Looking to save some cash on your phone bill? Sascha Segan at PC Mag had $35 dollars taken off his phone bill and I’ll tell you how he did it. In order to get these discounts, you will have to be very bold with your carrier and make threats that you wouldn’t otherwise make. Remember, you are trying to tap into the customer retention plans and processes that carriers have in place to keep your business. If you don’t come across as frustrated and willing to walk away from it all, you’ve lost your ability to properly negotiate.
The first thing you need to do is change your carrier. Loyalty does help in dealing with carriers when you’re asking for upgrades, but we want some serious savings and the way we’re going to do that is pin carriers up against each other. Make them fight for our love! Once you switch carriers, find a package that suits you that is cheaper than the one you had at your previous carrier. These are normally easy to find because prices drop naturally over time and if you haven’t switched carriers in years, you’ll be surprised what you can find. Always make sure to ask about discounts for schools, corporate etc.
Once you’ve switched carriers, get ready for your old carrier to start crawling back. Sascha immediately got a flyer from Verizon, his old carrier, offering 2 months of free service for the first year if he came back. Once they’ve demonstrated they’re willing to offer you these discounts, hit them up for a little more. Tell them you want the free months, but also try and swing some accessories, free upgrades and anything else, just to make yourself feel that much better about the deal.
After all this and you’re back on a carrier with a sweet plan, go that extra little step. Companies like Validas, will analyze your cell-phone bill and figure out if you’re on the right plan with the right carrier based on your actual usage patterns. It also looks for errors in your carrier’s math that may be costing you money.
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You don’t need to switch. Look for a better plan from another carrier and then you call your carrier and tell them that you are thinking of changing plans to the other carrier because it’s cheaper. They will already have a solution for this because they plan it in their marketing department which usually means you’ll get a cheaper unadvertised plan. Also don’t worry about the 3 year contract as this is rarely as bad as it seems and even though everytime I get a free phone I sign for 3 years, I always get at least 1 free phone a year.
If you want a free smart phone and consequentially free calling between family members, add your family to your plan. The more phones you have the more they will want to keep you there. You can either try the trick above but mention that Such and such a carrier has the phone you want and will give it to you for free when you signup, or you can just outright ask to speak to the “Loyalty Department”. These guys can grant you anything
I got all my phones for free and I still have 3 or 4 credits for new phones that I haven’t used. I also got my first Blackberry (8703e) and then the world phone (8830), the curve (8330) and right now i have a credit for the Storm!
So I don’t think you should ever switch carriers because you’ll loose your history with them, you might even loose your number and they probably won’t call you to switch back unless you paid them oodles of money for your phone when you were with them.
Just my two cents.
Great tips for cell savings and terrific call recommending Validas. I found out about the Validas website, http://www.fixmycellbill.com, while in the middle of dealing with my own Verizon bills. I turned out to be one of the eight in ten wireless customers paying more than I needed to. As you mentioned, Validas fixes this kind of discrepancy by tailoring a customer’s plan to fit their specific needs. Importantly, Validas analyzes a customer’s uploaded online bill to determine their potential savings for free. If the customer chooses, for five bucks, an email is sent to their wireless provider in industry specific format so they can actually implement these cash saving changes. If Validas can save the customer more than $5 on their bill, this obviously provides a very cost effective solution. Validas saves me personally over 230 dollars per year on my Verizon plan. That almost works out to getting a free month of my plan each year. To put these figures in perspective, the average Validas user currently saves $487 annually through the service so I’m no exception.
I was personally so impressed with my Validas savings that I jumped at the chance to work for the company when the opportunity presented itself. Validas is rapidly becoming considered an advocate for the wireless customer. Check out a feature on Validas on The Big Idea with CNBC’s Donny Deutsch at http://www.cnbc.com/id/22782456/. Any cell subscriber who wants to cut costs should consider this service. It’s free to consult and you only stand to save.
Good luck to everyone on cutting their wireless bills.
Dylan
1st comment: “Kyle - terrible advice!”
2nd comment: “Kyle - amazing advice!”
I gotta get some posts up but I’ll be sure to get back to you guys and address your comments individually.