Quit Wasting Your Money on "Free" Alarm Systems!

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Didn't you're Mother and Father ever tell you that nothing in life is free? I have been in this industry long enough to tell you that you will never get a FREE alarm system. You will pay an installation fee, pay an overpriced monitoring fee, and then be stuck in a contract. Not only that, when the contract expires, if you decide to cancel, you will find out the only way to have someone else monitor your system, is to replace it, because most of those companies use "proprietary" equipment.

Ok, with that out of the way, let's dig a little deeper. What do you get with your "free" alarm system? Typically, as follows: A keypad, a motion detector, and 2-3 door contacts. Many times, the "brain" of the system is built right into the keypad on these systems. This is much less secure than traditional security systems where, the main control panel is in a locked, steel enclosure, away from the keypad. When the keypad and the main control panel are all one piece, as a criminal, I would be doing cheetah flips, all I need to do is kick in the entry door to your house, and destroy the keypad within 30 seconds, and the alarm was useless. And for this, you pay between $35 and $45 per month with a 5 year contract that auto-renews for "like consecutive terms", this means another 5 years. Now, before the 2nd year of your contract has expired, you have paid for the equipment, so they should lower your monitoring rate, right? NOPE! You will pay the same inflated monitoring charge until you cancel. Here is the solution. Buy from someone who will take the time to design a system for your home, not sell you false protection. I would challenge anyone to purchase a "free" system from these companies, then call me and give me your address. I will come rob you, then you can tell me, "but it's free!"

PS. I'm not going to come rob your home; I'm just making a point.

Ok, $35 per month doesn't sound unreasonable until you look closer at the details. For this price, you need to provide your own path of communication. This means you need a phone line. Not a Voice Over IP (VOIP) phone line, a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) phone line. If you disconnect it, guess what, your alarm can't call anyone. If you connect it to a VOIP line, and your power is out, it can't call anyone. Read your contract though, the alarm company is covered if this happens. They can charge you and you must pay, even when it doesn't work. Try to fight them. They don't care, and they will win. Do yourself a favor, BUY your alarm system and make sure that after your initial monitoring term, another company can monitor it without replacing equipment. Also get one that uses an up to date communication method like GSM (cellular) or IP (internet). GSM requires no phone line and should still operate if the power goes out, and IP can be configured to notify the monitoring station if it loses communication much quicker than a phone line will. You will thank me!

Christopher B. Cox. I welcome you to visit my website http://www.securityalarmguru.com/
My site is devoted to assisting the current security professional as well as the Do It Yourselfer.
I also have a very extensive collection of hard to find security system manuals available, as well as battery voltage calculators. For more information, contact me today at TheGuru@securityalarmguru.com.