Making a Phone Call or Two Could Save You Money
August 23, 2007 – 9:57 amI’ve been tagged by No More Spending to carry on Moolanomy’s My One Money Advice Meme.
The goal is to help promote financial responsibility and awareness in our hyper consumption society.
The question: If you can give one advice, tip, or story related to money, what would you share?
My one tip would be: Reevaluate your bills often.
What are you spending on your cable bill every month? Did you know that with many cable companies you can call and ask them to lower your rate? I use Time Warner Cable and am always on a special promotion (Cable internet for $29.95 for 12 months for example). When a promotion ends, the price goes back up to normal, but after 30 days I can call them and ask them to lower it again. I do the same thing with our digital TV package. We used to have basic cable. In one phone call I was able to get upgraded to digital cable (which gives us more channels to chose from) AND they lowered our bill by $15!
What about your phone bill? Will a switch to another company save you money? Don’t just throw out those ads you get in the mail from competitors (but do read the fine print carefully). We just switched from one company to another and are saving $20+ a month on our phone bill AND got a $50 gift card for the switch.
Have you called around to get car insurance quotes lately? If you don’t want to change your auto insurance company you can benefit by giving them a call. Where you drive, how much you drive and if there are any college students in the household can change your rates. Is one of your cars garaged and never driven? Let the insurance company know so they can lower your rates. I did that when my husband deployed and that saved us $100’s each time he deployed.
It’s worth it to take the time every few months and reevaluate what bills you are paying each month. You might be surprised that many can be lowered with a simple phone call!
13 Responses to “Making a Phone Call or Two Could Save You Money”
Very good advice. I am usually too lazy to call, but I think I will have to do this. Thanks for the tip and helping with the MOMA meme.
By Pinyo on Aug 23, 2007
This is great advice. Companies will negotiate and people don’t realize it.
By Laura on Aug 24, 2007
great advice..i just tagged you on my blog..so check it out
Dana
By dana on Aug 25, 2007
Great advice! I just posted on lowering my property tax burden with just two phone calls–one to the county Assessor, and one to a Realtor.
By SAHMmy Says on Aug 28, 2007
Sahmmy,
I checked out your post, excellent advice! I forwarded it to a friend who might be able to benefit from it.
By Momof3 on Aug 30, 2007
I did this with my cable and interneet bill and saved almost $50.00 a month. Although my bill just went back up, I will call them in 30 days and see if they will lower it again.
By Debby Banning on Sep 11, 2007
Debby,
I hope they are able to reduce it again. I just called again (after my 30 days was up) and was surprised that they made it even lower price than the original promotion.
By Momof3 on Sep 19, 2007