“T-Mobile, I’m leaving you for AT&T.”
That’s what I said to my cell phone company about seven months ago. And that’s how I got a shiny new ruby red BlackBerry for 50 bucks, one that was supposed to cost me at least $189.
I thought it was stupid that I had to switch phone companies just to get a great deal on the phone I wanted, so before I did, I thought I would give mine a call and see if I could get them to match the price of another company’s phone deal for new subscribers.
It worked.
I got the phone I wanted at the price I wanted. Better yet, I got to continue my old service plan that gives me a 1,000 minutes with free weekends for 45 dollars a month. Even better, they had a special going at the time on unlimited email service for only $9.99 a month. Wait! That’s not all! A few months ago, T-Mobile changed their free time to “after 7 p.m.” instead of “after 9 p.m.” on weekdays so I now have tons of free airtime, too. The result? For about $60 a month, I have a phone and a service plan that ROCK.
If I would have had to switch companies, the closest comparable plan to my own would be $70+ without email.
I am one happy, penny-pinching T-Mobile customer.
I know a lot of people complain about T but I’ve been with them a long time and to me, their customer service is outstanding. T’s CS reps are always cheerful and nice on the phone…and patient! It took me several months to choose what kind of new phone I wanted and I called them for info beforehand more than once. For the most part, I’m happy I finally decided on the BlackBerry, mainly because I can easily check my email wherever I am.
But phone companies aren’t the only place you can whittle your monthly bill. Here are some other tricks I’ve learned along the way:
* Call your cable company and tell them you’re thinking of switching to satellite…is there any kind of deal they can get you? I did this twice and wound up with cable programming that was half of the going cost.
* Ditto with Internet service. If your connection is DSL, just mention to the phone company that you’re thinking of switching to cable and see what kind of deal they’ll suddenly come up with. The reverse is also true. If anything, I find cable companies are especially good at coming up with bargain deals in the face of lose a customer to the competition.
As a side note, now that I live in a condo, I knew the satellite dish trick wouldn’t work. But with Internet, even if you live somewhere where satellite dishes aren’t permitted, you can still play the DSL card. And this is exactly what I recently did.
Now that my one-year internet+TV cable deal ($60 for both and that includes some premium channels like HBO! I got this as a new customer, and new customers almost always stand to get a good rate so call your local cable co. and ASK if they have any specials when moving to a new place– sometimes they don’t tell you about the deals until you do) is about to expire, I called my cable company to inquire about an Internet-only plan. When they quoted me an outrageously high rate– $59.95 for just the Internet service alone!– I told them I would call my phone company and give them a call back…maybe.
I finished by asking, “Oh, and by the way, who do I call about having my service disconnected?”
Well, that was EFFECTIVE. All of a sudden they remembered had a much cheaper Internet rate. Supposedly this price is for a slower-rate broadband but guess what? More than one person– ex-cable employees and the like– have confirmed that this SUPPOSEDLY slower rate is the same broadband as the more expensive, supposedly faster one and that’s why all cable or ex-cable employees I have spoke with choose the cheaper of the two!
*SHOW YOUR POWER COMPANY WHO HAS THE REAL POWER! Here is something kind of controversial. Even though the electric company will tell you they read your meter, I’ve been told by at least one ex-power company employee that, many times, they actually estimate your bill according to your rate usage for the previous year, then simply adjust it accordingly for rate changes (nearly always, hikes).
What to do?
if you’ve been trying to cut back on your electric usage and your efforts aren’t reflected on your bill, call the power company and tell them you think they’ve made an error and request that your meter be re-read. You can also read it yourself on a month-to-month basis and check it against your power bill.
** WATER COMPANIES There’s not much you can do about water charges, except conserve usage. However, if you run up your bill filling a swimming pool (I used to have one, so I know) (By the way, ask your local fire dept. if they fill pools. It will usually save you big buck– sometimes they’ll even do it the first time FOR FREE!) or excessively watering your yard (say, you just got new sod or something like that) or anything that requires water usage without sewer services, you can contact your municipality and explain the situation. If they have a prior year or even some of your neighbors to compare your bill with, they will SOMETIMES adjust your bill. I’ve had two municipalities that would adjust and one– the City of Gulf Breeze– absolutely refuse, even though at the time of my request, the area was in the middle of a confirmed drought and I had to bring my yard back to life with muchos waterings at my landlord’s request. During that time, one month’s bill jumped from about $80 to over $300 and I told my landlady after Gulf Breeze refused to adjust it: either I or the yard goes.
Fortunately it rained shortly after that!
NONE OF THESE SUGGESTIONS ARE GUARANTEED TO WORK. However, these are all things that HAVE WORKED FOR ME IN THE PAST.
So, why not give it a try? You won’t know if it’ll work for you unless you give it a shot. And if it does, I can tell you, those savings really add up at the end of the month!
