Whether you are a Comcast Xfinity customer dealing with surprise modem rental fees or not, this article should still be of interest, because Comcast isn’t the only ISP with a history of erroneous (incorrect) modem rental fees.
In the past, I have provided guidance on how to replace a Comcast Xfinity modem with your own, which is the best way to get rid of your Comcast Xfinity modem rental fee. If you haven’t yet done this with Comcast (or your ISP), don’t hesitate. Comcast raised modem rental fees to $15 per month ($180 per year) for the “xFi” gateway at the beginning of 2023 ($25/month for “xFi Complete”), which means we’re about due for another modem rental fee increase sometime soon. If 90% of Comcast’s 32 million Xfinity high-speed internet customers leased modems, then they are making over $5 billion in modem rental fees alone in 2024. You don’t need to add to that windfall.
I also discovered that Comcast is using your leased modem as a public Wi-Fi hotspot (at your expense)! Here is how to opt out of Comcast using your modem as a public Wi-Fi hotspot.
Replacing a Comcast owned and leased modem with your own is incredibly easy (I have spent days researching every compatible modem and recommend the Arris S33 modem and pairing it with a TP-Link AX3000 (Wi-Fi 6), TP-Link AXE5400 (Wi-Fi 6E), or TP-Link BE9300 (Wi-Fi 7) router (see the links above for a complete list of recommended options and details). Doing so will save you $180 per year, minimum. Not to mention, it is immensely satisfying to deny Comcast that extra $180 per year. Doing so requires a relatively small up-front investment and minimal technological know-how. And getting rid of one more fee gives you more leverage to negotiate your bill lower in other areas and take advantage of other Comcast discounts.
However, even if you’ve made the wise move to your own modem to avoid Comcast’s sting, it turns out Comcast might make a sneak attack on you anyways.
Many Comcast customers (myself included) sign up for autopay and might be completely missing unjustified fees. At the same time, trying to break down a Comcast billing statement is like reading a foreign language. It’s so difficult that they created an in-depth guide to understanding their bill.
Check your bill here and look under your registered devices under “Internet & Voice” to see if everything is set up properly and your modem is listed correctly (not as an Xfinity leased device).
If you have been incorrectly charged, contact Xfinity customer service immediately to remedy the issue and get reimbursed for overpaying. Comcast’s customer service isn’t the best, so do not let them off of them hook. Object until you are satisfied.
Side note: it’s funny what happens when a little competition (or even the threat of it) is injected into a market that Comcast has a virtual monopoly in. Recently, AT&T U-Verse moved in to my neighborhood, and Comcast offered me new customer pricing on a contract renewal in order to compete on price.
Whether you have a viable alternative or not, you should get rid of your Comcast-leased modem and frequently check your bills to make sure you don’t have any erroneous modem rental fee charges for a modem you own.
Update: you can now also get rid of your Xfinity DVR & TV Box fee by using your own compatible streaming device like a Roku, Amazon Fire stick, Apple TV, or Chromecast, saving $10 per month ($120 per year) per device.
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Thank you G.E. I had this problem with Comcast a few years ago. I use Comcast for Internet service and Direct TV for TV. I initially rented a Comcast modem. With urging from my friends, I purchased my own modem. Six months later after I returned my Comcast modem I noticed they were still charging me the rental fee. I called them and they said that they would refund the money. One month later, no change. I called back and threatened to cancel the service if they didn’t stop charging me. They finally stopped charging me monthly and they refunded my money. I thought it was just me, but thanks to your post I realize that this is an epidemic. I see a class action lawsuit coming soon to the Comcast town that you live in.
Class action lawsuits can be a beautiful thing when Comcast is involved.
TimeWarner Cable does the same thing
This is a great article. Fortunately, I saw the signs before we started our service and I bought my own modem. It was $100, but will pay for itself in less than a year. I can’t believe they charge $10 a month for a rental fee. Despicable!
This is a great article for people who may not realize.
I don’t have any other viable options in my area, but we’ll be moving soon. I will have my revenge soon.
reading about Comcast. Direct TV is worse..had to go to the Attorney General of my state in order to get funds owed me. 14 lawsuits were out on D.tv…I would never go back to them..
Hello. Do you know if there is an law or FCC rule that Comcast is breaking by doing this? Thanks.
I just filed a complaint with the FTC about this.
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us?return_to=%2Fhc%2Frequests
Here is the web address to file a complaint with the FCC
Comcast lost me permanently over charging me rent many times for modems i owned. It is an uphill battle to get anyone to fix the problem. The even accuse me of stealing it. Their front line people are so trained at rote that no one has the ability to quickly escalate the issue.
Comcast’s investors are going to take a hit as more people simply get fed up and cut the cord like it did.
I am no fan of unneeded regulation but their methods appear to be practically fraudulent at the worst or terribly inept.
With my problem I found out that if thee modem you buy has Xfinity on it it was sold to Comcast and nobody else. I contacted Cisco who made the modem I bought.
The company I bought the modem from has refunded my money. So bewarw, If the moden has Xfinity printed on it Don’t buy. Comcast does not sell them to anyone.
Great stuff. Thanks. Any modems that also support voice? It looks like none of the modems that I could buy to replace the $11/month fee support voice. Am I stuck with Comcast’s modem, or do I need to get a land line for voice and buy a modem fo internet and TV? Thanks.
Have had my own modem for years. I decided to rent their modem due to me being out of town and the internet goes wrong. So after having my mate power cycle our modem with no result I get on the phone (If I have service) and talk to COMXFINITY.
They, of course blame it on my private modem and want to send a service truck over to troubleshoot. This can quickly lead to a $150 extended repair call. Since five people in our household are dependent on the internet working ….. I can call and tell them to fix it and they attempt that much more as opposed to the standard reply of “Oh YOU have your OWN modem?” Did I happen to mention that xfi pods suck?
I have had owned my own modem for 5 years and suddenly have been charged with modem rental. I have had to calm the past 3 months to tell the same story. In addition, I continue to receive automated calls stating that my internet is not working at the speed and performance therefore call for an upgraded modem. My internet speed couldn’t work any better or faster. Where could I report this continuous erranious charges?
Now it’s $13 and I’m their latest victim. I called customer service and they flat out lied about having the charge removed, because it’s still there. I emailed we_can_help and threatened to file complaints with both the FCC and BBB and switch providers. We’ll see if that does anything.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. While trying to upgrade my service and taking a look at my auto pay bills, I’ve been charged rental for the last two years when I never rented from Comcast. Something needs to be done.
Discovered that I was being charged for a modem rental even though i returned the equipment a year ago. I was told that the reason this charge was still applied was due to the coding being done behind the scenes. That my modem was not compatible so they had to code it as their own equipment in order for the internet service to work properly. I demanded they remove the charge going forward and a full refund. After some hee hawing back and forth and asking for a supervisor I was put on a rather long hold but when the representative carne back she was willing to comply. I had to agree to removing the rental fee and she tried to watchb ne that this may interrupt my services. Everything seems to be fine now and I was promised no.more.charges and a full refund I’m the form of a bill credit. Ok fine but what a pain in the ass this experience has been.
Using your own modem doesn’t really do much for you unless you’re around Maine and don’t have a data cap or don’t use more than 1Tb.
I live in one of the 27* states that has a 1TB data cap which has some wonderful Wireless plan idiocy attached to it. You can rent their equipment for $15/mo and remove the cap, pay $50/mo to remove the cap or pay $10/infraction for an extra 50gb up to $200 do deal with the data cap. If you’re fine with the limit it’s all good, but if not renting is the cheapest way to avoid being screwed over. I’m looking into renting and not using since I already have my own modem just to get the cheaper of 3 evils. Be glad when Verizon gets their 5G tower setup here so I can stop fooling with crap like comcast and att.
My bill suddenly increased, Yes, Comcast start charge me rental fee this month, call them, they agree to remove it from next billing cycle, I asked “what about this billing cycle? after argued, the rep finally agree to remove it.
But one hour later, my internet service was reset, I need to reset my router, authenticate all my network devices