two years, the stakes are simple. You are almost certainly paying a rate that new customers in your same ZIP code would refuse. And the equity market has already scored this fight. Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR | CHTR Price Prediction), which sells internet under the Spectrum brand, is down 56% over the past year and 16% in just the past week, trading near $118. Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), the Xfinity parent, is down 20% over the past year, around $23.
Clark Is Right, and the Filings Prove It
Charter lost 172,000 internet customers in Q2 2026, up from 116,000 in the prior year quarter. Comcast lost 167,000 domestic broadband customers in the same quarter. Yet Charter’s disclosures show how revenue stays propped up: residential connectivity revenue grew 4% year-over-year in Q3 2025 “driven by promotional rate step-ups and rate adjustments.” That is corporate language for what Clark said plainly. When your 12-month promo ends, the price on your autopay statement moves up.
A new customer signs up at $50 a month for gig internet with paperless billing and autopay discount, typically $5 to $10. After 12 months the promotional line item drops off. The bill resets to a standard rate around $85. A year later, the ISP passes through a broadcast fee or router rental increase of $3 to $5. By month 36 the same service that started at $50 is billing $95 or more.
For a household that never calls, paying an extra $35 a month over 24 months is $840 out the door. That is a car repair or a Roth IRA contribution the household never made. The subscriber loss numbers show what a growing share of Americans are doing: switching.
One Variable Decides Your Savings
The single factor that determines whether Clark’s advice cuts your bill in half is what actually reaches your street. Two scenarios.
If a fiber overbuilder or fixed wireless from Verizon, T-Mobile, or a regional carrier serves your address, you can typically get 100 to 300 Mbps for $30 to $50 all-in, with no equipment rental and no annual step-up. Clark’s claim of “cutting your bill by half or more for people who just want a good deal on Internet” maps directly to that math. A $95 cable bill becomes a $40 fixed wireless bill.
If your address has only one wired provider and no fixed wireless coverage, the ISP has leverage. You will not switch, and they know it. Savings come from calling retention, citing a competitor’s rate, and asking for the new-customer promo to be reapplied. Charter is defending this bucket with a $1,000 savings guarantee for customers who add Spectrum Mobile. Comcast told investors it “did not take a broadband rate increase” in Q2 and is migrating customers to simplified plans, pushing broadband ARPU down 4% in the quarter. Comcast is choosing lower revenue per user over losing the user entirely, an implicit admission that the pricing model Clark describes has a shelf life.
What to Do This Week
- Open your last three internet bills. Write down the actual charged amount, not the promo you remember signing up for.
- Check availability at your address for fiber (AT&T, Frontier, Google Fiber, Ziply, regional overbuilders) and fixed wireless (Verizon 5G Home, T-Mobile Home Internet). Note the advertised price for a plan matching your real usage.
- Call your current provider’s retention line. Quote the competing offer. If they will not match within 10%, place the order with the competitor.
- If you switch, follow Clark’s timing tip: “look and see when your billing cycle ends, then about four days before it, give yourself time to get the cutover done” to avoid paying two providers for a full month.
The subscriber-loss trend and the stock charts are telling you the same thing the retention agent will not: your loyalty is the product being sold.
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Jake has been been working in financial media for almost 15 years. He focuses on all things personal finance for 24/7 Wall St. with high hopes to educate and entertain. Most recently, Jake spent 12 years working various roles at The Motley Fool. He started copy editing fool.com content, worked on premium and marketing campaigns, and helped launch The Ascent, a personal finance brand.
His work has been featured on platforms like MSN, Yahoo Finance, USA Today, and more. He's written about credit cards, social security, ETFs, savings accounts, and just about anything else you can imagine when thinking about money. Jake love to cook, play golf, and tell people he's never had a cavity. (It's true!)
