Saving Money on Cable and Phone May Be as Easy as Asking

As hard as this may be to believe, my family has never had cable TV, satellite or the like. We had rabbit ears on our television before analog TV went away, and ever since then, we’ve had a digital antenna in our attic. I am not a big TV watcher and just didn’t want to pay the money for something that didn’t add much value to our lives.

As I was paying my Verizon bill this weekend, however, I came across a deal that would let me add FIOS TV to my existing phone and Internet bundle and actually lower my monthly bill. I added the DVR option for an additional fee that brings my bill to exactly the amount I’m already paying. As much as I didn’t want the extra 190 channels, why would I not get something for free that my husband and son both will use?

A similar thing happened two weeks ago when we finally gave in and got new smart phones. I had been putting this off for a year, because I didn’t want the added cost of a data plan. When our phones were just too old to use anymore, I walked into the T-mobile store and told the lady I didn’t want anything that would increase my monthly bill. She looked up our usage, gave me more minutes than we already have, hooked us up with two smart phones and saved us $7 a month.

All these years, I’ve been putting off upgrading our technology because I didn’t want to pay more money. I completely forgot the golden rule of saving money – sometimes you just have to ask. Often, it really is that easy – especially if tell your cable or phone company that you can’t afford your current service and may have to cancel it to make ends meet. Cell phone companies and cable companies have a lot of competition, and keeping your business at a lower price is often more important to them than giving it away to another company. In fact, my friend sent me this e-mail just this morning:

“After your contract is up the price goes higher. But, if you call them they lower your rate for another year. I have been doing this the past five years. I got my DVR free for an extra year because they sent out mailers offering it for new customers. I called and told them that my DVR trial was over and I wanted to ship it back, and that I thought it was not good business to offer the free year to new customers when I had been a loyal customer for so long. So, they offered it to me for another year for FREE”

If you want to save money on TV and phone bills, call them and ask. If possible, show up and talk to them in person. You may be surprised at what they can save you.