I knew it was around the time of the year for my credit card to get charged for my hosting. I’ve been a Dreamhost customer since 1998, and my plan was grandfathered in with a number of rate changes from many, many years back.
So I logged into my account to see when the charge would happen, and I discovered the hosting plans have changed — or rather, hosting plan. Dreamhost did away with all the various programs to offer one hosting solution for a price significantly less than what I’m paying for right now — $10.95/month, with discounts for paying in advance.
Good news, right? It would have been had I heard about it earlier.
My current plan had already been auto-renewed, and my credit card was days away from being charged my six-month grandfathered rate, rather than for the single cheaper plan. So I changed to the One Plan to Rule Them All but still got charged for the two weeks I was under the old plan. It came to about $13, which isn’t too bad, but it’s $13 more than $0, which I could have saved if I knew about the damn change. And that’s roughly $3 more than the monthly price I get for paying a year in advance ($9.95/month.) Two weeks of service under the old plan > one month of service under the new plan. Suck, no?
At least now the charge on my credit card will be for an entire year of service, which means a total savings of $156. The plans changed back in September 2007, so I didn’t really miss out. Had the plan changed after May 2007, when I was last charged at the six-month rate, I would have cried foul.