How I Saved $750+ a Year on TV, Internet & Phone

$392.52 is what I will save over the next six months on my internet, land line and DirecTV.  It is pretty easy to do.  Best of all, it has taken much longer for me to type this than it took to get the $392.52 in discounts for the next six months.

Here is what I suggest, blow by blow:  Call your provider and tell them you want to cancel your service.  If they do not immediately transfer you to the Customer Retention department, ask to speak to someone there.  Don’t mess around with the first customer service representative who answered your call.  You want Customer Retention.  Those are the folks who wield the power to give you the best discounts.

Unless you want fewer bells and whistles, tell them that you do not want to move to a lower priced package or plan.  Remind them that there are great promotions out there (by their competitors) that are looking pretty good to you.  You might even have an offer to toss out in case they ask what you have seen.  They will tell you how much they value you as a customer and offer a price reduction.  Then start asking for more.  When you feel satisfied, accept the deal, take the CSR’s name and ask if they can send an email detailing this.  It has been my experience that they say that they have already made the changes in my account.  I refresh my account’s webpage and find the changes we agreed upon.  Done and done!

With Vonage, I did not have much wiggle room.  I was paying $19.92 monthly but they wanted to raise it to $24.99.  They dropped it to $12.50 per month.  That saved me $7.42 per month.

With Time Warner Cable internet, I simply said that I would be happy to continue using them if they gave me the introductory rate for another year.  They were happy to.  That saved me $21 per month.

I did really well with DirecTV.  I had been getting their “Base Discount” of $20 per month for years.  On this phone call, they made the discount $25 per month.  They also threw in monthly discounts of $5 off HBO and $7 off my DVR service.  Well, I own my DVR and do not pay a monthly fee for it, but I’ll take the discount!  I asked if they had any free movie channels and they said they could get me a month of Showtime.  I asked if I could get more and they said three months free is the most they could do.  That came to $37 off DirecTV per month + three months Showtime.

Grand total: $65.42 in monthly savings and I did not have to change any providers – which I like!

When do you make the calls?  You can wait until your bill arrives with the new jacked up price.  I don’t do that.  I use Microsoft Outlook, so I have a reminder that pops up in my calendar the day I’m supposed to call.  If you don’t already use calendar software, I suggest Google Calendar.  It’s free and easy.  You can set up reminders that will send you an email when it’s time to call.  I use Google Calendar to automatically alert my tenants via email near the end of the month, to remind them that rent is coming due.  It’s pretty handy!

Last year, DirecTV had a promotion that gave away the NFL Sunday Ticket to new subscribers.  A friend of mine negotiated $100 off the NFL package because he had been a longtime subscriber to the football package and was irked that only newbies were getting a break.  Do you have you any negotiation tips that worked for you?  Share them in the Comments below!