One of the factors for me is pre vs. post pay.

Cable companies are set up as if they are a utility. They can charge you anything they want and there's not much you can do because they will say they already provided the service and you owe them. Because it's post pay, they give you the service, and then tell you what you owe them, which could be any amount, and it doesn't matter what they told you the amount would be. Just look at all the consumer complaints. It happens all the time. You may even think the contract is one thing, but they set it up completely differently. And if you don't agree with the charge, and don't pay, they will send you to collections and screw with your credit, and you'll have a guy who you can barely understand calling you twice a day for your payment information.

Streaming sites like Netflix are prepay, as they should be. If they change the rate, and you don't like it, you cancel service, and it's all over. No collections, no disputing charges, no wasting countless hours straightening things out etc ...

People will argue that it's better to receive the service first before paying, because what if the service stopped working? But in my opinion, it's better for these companies to owe you something, than them saying that you owe them something and trusting that these big corporations will be trustworthy or even competent about it. Then you have no power for them to just go away.

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