Learn to Negotiate with the Professionals
Do you wish you could save money on your existing monthly Cable, Phone, or Internet service? I’ll show you a quick way to negotiate cheapest Cable, Phone, and Internet Service rates! In the video, you’ll see how I was able to save $360 a year (or about $675 per hour of my time)! I only get part of the way there in Part-1 of this series… I only have internet service, so you could save even more if you have a package of services! Read on for more info:
Money Saving Breakdown
- Difficulty (Super Easy/Easy/Medium/Hard/Expert): Easy
- Average Savings per Year ($/year): 360
- Time Required (mins): 30
- Savings for your time ($/hr): 675
In this three part series, I’ve made a couple videos where I call up Comcast (my Internet provider) and negotiate for cheapest internet service. You can use the same tips to negotiate for cheapest cable or phone service as well… We signed up for new internet service ~1.5 years ago when we moved into our new house at $29.95/month for the first six months. From there, it went up to $64.95 a month, yikes!! My goal is to get Comcast down to $45/month.
Here are Some Details on How to Negotiate for Cheap Rates:
Who: Anyone can do this in about 20 minutes! You will need to know the account holders information before you get started. Generally this is:
- Name, Address, Phone #, Last 4 digits on Social Security Number
What: You will be calling the service provider(s) and negotiating for a better deal.
When: Call any time you have 30mins to an hour to devote to this project. You will probably not need all of this time, but it is good to have it blocked out just in case.
Where: I suggest calling from a quiet place with minimal interruptions. Depending on how much practice you have with negotiations, this can be very important to “keep you in the bargaining zone.”
Why: Most TV, Phone, or Internet companies will over-charge existing customers just because they can get away with it, and most people do not take the time to bargain for lower rates. I have called service companies several times to change to a competitor or simply remove the service all together. In all instances the “retention specialists” offered me rates 20-30% off within the first five minutes of the conversation. You can make this work to your advantage to save you money!
How: Check out the YouTube video below to see what I tried. Having some quick notes in front of you before calling can really keep you organized for the negotiation if you do not think quickly on your feet.
Money Saving Video – Part-1
Watch the Part-1 video below to see how well I do a negotiating for the cheapest internet service!
As you can see, I was not able to hit my goal. The “retention specialist” offered me a $15 discount right off the top with very little work. This brought my price from $64.95 a month down to $49.95 a month. Good, but not great… This equates to $180 of savings per year for 18 minutes of my time. Put another way, this is an hourly savings of $600/hr!!!! I would have done even better than that, but I accidentally hung up on the first Comcast rep 🙁
In Part-2 of our series, I will show another video where I go toe-to-toe with the second Comcast Rep. I will also give you some bonus negotiating tips that I learned from what worked and what didn’t work.
How about you, do you have a spare 15-minutes? Is anyone ready to call up their cable/phone/internet company and negotiate for the cheapest rate? Let us know in the comments how you did!!
Derek, would we have negotiating power if we don’t have any competitors? Comcast is the only one in our area…? Thoughts?
We don’t really have any competitors here either.
I would assume that Dish (satellite) is always a competitor for the US because they have multiple satellites?? If not, I would fall back on the financial issues, trying to save money, etc.
Remember, keep in your back pocket that you will have to check with “someone else” to make sure it is OK. This could be boyfriend, girl friend, spouse, etc. You can play the “good-cop” / “bad-cop” role. Dear “retention specialist”, “I really love your service, but my partner is forcing me to lower bills to pay off our debt, what can you do for me here?” This helped me to get a quick additional $5 off per month even though “others” said they could not take off any more.
-Good luck!!
I typically give two pieces of advice when shopping for cheap cable TV.
#1 Always ask if there are any specials, or income related discounts such as Low Income Cable programs.
#2 – Competition is your friend! Find out if there are 2 or more cable companies in your area. If so, compare prices and promotional specials. One might give you free movie channels, another may give you a gift card worth hundreds of dollars. Be sure to shop for the best deals possible.
Good advice!
I think it’s ridiculous how much the internet and TV cost these days. Thanks for the example of a call to get cheaper rates. I think that the best thing to do is compare different companies. That way, you can see what would be the best plan for you individually.