Goodbye, Time Warner Cable: What Subscribers Should Know

Say goodbye to Time Warner, and hello to Charter.

Time Warner Cable, holder of the worst customer-service score in any industry, according to a 2015 survey, is being phased out, spokesperson Alex Dudley told Bloomberg on Wednesday. The much-maligned brand will be a victim of Charter Communications Inc.’s $55.1 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable Inc., which closes this week. The deal was announced last year.

In the coming months, Charter will transition Time Warner Cable and Bright House to Spectrum, its own cable TV and broadcast services. It’ll take awhile, so customers won’t notice any changes right away. That said, Charter is acquiring about 16 million Time Warner Cable subscribers in markets like New York and Los Angeles, and about 2.5 million Bright House customers in states like Florida, Bloomberg reported.

Credit.com reached out to Time Warner Cable for comment on whether the change will affect automatic payments, but hadn’t heard back at press time.

As with any change to a service provider, it’s smart to keep track of payments throughout the transition to avoid being hit with late charges or, worse, missing a bill altogether, which can be reported to the credit bureaus and lower your credit score. You should also keep an eye on your mail for an important notifications about your plan.

Remember, if you ever switch cable providers, you should check your credit before shopping around. Many companies require credit checks and waive certain fees or offer better packages to those with good credit. You can see where you stand by viewing your two free credit scores, updated every 14 days, on Credit.com. If your score’s in bad shape, you may be able to fix it by disputing errors on your credit reports, paying down high credit card balances and limiting credit inquiries in the short-term.