A couple weeks ago I learned a valuable lesson. Well, truth be told, it was one that I already knew but was apparently slacking on. The lesson? Always check in with your billers (utilities, garbage, sewer, water, cable, etc) on a regular basis to make sure you are getting the best deal possible.
Note: This post contains affiliate links.
Some of you may be thinking, well, if I didn’t have the best deal possible wouldn’t my electric company/cable company/etc let me know? Umm, I don’t know how to break this to you but the answer is no. It’s actually Hell No.
I found this out the hard way a couple weeks ago when our trash/recycling bill arrived in my email inbox and was more than $20 higher than usual. Our bill is typically $32.94 per month for recycling and trash pickup. So when a bill for over $57 arrived, of course I clicked onto the bill to see what was up.
What was up was that somewhere along the way our trash company decided to start charging extra for extra bags and we didn’t know about it. Mr. CMF had put some paper bags of grass clippings at the curb on the day in question, so we knew that we had in fact put out extra bags. We just didn’t realize that they charged extra for that, and we were perplexed because all last autumn we had put out extra bags of leaves from the yard and we didn’t get charged a cent extra. We didn’t recall receiving any sort of notice from the company that they had changed their policy on this. And they had in fact charged us what we felt was an awful lot- $3.50 for each extra bag times six bags meant that our bill was $21 higher (plus tax). Ouch!!
So of course I called the company to air my grievances and see what they had to say for themselves. After all, we don’t enjoy flushing money down the toilet, and we try to keep our fixed expenses as low as possible. The rep that I spoke with was very polite and informed me that they have had the policy of charging $3.50 for each extra bag for “a long time.” Weird, since we’ve been customers for two years and we’ve put out extra bags (and all kinds of other extra stuff, for that matter) in the past and we’ve never been charged extra. Despite my best bitching, I was only able to get her to cut the fee in half- so it went from $21 to $10.50.
When this call really started to pay off, however, was when she asked me if I would like a bigger trash can so that I may avoid this problem in the future. Hey, that’s a good idea!! Does it cost more?
After a pause, she informed me that I could have a 50% bigger trash can for $5 less per month. So I would get a bigger trash can, could put more crap in it and avoid more of this extra bag nonsense, and pay only $27 a month including tax. Really? How is that possible? I asked her. She quickly informed me that there is now a new pricing plan available.
Of course there is. I’m sure that one of the competitors has a lower price and so they dropped theirs to stay competitive. And why would you bother telling your existing customers that they can now get a cheaper trash plan? (Dripping with sarcasm).
Anyway, my point today is short and sweet: If you haven’t checked in with your regular billers lately to see if there are any new pricing plans that you may benefit from, you should! I also did this with our cell phone plan and our cable company recently. The cable company had nothing for me in the way of a better deal, but when I checked to see if I could get a better deal on our cell phone plan I ended up finding out that we could switch to a slightly bigger data plan for $10 less per month!
Keeping tabs on these things can save you money, and the companies are not likely to tell you if you don’t ask. The other thing you can do is to call around to competitors to find out if they have lower rates and either 1) use that knowledge to get your biller to drop your rates or 2) switch companies. If you need help in this area, check out Trim to help you analyze your bills and reduce your rates.
Have you saved money lately by checking in with your billers to see if there are any cheaper pricing plans that you may benefit from? If so, how much money were you able to save?
Suggested Reading: It’s a little off-topic, but while doing some reading on ways to decrease our fixed expenses, I came across a great book with TONS of ideas for insulating and weatherproofing your home. If you are interested in become more energy efficient-savvy, I recommend checking out Insulate and Weatherize: For Energy Efficiency at Home (Taunton’s Build Like a Pro)
CMF’s favorite FREE money management tools!
Some of the best online tools out there for money management are at Personal Capital, and the awesome news is that they are all FREE! Cash flow tracker, 401(k) fee analyzer, investment checkup, net worth monitoring, and many more! I’m a net worth junkie, so the net worth monitor is my favorite. Check out my Personal Capital review here, or click here to check out all the awesome tools for yourself!
Photo: mrHanson/Depositphotos.com
That’s such a racket that it costs less for a larger trashcan but more for extra bags. Makes zero sense. Glad you figured it out so you can save in the future!
Same here! I couldn’t believe it when they said it would cost less for a bigger trash can.
I just did this with my Car Insurance! Come to find out I’ve been paying an extra $20 a month for my parents to be on my insurance for the past 4 years! UGH! $960 WASTED!!!!
The good thing is I found out took them off and then my insurance renewed and my insurance payment went down by $40! So At least I have those savings now.
Oh no Bre! That sucks! At least you figured it out!
This is a good point. Since I have a set budget for things, I always check my bills. And even if I’m not getting charged more, I decided to call a few companies a while back to see if I can lower my bills and sure enough, they gave me discount on some of them.
I’m going to try to call every year just to see what they can do for me. It doesn’t hurt to try.
Exactly! It doesn’t hurt to try- and you might save yourself some money every single month, which would be totally worth the time it takes to call.
We’ve saved money recently by swapping our electricity provider – it should save us about £100 which is quite a bit! All by making one phone call 🙂
That’s excellent! Love it when you can save yourself big money by doing easy things like making a phone call!
Thanks for the reminder. Our propane just reset at a lower price, and I thought the rate was pretty fair, but I do need to check around because it’s been a year. Maybe someone undercut them, and I could get an ever better deal. I always have had good luck doing this with internet service. They always throw me a bone if I mention another company’s rates.
It pays to know what competitors charge. I have to confess not being as good at calling around as I probably could be. But you’re right, especially with internet service the providers are always trying to undercut each other.
Wow! That’s awesome. We had a guy on the podcast a couple weeks ago who owns a company that calls your cable and cell phone company once a year to get better deals. His advice is the same as yours: call regularly because they’re changing all the time.
OR you could now just put your trash in front of other people’s houses…..a friend in college who couldn’t afford trash pickup actually did that. They’d call it “trash night” and take his roommates pickup out at midnight distributing trash…..
Oh my gosh that’s hilarious! I don’t think I’d want to have to run around once a week at midnight just to take out my trash, though! LOL
Great reminder, Dee! Last year, I heavily scrutinized several of my monthly bills. Turns out I was overpaying for health insurance, car insurance, home owner’s insurance, and my cell phone. Ouch x 4. It’s probably time to take a closer look at the utility bills, though.
Wow, kudos to you for discovering all that! I bet you saved some major money that way. I have to admit that I never would have thought to ask for a different trash can if I hadn’t been on the phone with the woman and she offered it. Happy to be saving some dough there!
Another thing to look out for is the expiration of your “new customer” deals or specials. I either ask for the extension of my newbie package price or I cancel the service and have one of my roommates put it in their name.
Yes! You are so right. I do this every year when they threaten to raise our cable bill. I should probably just take the plunge and get rid of cable, but instead I call every year and pester them until they agree to keep us at the newbie rates.
Hey Dee, awesome post. I never thought about calling the trash company. I’ve saved a killing on cable though. As a matter of fact, over time, I’ve been able to get it almost free. I pay for the internet, but the cable is only $4 more per month!
Nice, seriously nice! I’m impressed. I’m going to have to work a little more on my cable company- although part of the problem here is that they are the only provider so there’s no competition. Boo! Too easy for them to set prices at whatever they want.
Cable and internet is the one thing that I check on often. It’s ironic how they are open about the fact that if you check you will get a better deal. But I haven’t checked with other people, though I do email with our trash person about bigger things I want to get rid of. For example, a humidifier I want to get rid of I checked beforehand and avoided the additional charge. I’ll have to check with them to see if they changed pricing for the trash cans, thanks for the tip!
Yeah, I never would have thought to check on the possibility of getting a different size trash can- this was kind of a lucky break for me since the woman offered it to me on the phone. But it’s definitely worth looking into to see if this could work for you as well!
I will need to contact some of my regular billers this coming week. I would love to know If I can qualify for a better rate. Thanks for posting!
You never know what you might find out! Let us know if you are able to drop any of your rates!
Thanks for sharing! I never bothered to check if there’s any new offers with my existing billers, but now that you mention it, I think it’s worth it to check once in a while. Awesome that you can save money in the future!
If your billers are motivated to keep you as a customer they should be willing to pony up the info on whether or not you can get better rates! We got our bigger trash can delivered this week- I’m pretty happy that it’s going to cost us less!
So true! We have to be diligent about our finances because no one else will. I’ve saved on Cable bills and car insurance by shopping around. I’m also not afraid to dispute a bill which I don’t believe I legitimately owe….which happens more often than you might think with medical bills
Oh tell me about it with medical bills! I’ve definitely had that too.