Archive for: TV

Saving money is always good

Every so often I take a look at our contracts etc. with utilities and the like to see if I can get better options and plans. A couple of weeks ago I was looking at our satellite boxes we have for the TV and realized that they were now five years old and were large and bulky and silver. All our other TV equipment is black!

So I looked online at Shaw’s website to see if new versions were available and how much they cost. It turns out they did have new models which were much smaller and black and had additional features, but they were $199 each and we ideally needed two. Far too much money just on a whim of changing so I looked at Bell.

It seemed that we could get a better deal from Bell as new customers so I phoned Shaw to ask if they could do any better pricing on the unit. At first he offered me a discount so that we paid $150, but I said that was still too much as at the end of the day we didn’t have to change them. He then said he could offer me one for $99. I said could he offer me two at that price, he said no only one would be $99, the other $150, so again I declined and said I would not bother. He then told me to wait whilst he checked something out.

He came back to me a few minutes later saying that he could do both units at $99 after all. I said if he could do both units for a total of $99 he had a deal. The line went silent – I feared I had gone too far – but then he said okay! So I got two new satellite units for a total of $99 plus tax.

We later sold the old units on Kijiji and got back our money.

Yesterday I did the same with our cell phone. We were on a contract for our iPhone and although our phone usage was low, we used quite a bit of data. We were paying $65 plus tax per month, but last month went well over the 1GB limit and doubled our bill, so I wanted to know what we could do about it. I looked on the website and found the next level up was $85 per month with 2GB of data, so I called to make sure this was the best deal.

The guy I spoke to asked how we used the phone and what services we required etc. I explained our situation and he suggested a plan that would cost less, but give us more data usage but less caller use, which was fine by me. After going through the options we are now on a plan which offers 6GB of data, voicemail, 150 mins calls, unlimited evening & w/e calls, caller display, texting etc for $55 per month. So we have a lot more for a lot less money. Brilliant.

It definitely pays to check these things out every so often. It really does.

Money saving month

This month it seems has been money saving month. No, I haven’t stopped spending, but I have managed to get some of our household bills reduced.

Firstly it was the renewal time for our mortgage. We had previously had a variable rate but it was set in 2006 so the rate we were paying was high compared to todays rates. I know that all the extra money we have paid is reducing our mortgage further which is great, but it still means the money is coming out of our bank account every month!

So I contacted the mortgage company to re-evaluate the terms of our mortgage and after going through the various options such as fixed rates etc we decided to stick with the variable. As the rate is now much much lower – so is our monthly payment. Obviously if the rate does go up, so will our payment but it has to go up a lot to reach the rate it was set at before. SAVING NO 1.

I then contacted our satellite TV company. A friend of mine had recently switched from our supplier to another and had saved some money. I called our supplier explaining this and stating that I did not want to change, but the savings outweighed the hassle etc. Basically she asked what package we would like with them in order that we would stay. Our current package was one of the basic ones with the HD and some extras. In total we paid $75 per month inc taxes.

I said that we used to have the films but at $20 per month extra it wasn’t worth it so we had cancelled and that my husband also missed some of the sports channels. She asked me to hold and when she came back she offered us the same package we currently had, plus movies and sports for $10 per month less. Obviously I grabbed this offer with both hands and now we have loads of channels. SAVING NO 2.

Next I phoned our alarm company – well by now I was on a roll…..

I explained that I had been looking at other security systems and ours seemed old by comparison and that ideally we would like to have a key-fob to activate the alarm and pay less per month. The guy said that although he could not reduce the payment he would upgrade our system, include a key-fob and a warranty – result. SAVING NO 3. Okay, this is not technically a saving, but we are getting a better system for the same price so we are happy.

The moral of this story is that you should not be afraid to ask for better or cheaper service. After all, they can only say no and you won’t have lost anything by trying.

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