Unconventional Money Savers

25 Mar, 2008 Money Savers

Sometimes you can save where you least expect it.

If you are paying for a home phone, cable, or satellite TV and want to decrease your monthly payments read on. This may not work every time but it has worked for me more often than not. Home phones have become less used than in the past due to people using mobile phones more as their primary phone. The home phone is not worth what it used to be so why pay continue paying for what it use to be worth?

I had a home phone mainly for work purposes but through the years I found ways around the reasons I needed it. My bill was typically around $30-$40 dollars for everything including unlimited long distance. Since I had a mobile phone with unlimited long distance and could scan and email documents instead of faxing I decided to call up the phone company and cancel. These companies hate to lose customers and most of time are willing to throw all kinds of discounts and plans at you to keep you as a customers. Well I ended up keeping my phone after being offered a deal for $11 a month.

I have made similar calls to before to cancel with cable & satellite companies and ended up getting up to a 50% discount and kept the same level of service. I have also called my credit card companies in the past telling them I was leaving for a lower rate and they then offer me a lower rate. This might be a great time to do this!

Now this doesn’t work all the time so I wouldn’t recommend doing it unless you are prepared to follow through with leaving as a customer. Some of these discounts may be time limited to 6 months, 1 year, etc., but you can always call again if they go back up to the regular rate.

The main thing to remember is if you don’t ask for it you won’t get it. They are in the business to make money but they want to keep your business too. So pick up the phone and get to saving more money!

Comments

3 Responses to “Unconventional Money Savers”

Stephan Miller on March 26th, 2008 1:00 pm

A friend of mine did about the same thing with the cable company. He ended up getting all the movie channels and only paying the extended basic price. But he had had an account for 8 years.
Curt on March 27th, 2008 11:13 am

I’ve done this myself in the past. But not with that original intention. It just worked out that way.

AT&T are really good for cutting a deal to keep you.
Daniel Costalis on April 23rd, 2008 6:51 pm

I had Comcast (cable company in the midwest), and was going to cancel for a dish, because it was the same amount of channels for about half the price. They gave it to me for that price, and even sent me a DVR for free, which is another 10 bucks a month or so usually. Never thought to try it with my other bills… ::picks up phone::