# Directv account questions



## curtm1973 (Apr 29, 2013)

I currently have a directv account with 4 receivers. A family member, who is a directv subscriber in Illinois, is moving in with us (along with her daughter).

A few questions on what is our best bet to continue with service:

1. Is it possible for both of us to keep our accounts we have in the same house (i.e. 2 accounts in 1 house)?
2. If not, how many receivers are allowed on 1 account (we would need Directv in 6 rooms)
3. Are there any other options?


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## Go Beavs (Nov 18, 2008)

My replies are below:



curtm1973 said:


> I currently have a directv account with 4 receivers. A family member, who is a directv subscriber in Illinois, is moving in with us (along with her daughter).
> 
> A few questions on what is our best bet to continue with service:
> 
> ...


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

curtm1973 said:


> I currently have a directv account with 4 receivers. A family member, who is a directv subscriber in Illinois, is moving in with us (along with her daughter).
> 
> A few questions on what is our best bet to continue with service:
> 
> ...


1: Yes, if both share the same dish, you need to have the hardware upgraded to handle the number of tuners you will have total, and isolate the two accounts.
2: Ive seen people on here with like 20 or more....dont guess there is a hard limit.
3: Close one of the accounts, order new boxes for the new rooms needing service on the remaining account, and pool your money for a better package with more channels...assuming both accounts arent currently under a contract.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Well, there is a point where you have to weigh whether the installer has the experience to properly put together a very large complex system. I don't think 6 rooms would be like that, as long as he knows to isolate them from accessing each other, which isn't difficult.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

More specificity about the receivers would be very helpful. At the very least a breakdown of DVR vs non-DVR would help.


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

The only "limit" I know of is that once you go over 6, you can't activate an additional reciever on the website and need to call DirecTV.

As noted previously, it is more cost effective to have only one account, but you may have reasons to maintain financial separation. Also, assuming the receivers are all leased, the ones from the terminated account would have to be returned, and replacements issued under the surviving account. Depending on the mix of DVRs and regular receivers, and whether or not all are SWM compatible, you may also need wiring, multiswitch and/or LNB updates.


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## EricJRW (Jul 6, 2008)

Would adding receivers to the existing account cause the current contract to extend? Other than privacy and the financial responsibility part, I thought combing would make more sense too. However, as I recall, calling in a move did not extend my current contract, so that might be another reason.


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## Beerstalker (Feb 9, 2009)

Yes adding any new receiver will cause a new contract. I believe it is 18 months for a SD receiver, and 24 months for pretty much anything else (SD-DVR, HD Receiver, HD-DVR, or Genie).

At this time the Mover's Connection requires a 12 month contract extension if you use it and don't upgrade any hardware. If you accept their offer of hardware upgrades (Free Whole Home DVR upgrade, Free Sunday ticket MAX), then I believe it may come with a longer commitment, and it definitely will if any receivers are swapped out/upgraded.


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## Volatility (May 22, 2010)

Diana C said:


> Their is an certain amount of how many receivers you can have on one account before DirecTV starts getting suspicious you may be committing satellite fraud. As Diana stated once you go over 6 you have to call in to activate. I can not remember the exact amount it is though once their suspicions start accruing but it isn't something to worry about unless you are doing something illegal. I do remember this one account I had though where the customer had like 18 receivers on his account and he said he doesn't want an installer coming out and to drop ship a few more. He was more than willing to pay for them, but we can not drop ship receivers for rooms that currently do not have a connection, only swap outs so he hung up. lol we googled mapped his house and it was a one story small house. We were thinking yup thats fraud so we escalated his account info. As far as an account limit, I do not believe their is any as some areas have big homes where people have set top boxes in like every room, just if you want more than the usual amount and say something like do not send an installer or anyone from directv out is when it seems like you are doing something fishy lol


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

Volatility said:


> Their is an certain amount of how many receivers you can have on one account before DirecTV starts getting suspicious you may be committing satellite fraud. As Diana stated once you go over 6 you have to call in to activate. I can not remember the exact amount it is though once their suspicions start accruing but it isn't something to worry about unless you are doing something illegal. I do remember this one account I had though where the customer had like 18 receivers on his account and he said he doesn't want an installer coming out and to drop ship a few more. He was more than willing to pay for them, but we can not drop ship receivers for rooms that currently do not have a connection, only swap outs so he hung up. lol we googled mapped his house and it was a one story small house. We were thinking yup thats fraud so we escalated his account info. As far as an account limit, I do not believe their is any as some areas have big homes where people have set top boxes in like every room,* just if you want more than the usual amount and say something like do not send an installer or anyone from directv out is when it seems like you are doing something fishy lol*


There are reasons for that sometimes. I work 45 minutes from where I live and have mostly owned equipment. In my experiences in the past when I have a receiver bite the dust they almost always want to send someone out. All 6 of my DVR's are in the same house. Usually what happens they have to schedule someone, it will be a week, I can really only have them come on Saturday's since I am not home during the day during the week, and last but not leased, THEY ALWAYS SWAP OWNED FOR LEASED!!! I always have to call the access card department and have it fixed when they leave. It is much easier to have one activated as owned the first time and much faster to have a replacement drop shipped to me.

The one upside is that I tend to get the dead owned DVR's swapped to HR24's when a tech comes to the house. I just had a SWM16 replaced a few months ago and showed the tech every DVR in the house. While I admit I have a larger than normal setup, I am not doing anything wrong but just prefer to deal with replacements on my own. Should I need an alignment, LNB, cables ran, etc, by all means send a tech as soon as possible.


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## Volatility (May 22, 2010)

joshjr said:


> There are reasons for that sometimes. I work 45 minutes from where I live and have mostly owned equipment. In my experiences in the past when I have a receiver bite the dust they almost always want to send someone out. All 6 of my DVR's are in the same house. Usually what happens they have to schedule someone, it will be a week, I can really only have them come on Saturday's since I am not home during the day during the week, and last but not leased, THEY ALWAYS SWAP OWNED FOR LEASED!!! I always have to call the access card department and have it fixed when they leave. It is much easier to have one activated as owned the first time and much faster to have a replacement drop shipped to me.
> 
> The one upside is that I tend to get the dead owned DVR's swapped to HR24's when a tech comes to the house. I just had a SWM16 replaced a few months ago and showed the tech every DVR in the house. *While I admit I have a larger than normal setup, I am not doing anything wrong but just prefer to deal with replacements on my own. *Should I need an alignment, LNB, cables ran, etc, by all means send a tech as soon as possible.


Thats perfectly understandable. Of course not everyone who has a large setup who wants the stuff installed on their own is doing something wrong the amount that are probably very very low. I should of been more specific on that last post was in a rush, that customer I was referring to was obvious they were up to something. A *1 story small house* should not need 24 receivers activated at once, especially when i asked how many homes he had and he said just this one lol. I said you do know you have 24 receivers activated and he said he is using that many in case one goes out lol. haha sure


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## goinsleeper (May 23, 2012)

curtm1973 said:


> 3. Are there any other options?


Depending on your current setup and how long they are going to stay with you, you may just want to run extra outputs to the other rooms. More than one tv would have to be on the same channel, but if that isn't much of an inconvenience and they aren't staying long, you may want to go that route.


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