I say, if you can deal with the hassle of switching, and you can get a better deal with Directv, switch to Directv. All these satellite companies have BS exceptions to their deals and try to screw people with bad credit, so I recommend calling Directv and making sure you qualify for their deals before you quit Dish, but if you do qualify, then there is absolutely no reason to stick with Dish. You'll save money for the first year with Directv and then probably break even the second year. Then after the second year when your contract expires, you can come back and get Dish again. You could even throw cable in the rotation. The only reason not to do it is if it's going to be too much of a hassle (and I do understand if it is -- I have horror stories about dealing with Comcast in particular you wouldn't believe, and if you search the Internet, there are people with horror stories about all these companies.).
I'm completely serious here, though. All these companies only care about the bottom line, and they're perfectly willing to screw their customers anytime they think it will make them a few extra dollars. And the long-term customers who pay their bills loyally every month are always the ones who get screwed the worst. I was struggling to pay a cable bill last year, and knew I couldn't pay it, and called to get even a small deal to make it affordable for me, and they said no -- even though articles in the newspaper about rate hikes always pointed out that that those hikes don't apply to the 60% of their customers on promotional rates. I'm poor and pay my bill loyally for 5 years and can't be in that big majority that gets a promotional rate? I took a hike and am now saving money with Dish. If Dish won't cut me a deal when their contract expires, I'll get someone else to cut me a deal -- maybe back to Comcast.
When I cancelled my tv with them, Comcast wanted me to pay $60 plus a modem rental fee plus tax every month for Internet service or something like that. I quit for 6 months, and then came back and suddenly the same service was $20 a month plus modem rental and tax for a year. I think I even still get a lesser discount into the second year with no obligation or contract beyond year one.
Now, I already see the posts in this thread that say "Blah, blah, blah, people are being jerks and taking advantage of the system". Well, guess what? These companies are being jerks to their long-term customers, some of whom are in poverty and really sacrificing and juggling things around to pay their bills. I'm not going to shed a tear for some big corporation that feels people are taking advantage of them. Guess what? Corporations aren't people. They don't have feelings. And if they don't want people to take advantage of their special offers, don't make special offers. And if they want customer loyalty, then they should show loyalty to their long-term customers by offering them the best possible rates instead of offering them the worst possible rates. What goes around comes around.
In a perfect world, these companies would just offer a reasonable flat rate to everyone. But they don't. So people are forced to juggle things to be able to continue to afford television service. If they were to offer their best rates to long-term customers, guess what? I would have just stuck with cable my entire life probably. If Dish were to offer their promotional rates to long-term customers and their current regular rates to new customers, I'd probably stay with Dish indefinitely. But my financial incentive is to reconsider and jump every time a contract or promotion expires and I feel like I can stomach dealing with the hassle of switching, and my bottom line is more important to me -- you know, so I can afford to eat and feed my dog and pay basic bills -- than some corporation's bottom line. Dish made a quarter billion dollars in the last fiscal quarter, I don't think Charlie's hurting for anything.
