Personal Finance Advice

I have been playing the retention game with Comcast for the last 8 months or so. It has certainly paid off. I just wish I could do the same with my electric and gas bill. Unfortunately while those services have been deregulated, the promised competition that was suppose to lower prices never appeared…

So I guess I should be grateful I can at least push back on my cable provider…

This is a great tip. I agree with Jeff, I don’t know why more people don’t take the time to seek out savings. The fact that the majority of our populations don’t explains how our government deficit can continue to grow without outcries from the people it serves.

I agree with everyone’s comments. I would like to add that doing this with your ISP is also very feasable. I went through the exact same steps, except with cable internet vs. DSL and my cable company bought it. After they got tired of giving me a discount, I convinced my DSL company (Alltel) to give me the top service for lower than the “lite” tier price. How you might ask yourselft? Just keep calling the sales line until you get a sales person that is willing to make a deal. Mine told me of a VERY unpublished deal that she could give me since I was as I put it, “leary of DSL performance as compaired to cable.” Here I am 6 months later, paying 19.95/month for 35.99 and up dsl!!!!! Good luck price hunting!

I have had the exact same experience. I beat up the satellite and phone companies religiously. The biggest hassle is waiting on hold for 5 minutes before you get to talk to one of their drones. It’s worth it though.

Will this work in markets with only one provider? I live in West LA where we have the signle worst provider in the nation (Adelphia) and by the looks of our service matrix, it is a local monopoly.

http://www.lacity.org/ita/pdf/CableBrochureNov03.pdf

I tried this with my cable bill as well as my internet that was through my cable provider. I was able to get a 1 year discount on my internet but they did not let me get anything on my cable bill. Of course you should try this first but at the end of the day if there is not any or very little competition this is only going to work probably one time and you will only get a 1 year discount in most cases. You will probably have better luck with your internet provider since there are usually a phone and cable provider in most towns now.

Same issue as Jeffe here. In Charlottesville, VA, Adelphia is the only cable provider. What are some strategies in this case?

That would be a great idea… but unfortunately my rental company decided to sign an exclusive deal with Time Warner, and ban satellite dishes from being installed. So much for market competition.

If you live in a ‘monopolised’ area, you can cancel and move to a satellite provider (DirecTV, Dish, etc.). They all have introductory offers that you can use as leverage on your cable companies. It worked for me.

You are my personal savior. I can’t believe I haven’t tried this sooner. I just called and they knocked my cable bill down from $129/mo to $85/mo plus I got to choose to free premium channels. And I was just griping about bills this morning…

I think the reason that most people are not taking advantage of this method of saving money is that they would be ashamed to. I would feel like I was begging or lying to get a deal I didn’t rightfully deserve. Most people would think less of someone who abuses competition in this manner.

The reason most people don’t do it is because of the cable monopoly.. this is not a novel idea.. In fact you’d be categorized as borderline stupid if you had the option of competition and didn’t try it till now!

If you’re stuck with a single provider, esp. as an ISP, you can try ‘degraded service’ complaints and demand full or partial refunds of your rate for that month or the next. Mediacom notoriously oversold the capacities of their routers…charging for ‘high speed’, but delivering downloads almost as slow as dial up. For 18 months I ‘complained’ my way into 9 months of refunds. They did finally improve the service by restructuring and upgrading their router hubs.

Too bad Time Warner Cable has a monopoly where I live

this will eventually stop working. newer customer service software is being used to identify customers that cost companies money or are otherwise a problem for them. these patterns are recognized and sooner or later they’ll just let you go.

I’ve done it with comcast and saved myself a bunch of money. They gave me the service I wanted at the intro cable service price of $19.95 for 6 months and a discount on my ISP fees. You have to be crazy not to try it. They don’t think twice about raising your fees.

Try this on your credit cards. I recently noticed we had cards we didn’t use and I called to cancel. Was able to obtain a 1.00 decrease on a fixed account and 2.3 on one of those “we change the rates whenever we like” accounts.
Credit history on the cards was good so that helped. Call to cancel, drone will transfer you the cancel expert who has the job of saving the account. He/she’s the one with the deals. Be polite but stubborn…..

While these tips sound helpful in most markets, I’m not sure how it would play here in NYC where the primary holder is Time Warner Cable.

Has anyone tried this in an area where there is a behometh company and pockets of smaller companies?

[...] read more | digg story [...]

everyone was bitching not that long ago about the AOL agent who wouldnt cancel. Well this is the same idea people except that now you are benefiting from it…. make up your minds.

My experience has been that if you have cable, satellite, Direct or any combination of these competing services, it works. It helps if one of them is running an introductory offer that you can play off one of another, but I have also done this by simply saying that I was considering cancelling the service (they would rather have you as a customer at a discounted price than have you leave all together).

To be honest, I’ve had times when this strategy didn’t work and I simply kept paying what I had been paying (this happened once), but as soon as a new promotion came available from another company, I tried again and got the discount.

If you don’t have a competing offer, simply call and say that you are considering cancelling because the price is currently above you budget – at that point they will either offer to lower the price or jot and you can say you need to think about it a bit more (no reason to cancel if you don’t want to). Good luck – it does work most of the time.

I tried this with Earthlink a while ago. Verizon offers (and I now subscribe to) 3.0 Mbps/768 kbps DSL for $25/month ($30 – $5 off for having phone and DSL); Earthlink was giving me 768 kbps/128 kbps DSL for $50/month. There were two more problems: I could get 1.5 Mbps/384 kbps from Earthlink (for the same price), but they would require me to get my service reprovisioned (knocking it out for two to four weeks), and they offered the same service to new customers for only $40/month, but wouldn’t give me that price unless I signed up for a new 12-month contract (despite having been a customer for 5 years). So I called Earthlink and explained this, and they couldn’t give me 3.0 Mbps service at all, they couldn’t give me 1.5 Mbps service without reprovisioning, they wouldn’t match Verizon’s $25/month, and they wouldn’t even lower mine to $40/month without a new contract. So I switched to Verizon. It’s got better tech support, faster speeds, and less downtime. Sometimes actually switching is great.

I shaved my sprint bill in half, while doubling my minutes doing the same thing.

Although this is true that they do drop the price if you ask, and I have done similarly with my cable internet (comcast). But I was told that you can only get the current special if you have not had a special within the last 90 days. Either way you could easily do this two times a year and save a bundle!

[...] This is part one of what I suspect will be many posts referring to my personal finances. The gist of the situation is that I’ve been taking some things”student loans, credit cards”for granted over the last few years as I completed degree after degree, but now I’ve entered the workforce as a non-student and I’m finding that I’m lagging behind my peers in financial confidence. As such, I’m utilizing the power of the Internet to play catch-up. I’ve been finding some great advice all over the Web, and today’s find was no exception. … I gave a call to the cable company today to see if we could get a better deal for her. I simply called … and went directly to the cancel service option. I explained I had a better deal from one of their competitors (they asked which offer and I gave the company name and the offer), but really didn’t want to go through all the hassle of changing if they could give me a similar deal. While they didn’t match the deal, they did drop the rates significantly over what she had been paying. [Personal Finance Advice] [...]

For the couple of comments about satellite dishes being “banned,” it’s a Federal offense to ban the installation of a satellite dish, even on a rental property.

Another quick tip for poor college students:

Comcast has a “Local Channels Only” (non-digital) package that is unlisted on their website that costs $15.95/month. I subscribe to this service only because I use them for internet access and if you aren’t subscribed to a television service with them, the price of cable internet goes up significantly.

A nice side effect is that they failed to block all the channels I am not supposed to get so I get the same as the “Basic Cable” service (60+ channels, non-digital).

I also live in an area with a single cable company. It is VERY easy these days to get a better deal with them however, just tell them you are thinking on switching to Satelite TV service, as they offered you a better deal. The last thing a cable company wants to hear is that someone is switching to Satelite service! Good Luck, it worked for me

I guess one way of saving money is to not have Cable Tv at all, but buy 2nd Hand DVDs/VCDs of your favourite shows and movies via ebay or download from the web…

[...] This article has some good tips on how to save money on  your cable bill. According to the article, you can reduce your cable bill by up to 50% by simply calling the cable company and asking the right questions. [...]

Maybe that is why all the companies now use annoying automated systems? So that by the time you get halfway through the automation you give up on trying to get a lower price?

One strange thing in my area. I can get Earthlink internet for a few dollars less expensive than Time Warner. Thing is that Earthlink is simply reselling Time Warner internet. I don’t have cable tv and if I wanted to get internet only I was also going to have to pick up basic cable. Not so with Earthlink. I got a lower connection, no setup fee and no long term contract – just month to month.

Check out Earthlink to see if they are in your area – A TW guy came to hook things up and I get billed by TW, but I also get the better Earthlink tech support. Kinda weird.

[...] [...]

its too bad the only cable company in my area is cablevision so im paying up the nose

Yeah this is all good unless you live in an area like I do where Charter controls the cable industry and so you are stuck paying out the ass. The same package in the past 4 years I lived here has gone up from $85 to $150. And has less programming. Although you do get a DVR box now.

[...] read more | digg story Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

Ripoff!

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306138

Just kidding!

This procedure works very well with your Credit Cards as well. I’ve been able to get my APR’s down 7%-12%.

Yea!!! I tried it w/ Comcast and got $5 off what I’m paying now and a crap load more channels!

I’ve done this a few times with our land line service. I think it works primarily because Verizon knows we’ve got somewhere else to go. This is especially true now that Vonage is in the picture. Phone companies seem to always have a lower plan in the works.

Our problem is we live in a very small town and there just aren’t very many competitive businesses to play against each other.

We’ve got two cable TV/Internet firms but one offers a considerably better TV line up than the other so it’s not really apples to apples. DSL is offered in the area now as well but I’m not entirely convinced its service is on par with cable. Jury is still out there.

I’ve had very little success with this tactic with credit cards (though my credit score is great). It worked once, I think, but otherwise has failed to pan out. Zero balance is the way to go here, of course.

[...] From Personal Finance Advice [...]

no1nos:
Your rental co’s exclusive deal doesn’t mean diddly. Any renter can install a dish.
The FCC ruled that landlords do not have the right to prevent installation or use of a dish to receive satellite TV.

Under the FCC guidelines, renters are permitted to install a satellite dish in their own exclusive areas such as their balcony, patio, or other areas that they have exclusive right to use.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA94613.html?display=Policy

I don’t want to sound like some stupid advertisement, but just drop cable altogether. I did just that, and you’re going to find the image quality is twice as good, and the rates for the same channels are half as much, if not less. When you switch, just call in and get them to lower it again… so much better ===)

Anyone try this with Cox yet?

Worked like a charm. Comcast, how I hate you for overcharging me.

Got on the phone with Comcast. There was no wait as opposed to endless waits when you call in with service/billing problems; as soon as I punched the option for ‘Disconnect Service’, a CS rep came on the line. I told her I have the option of switching to Verizon DSL (which is indeed available in my area). She immediately offered a $19.99/mo rate for the next 6 months.

I cut my bill from $59.98 to $35.01 (Cable Internet + Basic Cable).

I don’t know about the US, but in the UK most home mortgages start with a super-low discounted rate and then go up to “extortionate” after a couple of years. But all you have to do is call to cancel, quote the better rate you’re getting elsewhere, and they give you their latest & greatest discount. I’ve been doing this for 10 years or more (i.e. 5 phone calls!) and it’s saved me about £30,000.

YoungMangoes, are you serious? I’m curious, how do you “cancel” a mortgage. Do you mean, move out and sell? Or do you mean pay it off completely? In the US, a mortgage contract really isn’t negotiable after it’s signed.

Great advice on the internet savings! I was very hesitant to do this at first and when I finally got the courage up to call Comcast I was a bit shaky on the phone. I lied and told them that I received a flyer in the mail from AT&T. The Rep got my account info and then told me he could lower my internet cost from $45 to $29 for 6 months. I am very excited.

Question, after the 6 months can I call again and do the same thing?

Question, after the 6 months can I call again and do the same thing?

Yes, that is exactly what you do. I’ve heard from others (although I’ve never had this problem) they may not let you do back to back discounts – if not, simply call back a month later and you should be able to get a discount again.

Great advice. I agree with your statement: “saving money is the best investment that you can make.” Every bit counts, and adds up in the long-run.

I did this with my credit card awhile back and ended up saving 30 bucks every month in interest. It took me 2 hrs to finally get a hold of someone who transferred me to someone who was ready to do business.

Ended up taking my APR from 18% *gasp* to 7.99%

Woohoo

It’s not that easy – a lot of companies make it hard to actually call into their customer service numbers. The amount of time wading through the machine is a lot longer than you would think.

The other major point: you need to be willing to hang up the phone and call back until you get an answer that satisfies you. People get fustrated after the first failed attempt (sort of like websites – if you don’t like it the first time, why would you go back?).

A detailed way on how to get 50% off your T.V bill!

I did this, and it worked!

To Cortez -

Do NOT feel ashamed to call your cable/satellite and politely demand a better deal. Unless of course you (Cortez) work for a cable co. and are just here trying to convince people that this method (playing one off the other) is dishonest. Saying something like “most people would think less of someone who abuses competition in this manner” really does make me think you work for big cable.

As someone who has worked for cable – PLEASE understand – your cable co. thinks of you as nothing more than revenue. None, and I mean NONE of the latest “technologies” like Video On Demand, Digital Video, Digital Video Recorders etc, would exist today if satellite hadn’t come along. Cable was a monopoly (and very much still is) for decades and it showed. No innovation during that period, just a steady increase in your bill. It wasn’t until ONE other player came (DirecTV) that cable came out of it’s rich daze and started to provide even moderately better service/services.

By all means, use this technique (calling your cable/satellite/ISP/even cell co.) and immediately ask to cancel service. All of the large companies have specific agents on teams (usually called “retention”) dedicated to keeping you as a customer – and THEY are the ones that are ‘allowed’ to discount your bill. Do NOT feel guilty for using this approach – because your cable co. is far more dishonest than you’ll ever be.

I just cut $41 off my joint cable tv and internet bill. I don’t know why I didn’t try this sooner.

[...] Article on how to get discounts on your cable bill. This applies to a lot of your current bills.read more | digg story [...]

I wanted to do this for awhile, and Monday I finally said I was going to. I called about an hour ago (I guess I too started feeling bad), but the rep was so unbelievably nice. I got an OK discount, nothing too much on the cable bill moneywise (although I did get a package upgrade for a few dollars less than what I pay now for standard, and that’s for 12 months) and I got 6 months of Internet at about $20 off. Between the cable bill savings and the Internet savings, that’s $150 right there. Not too shabby.

Now I need to start looking at other bills and seeing what can be done. I would feel bad doing this with a local business because I am a local business and I know how hard it is to get by on your own, but a huge monopolistic company, I can see sending them less dollars a month

I meant to say feeling uneasy, that’s why it took me a day to call.

If you haven’t done it, DO IT!

I tried this yesterday with Time Warner and was told by their rep, Tenisha, that they do not price match competitors, not even to keep a customer. She said they are getting ready to do bundled billing, which is odd because they already do that. Maybe I should call back and speak to another rep?

You never want to talk to a regular rep since they will always tell you this – go straight to the cancellation department. If you did that and the cancellation department said that, it can’t hurt to try again. If they Time Warner is running specials they will only give to new customers, you can also try cancelling and then calling back the next day and say you changed your mind – this has worked for a friend of mine to get the better rate when they said existing customers didn’t qualify.

Rental companies CAN ban dish & satellite installation on decks, balconies, patios, etc. IF it’s been proven to be damaging to said decks, balconies, patios, etc. Some people are idiots and drill holes through the apartment wall for the dish/sat wiring or right through the support brace for the balcony “for best reception.” The renter will receive quite a bill for the balcony replacement and damage to apartment for doing so (including fines in some areas for doing the work without informing the rental company).

[...] This past month our cable bill jumped from $99.95 to $140!  This 40% increase was way too much to live with so I followed the advice I had seen in many forums and over at Personal Financial Advice and called up my cable provider, in this case Time Warner.  The deal I had until last month included digital phone, roadrunner internet and standard cable.  Once connected to Time Warner I navigated to teh remove features selection and then choose cancel service.  I talked to a helpful person and mentioned a deal at direct tv.  She was quickly able to offer me my current services at $95/mo.  I was able to negotiate adding an HDTV cable box with DVR for $111/mo which is a great deal for me, especially since the HDTV looks amazing.  My new rate is locked in for 18 months. [...]

I agree with most of what I have read regarding getting discounts or cheaper prices for Cable or Sattellite Tv, DSL, etc, I am a customer service representative for one of the largest Sattellite TV companies out there, and guess what? Yes we have offers, but not all of the customers qualify for them, In my particular case our system rates the customers from let’s say 1 through 5, let’s say customer rated 1 calls me and ask for a better deal, I cannot give anything to this customer, why? he/her may be a moron who calls every month to pay his bill as his service was disconnected bcz bill was not paid by due date and now there are 2 bills giving a higher balance which will be disputed, including late fee or disconnection fee, this type of custmer I can not give anything, I transfer rated 1 cust to cancellations department and this is what they get, $5.00 off for six months, which can be lost if service is interrupted for missing paymt, yes we have offers, will you get them? I don’t know until you call me. There are many other reasons on why customers get lower rated, maybe the package and services used, equipment on account, and the number of times you call us for a valid reason.

I BEAT THEM ALL AT THEIR OWN GAME!

I have Charter and I always call the retention dept. Get 3meg at $30 per month. I don’t have a $40 telco line instead I have VOIP at $19 a month.

I also beat the cell phone. Have Sprint with “Sprint 2 Home” and put my VOIP line as the “Home Number” (All calls to and from this HOME number are free for a $5 mo. charge)

My VOIP has a CELL bridge so that when I call to my FREE “Home” number I instead get a dialout tone, I then call out using VOIP. In reverse I use free VOIP call forward and Sprint sees the incoming call as a FREE “Home” call. So I get unlimited incoming calls.

So I get 3meg broadband ($30), a unlimited VOIP phone number/line ($19) and a Unlimited cell phone ($29 + $5 for Sptint 2 home)

Total for ALL of this $83 per month.

NOBODY here has a deal like that!

I just tried this with Charter. After 45 minutes on the phone they still refused to reduce my bill or upgrade my 1.5mb/256k connection, which i’m paying $61/month for.

Any ideas on getting them to budge? I was put on hold for a while so they could talk with a supervisor. Apparently the supervisor wouldn’t approve the deal.

I guess signing a service contract wasn’t a good idea.

[...] by its competitors. Can’t do that with the flat rate bundled packages. Be sure to check out PFAdvice’s technique for cutting his cable bill that [...]

LOL it worked!

I just called Comcast and got my service discounted to $19.99/mo from $42.95/mo! It took a couple tries, with the first rep being very hostile and uncooperative; she even went on to say there was nobody available to cancel the account at that time! I called back a second time and she answered again. I even said “Wow, there really must not be anyone else there huh?” And I laughed. The third time I had better luck. A much friendlier rep took my call and I immediately changed tactics. I just flat out requested closing my account. She was very polite and asked the magic question: “Any particular reason you’re leaving us today, sir?” I said that AT&T had an ongoing promotion I was considering and wanted to give DSL a try. After reviewing my account (I’ve been with Comcast since ’99, which used to be MediaOne until it was acquired by AT&T -oh the irony- and finally became Comcast a few years back) she wasn’t about to let me go. She matched the promo and asked if that would change my mind and stay with Comcast, to which I answered yes because of the hassle of changing e-mails and such.

Regrets?? Nah, I would’ve done it a lot sooner had I known it was possible.

Yea, I work in the “retention” department at comcast, and MOST of our reps can smell wanna be hustlers like you guys through the phone. I know when your just trying to fish a promo out of me. You think your slick, but your not, what you dont know is, when I do call your bluff and you squirm and ask me stuff like “dont you want to keep me as a customer?” then I know I got you, hook line and sinker and I get more commission because here is a little secret I thought I would let you know, we know your full of crap and your not really going to disconnect, more and more reps are figuring out this little game you guys are playing and next time you do it be carefull what you ask for, you just might get it, disconnected baby!!!!!!!!!! NO PROMO FOR YOU and you go to the competition because who wants to deal with a winey customer who cant afford the actual value of the service. Direct TV DISH and dsl can deal with you. Have fun in contractville cause this game will never work there.

i do hate dealing with the cable company. i got the comcast triple play for 99 bucks a month. it expired after 1year and then i got a bill for 150 bucks. i called them and told them i want to cancel the comcast phone service because it sucks anyway. so now i’m getting only cable and broadband for about 90 bucks a month. i hate paying so much for this. i wish i was the ceo of comcast, i would be a billion air because every one is paying for this stuff

How can I save money on my cable bill? I think that people who actively seek out better deals, or haggle with their service providers, can save money. If it takes you just 20 minutes to save 50%, than it is like earning the money you would have otherwised paid.

[...] her cable and she had been paying a high price for it, so I made a call to the cable company and got her bill reduced from $79.20 a month to $39.95 a month for 6 months. The cable TV business is competitive and using competitors promotions with the willingness to [...]

Thanks for the article. It inspired me to call up the cable company and get a reduction. Saved $13 on my total bill and got my internet speed upgraded. It was worth the 15 minutes it took. Thanks!

Last year I had a bundle service with Bellsouth (now At&T) for home phone and satelite service with DishNetwork at a discounted rate. After the year was up the DishNetwork cost went up and I tried to get it discounted again and failed, so I got service with a bundle package with Directv. Now the year is up and I tried to cancel and switch to a lower cost and they tell me I am on contract for 24 months and if I cancel I will be charged a big cancellation fee. I asked them to send me a copy of the agreement where I signed for 24 months and they told me it was in storage and they could not get it it but they could send me a fresh copy of the agreement that is unsigned. I have downgraded my service to the same monthly amount I paid for the past 12 months. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks, Paul

Did you keep your copy of the contract? Do a thorough search and hope that you did (one reason to always keep these papers in a safe place). If not, insist that they send you a copy of the contract you signed (it’s in storage is not an excuse) If they refuse, take it to the local media and see if a consumer action person can help you.

Don’t try this with Cox. If you threaten to cancel, they’ll start the process immediately, no questions asked. I tried it before, and they don’t negotiate or budge an inch for anything.

Called my cable company Time Warner and asked for a discount or any promotions told them i thinking a about switching to dish network it’s half the price i’m paying know. time Warner said no promotions right know and they can’t lower my bill there rates are fixed

I tried this with Comcast and they
refused

Why dont you just pay for the services you get instead of calling in and lying? Can you go to the gas station and haggle with them? Can you go to Kroger and haggle about the price of milk? What makes you think that you deserve a deal? Don’t worry. After awhile the CSRS in Retention will catch on!!!!!!

I do not wish to leave comcast as I a a long time customer and am very happy with their service; however the movie channels have gone to hellnand I dont feel Im getting anywhere near what Im paying for 230.12 a month is very expensive for someone on social sececurity disability but its the only entertainmentI have.I dont want to change companies but it is getting far more that what I can afford. You must have some plan that i would be able to deal with rather than swith companies. Please reply

I have read all of your comments and would like to say that I enjoy all of them.But each month Ipaid almost $350.00 for cable and this is not one month but every month.And the last time I try something like that the cable company said they never heard of anthing that .So you say this really work.Well I would like to thank all of for your tips on how to lower my cable bill.
HAVE A BLESS DAY