A REAL new years resolution to save you money

[Pengwuino]

Every so often I read articles about how you can save a lot of money simply by negotiating your bills down. One even noted how it can be the perfect new years "resolution". While it's not a resolution per say, the idea is when the first of the year comes around, call all of your cable/cell/phone companies and ask for better rates. It's been said they'll usually drop your price for 6 months or a year so new years is a great reminder!

We just called Comcast and got 20% knocked off our bill with 0 change in service. It took 5 minutes. The idea is that you simply call a competitor (even this is optional...) and find out how much per month it would cost to replace your current tv/cell/phone/whatever with their service. Be realistic and find out how much it'll cost once the silly new subscriber discounts expire. Take this to your current company and say that you would like a price reduction since another company is offering a cheaper rate. The thing is, it costs them practically nothing to keep your business and provide you services once you already have them but by losing your business, it costs them everything.

We tried this with comcast and it was easy. We just called and said "can you work with us baby cakes?" and they were like "hmm well... BOOM, hows $30 off for 6 months with no change in service?" and I was like "SUP HOMIE!" and he was like "KOOL". 5 minutes later we had saved almost $200. To top it off I need to call them back to have the cable modem rental stopped since why pay $5 for a modem rental for 5 freaken years when I could have bought one for $50 5 years ago? The only problem is it might break and you'd be on the hook but eh, this ones been going for years.

Point is, businesses like that have everything to lose by losing your business since their infrastructure is already up and paid for and they have nothing to gain by losing you as a customer.

+1 for me.

 

[Evo]

Good job, except it means that you've been on the wrong plan. If you are already on the best plan, there is nothing they can do. Never hurts to ask though. I had Evo Child do that recently when I found out how much she was paying for her cell bill.

It can also backfire, you might be on an old promotional plan that should have gone back up after it expired, but due to a glitch you were left on the promotional rates. They won't re-bill you for the past monthsm, but your next bill will go up.

 

[Pengwuino]

What are the chances of that? We were paying upwards of $200 a month for cable and internet. I would think a safeguard would be to see how much it would cost a person to start up with the same services you have and see if your price is in line (surely it'll be more due to new customer discounts) with that. If you're paying $80/month and you find out a new person would also be paying $80 a month, then that would be a sign that you shouldn't say a thing.

And what do you mean by "wrong plan"?

 

[Evo]

And what do you mean by "wrong plan"?

There are always different plans. Sometimes you are an old plan that is cheaper than the new plans, sometimes they are more expensive than the new plans. Sometimes there are new *packages* or *promotions* that you can take advantage of. Especially with cell phones.

Yes, like you said, "test" the going rates in your area. Also, find out if there are "affiliation" discounts available to you. This could be a deal that was made with your company, your school, your insurance, organizations you belong to etc...

 

[Pengwuino]

Ah yes that is true. That is probably more likely with our landline since we haven't looked at the thing in years and years. God AT&T was trying to push so hard for upgrading our lanelines and getting tv and internet and all this bs. So I used their push to get comcast to lower our plan, ha. Now I am going to call comcast and say "hey how much would it cost to get phone service as well?". Then tell AT&T and have them suck on that.

Oh and something that was ridiculous: my bum of a nephew who is living with us racked up $60 in "Local Long Distance" calls this month. On the landline. What the hell is that? Since when does it cost us money to call IN THE SAME AREA CODE. So we discontinued that ********.