15 minutes Could Save You $150

May 19, 2016

My colleague Tania Brown recently wrote a blog post about cutting her cable cord. It’s something I did many years ago too and never regretted it. If you’re not willing to go quite that far but still want to save some money on your cable bill, another colleague and former Financial Finesse blogger Greg Ward writes about how to negotiate your bill down…

When it comes to in-home entertainment, you have a lot of choices. Phone, television, and Internet services are available through a countless number of providers, but here’s something you may not have thought about. By having so many options, you can have these service providers compete for your business rather than just accepting what they charge you for their programming. Knowing this, here’s an easy way for you to save $150 or more over the next six months.

Contact your in-home entertainment provider right now and ask them what specials they are offering new subscribers. Unless you have recently subscribed yourself, I’ll bet that what they are offering new subscribers is better, either price-wise or programming-wise, than what you are getting today. If that is the case, then you need to be assertive and tell them that you want the same privileges that they are giving new subscribers. In other words, you want more service or a lower price (or both as the case may be).

Now most likely two things will happen. The first is that they will try to accommodate you by offering a different programming package. If you are really looking for a different programming package then hear them out, but if not, hold your ground. Let them know that unless they are willing to work with you, you are willing to work with someone else (i.e., a different provider). Have a few names of other providers that your provider competes with so that they know that you’ve done your homework.

Once you’ve determined that the first operator is not going to be much help, you’ll most likely have to talk with an “account specialist” to see if they might be able to do something for you. That’s good news, because in most cases, the initial person who answers the phone is NOT able to make any concessions. Once you have the account specialist on the phone, you can calmly let them know of your intention to discontinue service in the absence of reaching an agreement. They will also try to accommodate you through other offers, but stand firm.

My experience has been that they WILL make a concession as long as you are kind and persistent. I did this recently, and the specialist was able to apply a $25 discount to my bill for the next six months. That’s $150 in just 15 minutes!

A word of caution: know your other options. Account specialists usually know what their competitors are offering, so if you are going to suggest that you will terminate service if they are not willing to work with you, be prepared to walk.  Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.