I recently made two phone calls in one day that literally put $500 in my pocket. Having been with the same insurance company for almost 10 years now, I saw that my car insurance would rise a little every year. The first time the rates were raised, I checked around and found that my insurance company still offered the best rates possible. The second time yielded the same result, so I stayed with my insurer. I guess that made me a bit complacent, as for the past few years, I haven't been doing any comparative pricing. But this year, with the help of online comparative pricing websites, I was able to finally get a cheaper rate, finally saving me $200 per year. In fact, I am now paying a lower car insurance rate than I did four years ago. It took me mere minutes on the computer and about 15 minutes on the phone with an underwriter.
Likewise with my Internet provider. Because I was self-employed at the time and needed fast and reliable Internet service, I have had high speed DSL service when many people were still using dial-up. At the time, in 2001, there were only a few big players in the market and I tried high speed Internet through cable as well as through phone lines, and found the latter to be more reliable, and so I had been with my current provider for the past seven years. I have done comparative shopping lately, and while some new entrants have entered the market with attractive pricing, some of the reviews of their service levels and reliability have given me the impression that their service delivery has been inconsistent at best. By the way, the most misleading part of any Internet ad, and the one you have to be the most careful of, is the one where there preface the speed by using the words "up to ..... Mbps", there providing them an iron-clad excuse when the Internet response is as slow as molasses. You seldom get the maximum speed advertised by your provider. So, in comparing the well-established providers with one another, there wasn't much of a price incentive to switch. But, knowing that it is far more expensive to attract a new customer than keep an existing one, and that the marketplace was becoming increasingly competitive, I called my Internet provider and informed them that I was planning on canceling my service. Their first question to me was obviously "Why?". I told them that it was far more expensive than I was willing to pay, whereupon the Customer Service Representative (with seemingly no need for any additional authorization) offered me a 40% reduction in my monthly rate if I could commit to staying with them for a year. No big deal, as I was quite happy with everything except their price. So that was another $300 in my pocket.
I know that in these busy times we live in, that it's often easier just to do nothing, but we should all take a bit of time once a year to review whether we are getting the best possible deal from our service providers as possible. Given the tough global economic times we currently face, the profileration of technology allowing for easy price comparions and the increasingly competitive nature in virtually all industries, the odds are with us that we can exert our individual economic muscle. Or to simply put it another way, if I offered you $500 to make two phone calls, would you do it? Thought so.
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