Which Home Alarm Should I Purchase?

Many people think they need a professionally installed home alarm system with a monitoring service and end up paying a lot for such devices and services.  I’m always hesitant about monthly fees, and one might need to explore what these services entail and cost in the long run.  We’ll first examine the costs of an alarm with a monitoring service, then look at a do-it-yourself home alarm without the monthly monitoring service and then compare the two.
 
Alarm Monitoring
The best deal I’ve seen is an alarm company offering a “free” alarm system for your home (with certain limits on the number of sensors, etc.).  Let’s say you go with the basics: a control panel, motion detector, and two door sensors.  They’ll install and set this up for you, and in turn, you agree to a minimum two year contract for monitoring services (if you move, they’ll want to set up a system in your new house).  These generally run about $30 per month, sometimes with a setup fee (but we’ll skip that).  So, for 24 months * $30 + taxes = you spend a MINIMUM of $720.  This does NOT include any setup fees, configuration costs, monthly taxes, etc.  You’ll also need a home phone line for the alarm to dial out (this is a requirement of the monitoring service).  Since most people are moving away from land lines and use individual cell phones as a main phone for communications, we’ll outline a general cost for consideration.  The cheapest basic land line service I’ve seen also runs about $25 per month.  So, now you’re up to $25 * 24 months = $600 + $720 for 2 years of monitoring fees = $1,320.  That’s one thousand, three hundred, and twenty dollars minimum!  That’s a LOT of cash for home security.

What does the monitoring service do?  If the alarm is active, and someone were to set the alarm off, it dials up a pre-set phone number where the alarm monitoring service has people manning a desk.  The alarm sends the receiver/operator some bits of data (much like computers do over the internet now days), which tells the operator why the alarm is going off (motion detection, door alarm, etc.).  The operator in turn first tries dialing your home phone (or mobile if you designate), to ask if you’ve accidentally set the alarm off or if another course of action is needed.  If you don’t answer, or answer and are away from home and tell them you have no idea why the alarm is going off, the operator moves to calling the local police department and notifies them of your address, why the alarm was set off, and requests an officer to be dispatched to your house.  *Some city police departments offer up to one home alarm dispatch per year, and beyond that, will start billing you if they have to respond to additional false alarms (e.g. they get to your house and your friend is wondering around wondering how to shut the system off).  However, this varies by city and area, but it's something to ask about in advance.

For $660 per year * 2 years = $1,320 minimum, you get an alarm monitoring company (many times in another state) that will respond to a home alarm notification, and make a somewhat educated decision on what to do – generally dispatch the police.  There can be a considerable time differential between the alarm being set off (e.g. someone breaks a window and enters your home) to when the police arrive, as the alarm must dial out, the monitoring company takes the call, then calls the home owner, then calls the police dispatch.  Police can also take a considerable time to respond.  If your concerned about this, call your local police department and ask them what their average response time is to home alarms and if they have any other additional steps they take in responding to an alarm monitoring company.
 
Home Alarm System without Monitoring
You can get a similar home alarm system for about $150 with NO monitoring service.  What are the drawbacks to not having a service?  You’re in control and decide what to do – and you act as the monitoring company if you choose to.  While these self installed systems are much more economical in the long run, they do require a few simple installation steps to configure for proper operation. Something worth noting: the do-it-yourself home alarm can also use a home phone line to dial out (if you have one).  You can configure one to dial your mobile phone when the alarm is triggered, and then you have the option to listen remotely from your phone.  From there, it's up to you to decide on a course of response: you might want to call a neighbor and ask them if they notice anything suspicious (knowing your neighbor is always a good idea in helping keep a safe neighborhood).  You also have the option to call the police and ask them to dispatch an officer to investigate.  This gives you the power to make the decision.
 
Pros / Cons of Each System
Most break-ins occur during the middle of the day, or when people are at work.  Most thieves are looking for quick cash, so a purse or wallet with money, electronics they can pawn, maybe a computer, anything of value they can later resell.  They’re in and out of your place within several minutes, many times regardless if an alarm is going off.  They know that an alarm monitoring company first has to receive the call, then try to call the owner, then dispatch police.  By the time all of these steps are completed, it could take police over 20 minutes to arrive on scene, which gives a thief ten good minutes to take what they want, and another ten minutes to drive far away.

Both systems sound an alarm, either deterring a burglar or at least (hopefully) limiting the time they spend in your home.  Both can make a call.  Both hopefully discourage a thief to enter your home and while sounding the alarm encourages them to leave or limits the time they'd spend in your house.  Ultimately, in the course of break in, both systems seem to cause similar results.  When a self installed home alarm is sounding an alarm, the thief doesn't know that its not dialing out to have police dispatched, so why pay for the monitoring service in the first place?