How to Renegotiate Yearly and Monthly Bills 2010-07-23 12:00:58

Savvy Community: Renegotiate Yearly and Monthly Bills

July 23, 2010

This post was submitted by Colbie to the How Do You Save? group.

While I know this won't work for a lot of bills like utilities, electricity or water, it does work for those bills that you receive monthly or even on a yearly basis. I have a subscription to a radio service for my car and the bill for the year just arrived and I noticed it was about $30 more than last year. The service is a luxury and definitely something I could live without, but I decided to call the company to either renegotiate my bill or cancel the service. After speaking with several customer service people, I was able to decrease the monthly service charge from $13 to $7 for a yearly savings of $72. So the lesson is it never hurts to call and ask. The worse thing that could happen is they will say no.

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3 Comments

ampersand 2 years 36 weeks

Yes yes yes! In my humble opinion, next to investing in stocks, bonds, and securities negotiating your bills are another great way to pay yourself. Now, how you use the money from your discounted monthly/yearly bills is key. You could use that money to pay down a credit card, pay off a car, extra principle payments added to the mortgage, or just build a very nice savings account for emergencies. I am young so I don't have too many bills but every year I contact my auto insurer and let them know that I have not had any tickets and because of my grades I always receive a very nice discount. Also, if your financial situation will allow you , paying your auto insurance in full at the beginning of the year instead of quarterly or monthly will save you $180-220 a year! Wow! Tidal Wave, you are very very smart. =) Colbie, great post!! Thank you. :)

le romantique 2 years 43 weeks

I'm horrible at this. My boyfriend is amazing though. He is the BEST talker around. He has reduced all of his bills to te point of me asking him to call up the energy and cable (internet only) companies and help me out! hah.

TidalWave 2 years 43 weeks

Absolutely! This works for EVERYTHING! Car Insurance: When I finally paid off my car, I called Progressive to tell them to take off collision. Then, just for kicks, I asked if there were any other discounts that I was eligible for. Apparently, there is a discount just for being a college graduate! I had no idea! After the 15 minute phone call, my monthly bill went from $120 down to $85! All because I asked! Credit Card Interest Rate: Before I had my Discover card paid off, my interest was just off the charts and I knew I could never pay it off with that rate. I called Discover (had been a customer for a long time) and asked if I could my interest rate decreased so I could pay off the bill and start using my credit card again. They cut my rate in half! Late Payments: I missed a credit card payment on vacation and paid it late. On my next bill, I noticed that my interest rate had increased. I called the company to inquire about the increase. Customer Service explained that because my last payment was late, it caused the increase. I explained that it was a one time thing. So, since I had taken the time to call, she dropped the "late" from my account and my interest rate returned to normal. Medical Bills: I had started a new job and was waiting my six months for health insurance when I had to go to the emergency room. There was no way I could pay the bill when it was due, so I called the hospital, told them I was uninsured and asked if they had a payment plan. I was told that for un-insured patients, they offer an assistance program that cuts the bill in half and gives you 8 months to pay the remaining balance. If that was not enough, I could apply for further assistance. I saved a boat load of money just by calling! Service Credits: This is almost silly but if your power or cable service goes out, you can call the company and ask for your account to be credited the period of time that the service was unusable. Why pay for something you couldn't use!

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