Last weekend I saved £60 and got myself a free wireless router in the space of a 5 minute phone call!
That’s not bad going is it?
We’ve been with the same broadband company for years and never had any real problems, but this weekend our wireless router started to get a bit temperamental so I decided to do what I’ve been meaning to do for a while and look around to see if I could find a better deal.
We’re actually really happy with our current broadband provider and we were quite reluctant to leave them, – I don’t know the technical ins and outs but I know that Mr Frugal likes to play games online with his friends some nights and for that we need good speeds and no download limit (or something like that anyway).
So, rather than leave them and have the hassle of changing our provider, I found the best deal that I could online and then called our current company. I told them I was considering going with someone else as I’d found a really good deal elsewhere. The lady asked me what the best deal I’d seen was and then proceeded to match the monthly price that I’d found. She also gave me six months free and a new router for staying with them!
Result!
Apparently it costs much less to retain an existing customer than to recruit new customers so it’s in a company’s best interests to give you an incentive to stay with them rather than see you going to a competitor. I believe that the majority of companies who have a cancellation department, have one in order to tempt you to stay so it follows that they will have something up their sleeves to use to do this.
You just need to give them a call and tell them that you’re thinking of cancelling and ask them what they can do for you instead. Just make sure that you’re armed with the best alternative deal available so that you do sound like you are considering switching.
In the past I’ve spoken to the cancellations department at Sky and told them that I was considering changing to our local cable TV provider and they’ve offered to reduce the price of our monthly TV package AND given us free movies and sports for 3 months so it’s worth contacting them as well. We’ve also done this with our mobile phone contracts at the end of the contract and had both of our line rentals reduced along with more minutes and texts thrown in.
And to be fair, if your current provider doesn’t match the great deal you’ve found and there really is a better offer out there, you should consider moving anyway 😉
Try it and see how much you can save! Speaking of saving, did you know Airband, rural fibre broadband provider in the UK, have released an article about the cost of living and how they can help get better broadband, at lower prices? In fact, they’ve designed their latest, cheapest package, Fibre 40, to help people who might be on Universal Credit, get just as great broadband speeds
It is an excellent advice that has been demonstrated well with example. Keep saying on my forum that you need to check your options if you find good deals. As you rightly pointed out you may not even need to leave the company you are with to get discounts. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Great advice – our contract is up soon and we intend to do the same!
Great advice I am one of these people who always says I should phone but I never seem to get around to it *sighs* x
Good advice, I need to try this with Sky and see what I can save. All adds up!
We did this with our mobile phone provider and saved loads.
My hubby is fab at this! He rings our provider everytime the offer we’re on ends and gets a better deal. The other week he managed to get an upgraded box which normally costs £499 for £49 🙂 you’ve got to ask otherwise you don’t get x
Sounds like that was 30 minutes well spent! Definitely food for thought….
Some great advice – we've done tat with sky several times and it saved us a fortune!
We did this a few months back and got a good deal with our broadband provider – and today we did the same with the car insurance. It annoys me that they could have offered us a better deal to start with when renewal time came round but savings are savings!
When I have tried this, they have just said, “Ok then, we’ll change you over to a new provider.” Obviously I am not doing it quite right…
we really need to switch to a new provider, it's been on our list for years! x
Great tip. Glad you managed to save some money x
Brilliant tips it is always something I mean to try so will have to give it a go – fantastic saving! xx
You have to try ! well done you
Great advice and something that I regularly do too. (I'm that sad that I mark it in my diary.)
Very sound advice. We are happy to change supplier for a better deal if our current supplier won't match and/or improve the new offer.