<prompt> Human: My friend and I are having a debate and hoping you guys can help.Im looking at cutting costs to help pay off debt faster. Ive been paying 10 bucks a month to comcast for almost 2 years to rent my modem and etc which in a way is a clever way to nickel and dime you. I want to buy my own which would be around 129 to 150 dollars if I buy retail.My friends argument is that Im better off continuing to pay the fee because realistically I wouldnt see a true savings until 15 months in. 150 router and im paying 10 dollars now to rent a combo router modem and by that time i may not even have the service.My arguement is that I have spent over 240 10 rental fee for over 2 years. Thats just my current home. Ive rented from comcast for 5 years in total already and just continuing to toss money down the drain. Where do you guys stand?  <response>: Its very common for people to pay for faster speeds when the slowdown is with the 6-year-old, used, 40 modem the cable company charges 8-10month for.It resolves their problem, as the modem frequently will slow the connection down 20-50 anectodally, from having used a half-dozen providers myself, as the extended family tech support person and 20 years in all areas of IT.Think about this: not only could you pay off your own modem by saving on the rental fees, but you likely will be able to downgrade to a lesser plan and still have faster speeds than you have now.This is the justification I used for buying a nearly-300 wireless router, and the ROI was something like 5 months. If you can, buy it on Amazon and pay for the 4-year warranty for 8 or whatever. if the manufacturer does 1 year. Electronics DO wear out.If the unit you like has a 2- or 3- year warranty, buy it with an Amex and turn that into a 3- or 4-year for free. Amex costs money, but you get what I meanMy wireless routers have lasted 4-6 years, if youre wondering, Ive bought the top of the line ASUS models. Past performance isnt an indicator of future reliability, but if you buy a model thats 2 years old with over 4 stars and a few thousand reviews, youre probably better off than getting the most recent model.Finally, if you havent already, Google find internet providers in my area, get the first few results and use those sites to get a good picture of what your options are. This is one of those rare times to pay attention to the ads as well, because local companies can restrict ad display to specific geographical areas, and new offerings might not be on the comparison sites below them.Even if you like your current provider or it makes sense to stay with them for bundle savings, Good info on better offerings make it very easy to call up every 6- 12- or 24-months and ask for promo pricing to be extended to you. Theyre a lot more likely to do this than charge you less, because they assume theyll get you when the regular pricing kicks in. Google Calendar can help you keep that from happening, just put the reminder one bill cycle out so you can switch to a new provider if they deny a renewal of promo pricing and avoid any outages or regular pricing. 