If you’re like me, you look at your bills and think – oh my goodness my Comcast bill went up again. The rates go up and up and it’s utterly ridiculous. And it’s not just Comcast its other bills as well, sometimes it’s utilities, cell phone bills, and other bills that are just too high unnecessarily.
So after a lot of consideration, I decided to give some of the bill negotiation services a try. I took a deep dive into a few different services. Which service is right for you will depend on the type of bill you have, i.e. utility, cable, internet, or cell service. Overall, what I found was the best bill negotiation service is
Why hire a professional?
The benefit of hiring a bill negotiation professional is that they save you time, money, frustration, and allow you to avoid confrontation. Many folks, myself included, will go out of their way to not negotiation (avoiding conflict – that’s me). So in this way, it is a very powerful service.
Think about it….you can just send over a copy of your Comcast bill, they will call up, and negotiate a better rate for! Great stuff.
Keep in mind, because your rates go up, you know you’re not locked into a contract (not a real one, anyway).
How do these services lower your bills?
The trick is these companies understand how the Telecom industry works. Your business is very valuable to them and they understand how retention departments operate. These folks understand what to say, how to ask questions, how to lead a company to believe you may leave. Comcast would hate to lose your business, especially over rates. It cost them much more to get a new customer than to retain a current one.
Also, these companies are willing to wait on hold to speak to managers, work directly with retention teams, and leverage some basic negotiating skills to achieve the best rate.
What type of bills can be negotiated?
Most recurring monthly bills can be negotiated. Most of these services specialize in negotiating cable service, cell phone service, internet service, and electricity services.
So this would include companies like Comcast, DirecTV, Verizon, Sprint, Dish Network, Spectrum, and many others.
The last thing I saw regarding Bllfixers was that half of their business had to do with negotiating against Comcast. I believe this makes them an expert in understanding where to find savings, how to ask for discounts, what coupons may be available, and how to position against competitors.
What’s the Catch?
Of, course there is a catch. And that is in the way they get paid.
Bill negotiation services will take a split of the savings. This means if you hand over your Comcast bill and they are able to negotiate a $100 per month discount for 12 months you will split some of the savings with the negotiators.
Now, this is wonderful, right! Yes and no. If your service has negotiated a $100 per month savings for 12 months and you have agreed to split half the savings with them then you’re giving up $600. That is a lot of money.
But, keep in mind that not all services will keep the same percentage of the savings. I see the range of 33%-50% as very typical.
READ HERE, IF YOU DON’T READ ANYTHING ELSE
Regarding how these companies get paid. They will take a percentage of the savings. One thing to be super specific about is ‘for how long’ they want a cut of the savings, or rather what is their cap? If they want 40% of the first two years savings. That’s different than 50% of the first year’s savings.
Also, do they want their payment all up front? Or can you be auto billed monthly? This is likely optimal, as your paying as your savings become real.
How to maximize your savings!!
There are three basic choices:
Your first choice is to not use a bill negotiation service at all. Negotiate your own bill, do the best you can, split none of the savings and be on your way. In fact, here are some tips for doing just that here on my blog.
Your second choice is to negotiate your bills as best you can. Then pass your bill off to one of the next couple companies to see if they can increase your savings. This way you are only paying for savings you could not get on your own. In this way, it’s a huge value. Even if they only save you an additional $20 per month but you have to pay half of that over to the service you are still saving $60.
That $60 might not seem like much but if you do that on two separate bills now you’re saving $120 a year. And if you do this every year for the rest of your life it genuinely seems like it would add up to me.
The third option is to avoid a headache altogether. Send them over your bills, and watch to see if savings are achieved. This would leverage your time the best. 10-15 minutes of your time, could save a bunch.
My #1 Recommendation is….
Hands down your best option
This is a service started by a pair of brothers out of Nashville Tennessee back in 2014. In addition to all the typical stuff I could write here….they have excelled in those harder to notice things. Which include being really well reviewed by their clients and the press. They have no complaints on the BBB website and few to little negative online reviews. This is due to being really good with their customers.
Also, they have done what you want to see out of a small startup. They have expanded, reinvested in the business, and now added other services, such as a division to negotiation business bills.
They take 50% of the first year’s savings.
My Bonus Recommendation is….
A very close second is Bill Sharks. They are also a premium bill negotiation service. These folks work on satellite TV, internet, home security, cable TV, and gym membership bills. Here’s a video below check them out.
Please note: they take 40% of the first 24 months savings.
Conclusion
Bill negotiation services do work. You should use them. You are best to attempt to negotiate your own bill first. Then send your bill over for them to take a look at, as they might find additional savings.
Good luck! If you have used either of these services or even another service please drop below and leave a comment as to how it went.
Also, don’t forget to check out our blog here! Cheers.