Bay Alarm Medical Alert System Cost and Fall Detection Pricing

There’s a lot to like about Bay Alarm Medical. The parent company, Bay Alarm, has been around since 1946, so it’s had plenty of time to perfect its technology and customer service. No surprise, then, that Bay Alarm Medical earns top marks from us for its highly reliable 24/7 response, its many high-quality features (including its recently added caregiver tracking for some systems), and its customer-friendly policies like no long-term contracts.

With every new subscription, Bay Alarm even provides a complementary Vial of Life, a tool for managing your medical information in your home.

And all of this is available for an affordable price. In fact, when we compare Bay Alarm Medical’s pricing to other top providers, like Medical Guardian, they look even better.

The monthly rate starts as low as $24.95, and if you want to share an account with a spouse, Bay Alarm Medical charges about half of what we’ve seen from its competitors. In addition, neither of their high-quality at-home systems requires an equipment fee. Finally, if you are looking for both at-home and on-the-go protection, Bay Alarm offers discounted bundling. So let’s see if Bay Alarm Medical has an alert system and monitoring plan that makes sense for you or your loved one.

Key Features:

Bay Alarm Medical Packages & Pricing

Bay Alarm Medical Equipment

Let’s start with the basics. With a Bay Alarm Medical alert system, you will pay about $25 to $30 in monthly fees for an at-home system and between $30 and $40 for an on-the-go system. You will not find an equipment cost for the at-home systems, but all of the on-the-go systems require an equipment fee — between $99 and $159. In the medical alert industry, these are competitive prices.

While comparing prices between brands is important, don’t forget to compare brand policies and perks. With Bay Alarm Medical you will be happy to find customer-friendly policies like a 30-day trial period with a money-back guarantee and a price-lock guarantee. Not every provider offers these benefits.

As far as extra fees go, you may need to read the fine print. For example, shipping and handling is free for some, but not all, packages. With the in-home systems, it is free for the In-Home Preferred and In-Home Premium packages but not the In-Home Basic package. And this is true only when you opt for a quarterly or annual (rather than monthly) payment plan. Additionally, although it is a small cost, you will pay for return shipping (about $15) when you no longer need the equipment. Note that when Bay Alarm Medical processes a return, they stop monthly billing.

Bay Alarm Medical Help Button

Now that we have those minor caveats out of the way, we invite you to take a closer look at the competitive pricing that Bay Alarm Medical offers.

Bay Alarm offers two at-home systems, one with a landline connection and one with a cellular connection. They also offer three unique on-the-go options: a traditional pendant, a smartwatch-style device, and an all-in-one device for use both at home and away. Here are the different plans and monthly rates that you can expect.

Bay Alarm Medical Alert Systems Cost Breakdown

Note that if you order more than one system, you’ll earn discounts. You can also take advantage of freebies and pay for upgrades as we’ve described below.

Bay Alarm Medical Upgrades and Freebies

You can customize your Bay Alarm Medical plan with fall detection and other upgrades. Here’s a rundown of your options:

Bay Alarm Medical Add-On Analysis

When we calculate total costs, Bay Alarm Medical tends to match or beat some of the other best medical alert systems available. And as mentioned, Bay is very reliable. When we pressed the help button during testing, a highly-trained emergency response agent was on the line immediately.

In fact, after testing the system several more times, we concluded that Bay Alarm Medical surpasses the industry average response time of 30 seconds. All of the calls came through on our two-way talk at 27 seconds or under. Two of these calls were even answered after 21 seconds. We were impressed! If a fast response time is important to you, we’d also recommend looking into Lifeline alert systems.

Alert Systems & Packages

Bay Alarm Medical provides two ways to customize your package. First, they offer a tiered pricing system. For example, if you decide that you want to go with an at-home system, you can order one of three packages: a landline system for $24.95, a cellular system for $29.95, or a cellular system with wall help buttons for $39.95. You can also make the system your own by tacking on an add-on or two.

We have provided a synopsis for each of Bay Alarm’s packages below.

At-Home Alert Systems

Bay Alarm Medical – In-Home Basic Protection

Basic Protection

If you have a landline and plan to maintain it, then the Basic Protection Plan may be right for you. At $24.95, it is $10 less expensive than the cellular package, but still includes a decent range of 1,000 feet between the base station and wearable help button. Aside from the price savings, this is a great option for anyone who might have an uneven cellular connection in their home.

One wearable button for the wrist or neck is free, and you can add another for a small one-time fee. These home-only buttons don’t need recharging; they work for about five years, and then Bay sends replacements. Keep in mind that neck pendants can be upgraded with fall detection and Bella charms.

Bay Alarm Medical Wrist Pendant

Best For: Seniors who don’t leave home alone.

For another easy-to-use in-home system with more features, we recommend reading our hands-on review of Aloe Care Health.

Preferred Protection

This package has the exact same inclusions as the Basic package; the only difference is that it’s 4G cellular-enabled. This package costs $10 more than the Basic package, but it’s worth it especially if your home is not equipped with a landline. A few benefits come with a cellular system (as long as you have decent coverage in your home). For one, cellular systems are easier to install; just plug them in, flip the “ON” switch, and they’ll connect automatically. Another advantage is that it’s faster. According to Bay Alarm, its cellular systems are 60 percent faster than landline devices, and that difference in speed can save a life.

Best for: Seniors who don’t leave home and don’t have a landline.

Premium Protection

The Premium Protection package includes everything in the Preferred Protection package plus it adds wall-mounted panic buttons which provide an extra layer of protection for high-risk areas in your home. For an additional $39.95 a month, $10 more than the previous package, you will receive four buttons with the Premium Protection package.

We think this high-tier indoor system is only worth the extra money if you are someone who either is resistant to wearing the help button around your neck or on your wrist or forgets to put it on. If you do wear the help button consistently while at home, the wall buttons are redundant.

Best for: Seniors who do not leave the home often and do not consistently wear the help button.

Mobile Alert Systems

SOS Mobile

Bay Alarm Medical – GPS Preferred Protection

For just $29.95 per month, Bay Alarm Medical will monitor a button on-the-go. The SOS Mobile is Bay Alarms’s newest product offering, introduced to the market in 2022. We really like that you can choose to connect with the AT&T or Verizon 4G cellular network, depending on which provider offers the strongest signal in your area. It is also a great device for those older adults who have a pacemaker; the medical alert does not include a magnet. And it offers caregiver tracking and optional fall detection. The SOS Mobile comes with a $99 equipment fee.

Best For: Bay’s SOS Mobile is best for seniors who need emergency alert coverage at home and away.

SOS Smartwatch

Bay Alarm Medical SOS Smartwatch

We recently tested the SOS Smartwatch, and the device, which presents as tech-savvy and contemporary, offers two important safety features — two-way talk and GPS location detection. What active seniors will also love about this watch is the extras that it provides such as multiple screen options, step tracking and the ability to make non-emergency calls to those designated as contacts.

Bay Alarm Medical SOS Smartwatch Digital Face

One thing to note is that Bay Alarm does not offer fall detection on its smartwatch. However, this is not unusual for wrist devices. Most medical alert companies agree that fall detection sensors work less effectively when worn on a wrist. A supplementary fall detection pendant is an option.

Even without fall detection, at $29.95 per month, you can’t beat the price for a safety device that many seniors will love to wear. Even better, if you choose to go with a dual system, you will save over $10 per month. Instead of paying $60 a month if you purchase an in-home system and the SOS Smartwatch separately, you’ll only pay $49.95 monthly if you bundle them together.

Best for: The SOS Smartwatch is best for active, independent seniors who value a modern and discreet look.

Current Deal

Bay Alarm Medical is currently offering free shipping and a free month of service for quarterly and annual plans. But deals are constantly changing, so we recommend checking their website for up-to-date deals and discounts. Also, keep in mind that discounts apply automatically if you choose two or more systems. For example, you could save $10 per month when combining an in-home system with the SOS Mobile.

Overall Value of Bay Alarm Medical

Basic emergency backup from Bay Alarm Medical is an all-around top value. You can certainly count on the equipment to work. And whether you choose a system for home or away, you will likely pay less for Bay than you would for other leading brands.

As mentioned above, savings are especially great if you’re getting in-home coverage for two people or two buttons, as the $24.95 per month monitoring account can be shared. You will receive savings if you sign up for two on-the-go systems, too. After paying for the first user, the second user receives a discounted monthly price, saving up to $20 per month.

Not every brand offers free or discounted coverage for a spouse or roommate, so kudos to Bay Alarm Medical. Some other brands may offer this, but they might nickel and dime you in other ways. For instance, while doing research for our Life Alert price guide, we found their monthly costs to be much higher than the industry average.

Optional features are priced fairly, too. Like most competitors, Bay Alarm Medical charges $10 per month for fall detection. Some brands charge just $5 for this feature, but you’ll probably see that they charge more in another way. We also like how Bay’s caregiver tracking app is included with the On the Go 4G LTE system and how they monitor wall-mounted panic buttons for just $5 per month.

Bay Alarm Medical Background

Bay Alarm Medical is a division of Bay Alarm, a home and business security provider established in 1946. The company has always been family-owned, and we think this shines through in their treatment of customers. We’ve always felt regarded as individuals, not dollar signs, during sales and customer service calls.

In 2016 the two brothers at the company’s helm were inducted into the Security Sales & Integration Industry Hall of Fame.4 This was partly in recognition of Bay’s clever in-car alert system, which was the first of its kind to hit the market.

Today the company serves about 150,000 accounts and has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.5 You can learn more about Bay Alarm Medical’s background, as well as its features and offerings in our in-depth review of the company.

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