Acquiring wealth is pretty simple. You can think of it as a balanced financial diet, you basically need more money coming in than going out.
What can you do about this? Ask. Always Ask.
This works on both fronts, both reducing costs and increasing income. Here are some ideas to help negotiate a better deal for yourself.
Reducing Costs:
1) Ask to waive fees – any that come up (this includes credit card and bank fees especially)
2) Ask for discounts at stores – you’ll be surprised how often this works
3) Ask for the employee price when you go shopping
4) Ask for reduced interest rates on credit cards – if you have them
5) Ask “what’s the best deal you can give me?” sometimes you get more than you would ask for
6) Telephone – find a better deal or you could cancel service
7) Cell phone – keep going back to find out the best deal
8) Internet – ask for the best promotional rate, then ask for this again when it expires
9) TV – Like us you could get rid of this too, or you could scale back on services
10) Power bill – This takes more action from your side to reduce your energy use
11) Health Club – Stay on top of getting the best price available
12) Frequent Customer – Use this to your advantage to ask for a better price
13) Travel for less – search around for better prices
14) Get frequent flyer miles to reduce costs on trips
15) Coupons – find and use them when you can
16) Online promotional offer – look up codes to get free shipping, discounts, and other goods
While we’ve proven all of the above to work, but here is a recent example of how this works. I got my Comcast bill for internet in the mail the other day and noticed that it was suddenly $42.95 a month rather than $34.99. I called up to ask what the deal is. They told me that I had been on a promotional rate and that it had expired. I then asked for the next best promotional rate they could give me. She came back with letting me know that my bill would now be $19.99 for the next months. She warned that I’d have to wait another six months to get another promotional offer.
What she doesn’t know is that I’ve been on Comcast’s promotional rate for the last five years. See my post last year when they jacked the price to $57.95 and I talked my way down to $34.99. Even if I do have to go back to the regular rate for six months after, I will still have ended up saving
Some people might look at this and say, well, it is only 8 bucks, why bother.? Yet had I not made the call it would have cost me $95 over the course of the next year, and by calling I saved $42 in addition to dodging the bullet of the extra fees. Net result is a savings of $137 by making a five minute call to customer service.
I’ll cover the issue of asking for more to increase your income in the next posting. Stay tuned.
Happy Weekend!
Miel
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