3 ways consumers waste money

Most people older than 15 remember the churning, ringing and buzzing of dial-up Internet modems, as well as painfully slow speeds and frequent disconnections.

But many of the 63 million U.S. households that have super fast broadband Internet connections may be surprised that more than 20 million Americans still use much slower dial-up modems, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association.

Yes, dial-up is cheaper -- about $30 per month cheaper -- but customers pay nearly ten times as much per second for each data download than with broadband.

Dial-up plans cost about $10 per month for a top speed of 56 kilobytes per second, or about 18 cents per Kbps. Broadband customers pay about $40 per month for speeds averaging 2,000 Kbps, or about 2 cents per Kbps.

So why stick with dial-up? Some users don't have the option while others don't need faster speeds.

"Some are stuck in areas where there's no broadband, and for others, it's a cost decision," said Carl Howe, analyst at Yankee Group. "[Dial-up] is not a service for a lot of us that are in the 'things have to get done now world,' but there are some people who have the time."

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