Have you ever wondered how people can afford to have cars decked out with lots of technology? How about keeping their hardware up to date with their computer? How about driving around with multiple vehicles set with satellite radio? The answer is either their rich, or their smart (or cheap).
We live in a society where often people are afraid to ask for deals – but the reality is that corporate America (or Canada) often are prepared for tough times. Companies are constantly fighting for your business and as such they offer things such as price match policies and customer retention options. So here’s a quick couple tips to help you save hundreds of dollars.
USE PRICE COMPARISON SITES:
Before purchasing an expensive product I’ll click over to shopbot.ca and plunk my item in there. Shopbot is a great site for Canadians that lists many prices of different items. There’s the ability to sort by LOW to HIGH price to ensure the best deal. In the past I’ve saved myself close to half the value just by taking a few minutes to do this.
ASK FOR A DEAL:
I’ve worked in both small and big-box business and its amazing what people are willing to do these days to close a deal. I’ve found that often if you tell a sales associate that you’ll buy the items if its a certain price that they’ll work to get you that deal. I’ve done this before for customers when I was a sales associate, and I recently had a car dealer work to make this happen for me with a car purchase.
CHECK EBAY
I won’t explain this one again, but if you have time, eBay can be your best friend. Read my full article here.
GO TO CANCELLATIONS
This is one of the ones that can save you a LOT of money if you are buying something that is a subscription or contract. Often front-line customer service reps don’t have the ability to give you a deal; however, if you ask to get to cancellations there are deals to be found. Think about this – if you can save $10 per month on a cell phone contract – you have $120 in your pocket at the end of the year (plus the tax savings!). I recently went to cancel one of my XM Satellite subscriptions (this time I legitimately was planning on it) and instead of $14.99 per month plus taxes (approximately $201 total) – I ended up being offered a deal of $105 total for the year with taxes included. As mentioned, I didn’t even try to get a deal on this one as I was actually going to cancel – but at that price how could I say no?
So next time you’re planning on spending face-value, consider saving yourself a few bucks and using one of my tips above.
