BillRant: Reduce Your Bills

Let me preface this by stating that there are probably a number of ways to accomplish this.  I will just share with you what I did.

Now before you get all gung-ho about this, be sure to have a plan (more on this below).  Also, if you’re currently under a contract then there probably isn’t much you can do, though you may still want to ask if you can buyout your contract.   If the dollar amount to get out of your contract is low enough and there is still a substantial amount of time left it may make financial sense, assuming you can lower your monthly fee.  This is a bit of a gamble though as there are no guarantees, so be sure to think it through and run the numbers.

If you’re not under contract and you haven’t already lowered your bill you’re in business.  I actually lowered my bill twice before I finally canceled my Directv in September of 2009.  That’s right – I actually watch TV using an antenna that I mounted on my roof.  I’ll leave that story for future blog post though.

Below is what I did to lower my Directv bill the first time.  I’m pretty sure this strategy would work for cable bills as well..

I had received some junk mail promoting the new AT&T U-verse service (TV, Phone, and Internet).  The price for the low end monthly service was about $13 less than what I was currently paying for the standard Directv package, which was about $63.  The AT&T package was similar to the Directv package I had at the time — two receivers, one standard and one with a 40 hour DVR.   I really didn’t have any desire to switch to U-verse, but at the same time I felt like I was paying too much for Directv, so I called customer service and pressed the appropriate numbers to talk with someone who handles service cancellations.  When the guy finally picked up I just told him that I wanted to terminate my service.  He ask, “Why”?  I said I felt like I was paying too much and had just received and offer from AT&T that was $13 cheaper per month.  He was very quick to say, “Well, if we knocked $13 off your bill would you stay with us?”.  As I said, I had no real intention of canceling, so I said, “I guess so” and it was done.

You may be asking yourself, would I have canceled if it came to that and I absolutely would have.  I think if you’re going to attempt this you have to be willing to follow through, but that is up to you.   You also need to be cordial and informed.  Being rude, even if you’ve sat on hold for 30 minutes isn’t going to get your very far.

This dropped my Directv bill to about $50 a month, saving me $156 a year. Not life changing, but not bad for 20 minutes worth of work.

The second time they offered to lower my bill I basically did the exact same thing, thought it was about two months after the first time.  The difference was this time I was really going to cancel because I had installed an antenna on my roof (so attractive).  I wanted to cut this expense right out of my budget.  That said, Directv did offer to lower my bill by another $10 a month, which would have brought it down to $40, saving another $120 a year.   Not bad, but I cancelled anyhow.    Scratch one!

Assuming your situation is similar here is what you might expect:

$63 /mo
-$13 – First reduction
-$10 – Second reduction
————————————-
$40 /mo = Savings: $276 /yr

Obviously, your situation may be different, but I think mine is pretty common, so you might want to give it a go.

Have a different strategy, saved more money, less, etc.?  Share it via comments.

Brody