Have you even called to cancel a service and they tried to talk you out of it by offering you a lower rate.  This is one of the best secrets to saving money.  After 6 years with Dish Network, I moved to Direct TV because Dish did not have all the channels I wanted. When I called to cancel they offered me a fabulous deal to stay.  I could get a free upgrade movie package for a year and a lover overall rate. Well I didn’t change because I really wanted the channels and Direct TV was giving me a good deal too, but it got me to thinking.

I have been with my cell company for several years and was well past my contract date.  So I called them up and asked if I was getting the best rate.  The service rep went over the rate plans and it turned out the rate I was on was the best they offered now. So I (politely) told the rep that if they couldn’t make it any cheaper would they please cancel the service.  She asked me to wait a moment and then a supervisor came on the line.  She said that if i would like to stay she could offer me an additional 300 free minutes.  I told her that I rarely use all my minutes, so then she said they could cut my plan by $12 per month for one-year.  So I said, “Sure that works for me. Thank you.” Savings $120.

Next I did the same thing with my Internet provider. They wouldn’t discount the overall service but I was paying an additional $2 per month for each extra email address I had. So they said they would give me up to 5 email addresses for the cost of one –savings $8 month.

This not only works for online services.  I got a call from the company that does our chemical lawn service. They always call to schedule an appointment to spray the lawn so we can bring the dogs inside. So when they called I said I was thinking of cancelling the service. the result –an instant 15% discount.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.