However, for people who are going to consume all of the services anyway, this can be a good way to save if you don’t care that much about flexibility.

The one that I’ve always been suspicous of is bundling services. I know you can save money doing this, but I don’t like being locked into a single provider for cable, phone, internet and cells.

For one thing, a company that’s great with cable may not be so good with cellphones–and we’ve had this experience. For another, I like having the flexibility of moving each service to a different provider for a better deal, but pulling one out of the bundle may cause fees to go up on those that remain.

The whole arrangement seems like a voluntary locking system that restrains your options and keeps you from getting the best deals. And with the way systems and services keep changing, there’s always a better deal somewhere.

Bundles are great deals when you first enter them, but they tend to decline in savings over time as other services become available for less and the cost of your bundle increases.