Internet Service Providers (cable) for ~ $40 a month?

I am looking for an ISP at or around $40 a month. I don't need cable or phone so no bundling. I don't need state of the art super speeds just a reliable connection.

I have been using Earthlink which is actually contracted out through Time Warner and was paying $41.95/month which I was okay with. For whatever reason, after more then a year they started sneaking in a $5.99 a month "equipment lease fee" for the modem they provided so my bill has jumped up to $47.94.

The final straw came today. I had historically been paying my bill by logging in each month and making a "single payment" using my CC but sometimes I would forget to pay and the following month I'd just pay for the last month and current month. There was no fee or penalty for this but I decided to save myself the trouble and sign up for recurring bill payment (I like paying month to month so that I can make sure I'm only getting billed the correct amount---this is how I go about most things).

I gave them my CC information for recurring payments and it worked fine for the last two months. Then they snuck in the modem leasing fee out of the blue in February and at the beginning of April I had to cancel the recurring bill payment because my credit card company cancelled my card and reissued a new one due to the Target Fiasco (way to be proactive 5 months after the fact).

The moment I was issued a new card I updated the recurring bill payment information (this was April 7th). However on April 25th they still tried to bill the old CC, despite that payment method being cancelled and the new information being entered and I was charged a $25 fee for this.

After an hour on the phone I got them to waive the fee (their excuse was that it can take up to a month, or one billing cycle for the recurring payment information to update---and they had no answer as to how I could have done anything differently to avoid this fee)

Anyways I'm just frustrated with them at the moment. I can live with $47.xx although I think it's stupid that after almost two years of having their stupid stock modem I'm now being charged $5.99 a month to lease it. I just feel like I can do better then ~ $48 a month---my only hesitation is that I'm not sure if a new company would mean I'd end up with a new SSID which means I'd have to reprogram the difficult wireless devices like printers and I have two in use that are a headache to reset/reprogram

I know where your at but it would probably help if you gave your general location to best answer your question. Charter did one up with the equipment fee, they made a stipulation with new members that they can no longer purchase and use there own modem so Charter can absolotuly assure the most reliable service at all times.

EDIT: To be somewhat helpfull, I found this company, don't know how reliable they are though.

I am currently only paying 34.99 for 15MB speed at time warner.

It's very easy to setup your own modem with them and that saves you the 5.99 fee.

If I were you I would just give them a call to reactivate. Try to haggle them down by saying if there is any promotions or anything like that because you can't afford to pay the price your paying now.

Also just don't do recurring bill payment.

Good luck trying to get a deal on boardband. Most areas are basically owned by one or two providers and the odds not to your benefit. I've heard people say some companies will extend better offers to you if you call in and say you want to cancel/can't afford it but there's no guarantee. 

Back in my home town, it's either Comcast or AT&T. AT&T is cheaper but is DSL, unreliable and slow. Comcast is more reliable but their tiers are shit. For example, their cheapest plan is "only" $40 for 3mbps down but I was never able to hits those speeds, unless I use using speedtest.net to check my speeds. When I call, I get a  "your connection appears to be fine but for $10 more, (I'll) get 20 mbps." The only good thing I can say about them is that my connection is reliable. Before Comcast overtook our town, we were paying $40 for 3Mbps down back in 1999. I have hard time believing that they can't offer better speeds or a lower price after over a decade. 

Where I live now, I have no choice since it's Comcast everywhere. And yeah, they're pretty shitty (but again, it's fairly reliable, once it gets going). 

If you want to save, listen to Megamania and buy your own modem. A Motorola modem will cost about $70 but should last 5 years without issues and will pay for itself within a year. I'm currently using one from 2006, and though I don't have the latest "tech", my model still hits the speeds I'm paying for and is perfectly stable beyond needing a restart if it goes unused for a while (ie, when I come back from weekend away). 

If you're dumping Earthlink and they were providing service via TimeWarner, that would be your only option for non-telco Internet.

Have you asked TimeWarner about going direct with them and not using Earthlink?   Only other option would likely be whatever the local telco has for an option, which may be DSL or a fiber product depending on where you are.

I would think about buying a modem, if you can get the price down to $41.95/month again.