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Whenever you’re looking for ways to cut your monthly budget, the dream is to find cuts you can make that don’t feel like sacrifices. You want to save money, but you don’t want to live like an ascetic monk. One of the more popular pieces of advice floating around online is to call up your current service providers and just ask them to lower your bill.
It’s one of those tricks to save money that sounds nice, but feels like it probably doesn’t really work, or at best, you might save a few bucks. Where I live, two of my utility providers have a monopoly in the state and a couple others have few real competitors, so I was sure I wouldn’t be able to negotiate much in the way of savings – especially when my only reason for asking was just that I wanted to give them less money.
But I decided to give this method a shot, and I called my service providers to ask for discounts. As it turns out, spending a couple of hours on the phone and in online chats with customer service representatives saved me an estimated total of over $720 per year.
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How I saved $720 just by asking nicely
Personal finance experts recommend researching competitor offers and calling your provider to ask if the company can match it. The general consensus is that you should be polite but confident and make sure to get any discounts or deals confirmed in writing before you hang up.
To maximize those savings, you can tally up the total amount you were able to save by asking for lower bills and stash that in a high-yield savings account each month to earn interest on it. This can be an easy way to boost your savings without having to make a single change to your monthly spending habits.
With all this in mind, I got to work. After making a list of all the bills I pay, there were some I crossed off from this experiment right away. Those that didn’t make the cut included my car and home insurance, because I just re-shopped my insurance in March and already saved a few hundred in the process. Likewise, I skipped calling my gas company and trash service because I switched both of these earlier this year to take advantage of special offers.
Otherwise, here’s how my bill-lowering experiment played out:
Peacock: Saved $70
Getting a discount on Peacock was the easiest on my list. I didn’t even have to pick up the phone; I just logged into my account and clicked the “cancel all subscriptions” button. This took me to a page with an offer to keep my annual plan for $40 for the year. I clicked “claim offer,” and now it’s set to renew at the discounted rate instead of the $110 price I was originally scheduled to pay. The process took less than a minute from start to finish.
This was the only streaming service I tested the process on because all other streaming platforms I use are either bundled into other services or otherwise free or cheap for me already. For example, I have a Disney+ and Hulu bundle that I only pay $2.99 per month for thanks to a streaming credit I get every month from my American Express Blue Cash Preferred card.
With that said, I have heard anecdotes that other streaming platforms are similarly willing to offer discounts if you threaten to cancel.
Fitbit Premium: Saved $80
This one was less of a negotiation and more of a realization that I don’t really use the features of this app enough to justify paying for it. I went through the cancellation process with the mindset that I’d keep it if I was offered a dirt-cheap price for it, but otherwise I’d just cancel it.
Going through the cancellation process was easy, but Google’s prompt asking me to stay didn’t include a discount. So, I followed through on the cancellation and saved the $80 I would have paid when the subscription renewed next month.
That’s one more lesson from this experiment: Sometimes it’s simply helpful to review what subscriptions you have and assess if you actually need them.
Water company: Saved $0
Of all the services I contacted, this was the only “no” I got. As expected, it’s hard to negotiate with a company that has no competitors, especially when the service in question is a basic need like water. They know I’m not going to cancel.
Still, the customer service representative did mention some discount programs that the company offers, but these were largely income-based, and I don’t qualify.
Electric company: Saved $156
My electric company also has a monopoly in my state, so I dialed the customer service line with low expectations. I wasn’t able to research competing offers because there are none, and my loyalty to the company means little when there’s nowhere else to go.
Still, the customer service representative discussed some of the other rate plans they offer, and I discovered one that’s a better fit with my power usage habits. After reviewing my bills from last summer, the rate plan I switched to will save me an estimated $39 per month from June through September without changing my usage habits. My bills outside of summer will likely be about the same.
This wasn’t a discount per se, but making the call did still result in estimated savings of $156 per year.
AT&T Home Internet: Saved $420
This one was my biggest win by far, but the key to success was getting a human representative on the phone, and that step took some work. When I told the automated system that I was considering cancelling my internet service, it just started walking me through the cancellation process. I had to interrupt it repeatedly to get a human on the phone before my service was cut.
Once I was talking to a representative, though, the process was easy. Before the call, I’d checked a few other internet providers. Of those that service my neighborhood, the best offer was from Xfinity. I could get a plan for the same 500-megabit speed internet I currently have for $45 per month. I pay $65 to AT&T.
I asked the representative if AT&T could match that deal. She said she’d look around and see what discounts she could offer. After a few minutes, the best deal she found was for the 1,000-megabit plan, the next step up from my current plan.
After the loyalty discount and other credits she found, she offered me the faster plan for $30 per month and locked in that rate for the next 24 months. That’s $35 less than I’m paying now, or $420 in savings per year for the next two years.
Asking for lower bills is definitely worth it
All told, I spent about three-and-a-half hours running down the list of services, doing my research to find competing offers and contacting each company. But I came out over $720 ahead at the end of it, and most of these savings are sticking for a while, so I won’t have to do it again for at least another year.
You will likely get turned down in some cases. My water company said no, and Google didn’t even bother offering a discount to keep me on the premium version of the Fitbit app. But, overall, the savings you do get from the companies that say yes will likely more than make up for the rejections.