Home security opinions solicited

[carbonel]

I have a home security system that I've been paying $60/month for quite a while. At this point it's old and creaky, and I need to decide whether to upgrade it (which means tying myself into a new five-year contract) or dropping it entirely. The alarm company wants to keep me as a customer, so it's offering me a new system with free installation at the price I'm currently paying, and sweetening it with a $10/month discount for the first year. The new system comes with a doorbell camera and alarm -- though I have a front and side door, so I'm not sure which is most appropriate.

Do people have general opinions on home security? I've mostly kept this system because it was part of the house when I bought it (plus inertia), but it is an ongoing expense. I live in a low-crime area, at least for now.

Comments

[dreamshark]

My completely uninformed opinion is that doorbell cameras are kind of neat.

I've enjoyed looking at doorbell camera footage on Nextdoor of foxes and raccoons and other wildlife. They also do seem to capture pictures of crimes or potential crimes in progress fairly often, for whatever that is worth. Most often they seem to capture pictures of thieves stealing packages off your doorstep, which is rarely helpful in getting the items back. But sometimes when the person casing a house notices the camera they turn around and leave, which does seem to provide some protection from whatever that person had in mind.

A back or side door camera probably provides the most amusement value because of the nature footage. Front door cameras are most likely to capture random crimes in progress on the street, which the police actually do look at sometimes. Which location is most likely to protect your own house from crime is not obvious.

Well!

[lsanderson]

I think that's too much to pay, but I am not you so I don't get to decide. I have a front doorbell camera, partially because the hardwired one quit working. Its subscription fee is about $65/year, but it obviously can't call the police if someone is trying to break in. The only door people have tried to break in is the rear door of the garage, not the front door. I live in what ustta be a high crime area, and now is less, although if you're on Nextdoor, you would not think so.

[timill]

We have opted to go with a Blink camera system from Amazon, and pay $10/month for the cloud storage option. We currently have 6 outdoor cameras and 2 doorbells, and can add another 2 devices if we want to.

I don't know what we spent on cameras &c, but it was probably around $350ish.

There's no monitoring other than what we do.