It’s that time again. Are you paying the regular price for your internet service? There really is no need to. If you live in an area that has two high speed internet providers, you’d be amazed at the lengths they’ll go to, to keep your business. I live in an area that has both Comcast and Qwest. They both provide high speed internet services and either one of them would be sufficient for my broadband needs. I use Gmail for my email and have no ties to my internet provider other than for their connection. This is crucial. If you use their email address or personal web pages a lot, then you’ll have a much higher “hassle factor” if you switch providers. So, how can you lower your bill? Well, it’s simple really. Just follow these easy steps and you should be able to reduce your total bill right away:
1. Call your cable provider
2. Choose “Cancel my service” on the phone system
3. Use this approach when the Customer Service Rep (CSR) answers the phone
You: “Hi, I was wondering if you have a less expensive service.”
CSR: “I’m sorry sir, we only have one speed. Is there a reason you want a slower speed?”
You: “Well, yes. Money is really tight right now and we just got this mailer from our phone company saying they have a service for only $24.99”
CSR: “I’m sorry to hear money is tight for you. How about if I lower your bill to $29.99 per month. Would that help?”
You: “Oh yes. Thank you so much. For that price, I guess it doesn’t make sense to change service”
If for some crazy reason they don’t offer to lower your bill, tell them not to cancel your service yet. You will call them back once you have your new service with their competitor up and running. (of course you can choose to switch for a lower price, or just call back another time to get a different CSR that might be more flexible. I have yet to have to do this though)
I have done this for the last 3 years. Sometimes they will lower the bill for 6 months, and sometimes they will lower your bill for a year. The last time I did this, I got the lower price for one year.
This same approach works for other services as well. Pretty much any other service you have that has a competitor in the area is a candidate for this technique. I’ve also lowered my Tivo price to $6.95 for life by doing this. (Point out that Comcast offers DVR for less). You can do this with your phone bill now since VOIP has become such a solid competitor for the phone company.
The problem is, Comcast does offer a lower speed. Unfortunately, I need all the speed I can get because I use my internet connection to connect my work laptop to the corporate network when I work from home. I tried calling today and they did offer me the slower speed. I too am not bound in anyway to a service because I use gmail.
This sounds a lot like Oprah’s debt diet :) Actually what you have said here is true and it works 100%
If you are paying to much interest (on your credit card shopping) you might wana call them up and tell them that u r cancelling their service and that u r sick and tired of the stupid rates. You’ll be amazed to see what credit card companies are willing to offer to you only to keep you hooked!
I’ve done the same thing with cable before (Time Warner) and locked in a savings of $24/mo. for a year! Dish Network was doing some aggressive advertising in our area at the time.
You can also save a ton of money by challenging your property tax assessment. I wrote about both how much I saved and how I did it on my blog. (2 phone calls saved me a total of $1,000 for a year)
http://cashmoneylife.com/2007/03/28/2-phone-calls-1000/
Congrats on the savings!
I need to look in to challenging my property tax assessment, although I’m not sure I would be successful. The reality is that my assessed value is much lower than the actual value. I’d hate to bring attention to that!