Save Money by Haggling

I love it when people save money simply by asking for a discount or by using good negotiation skills. It's relatively easy to do and yet most people don't even think of it as an option when buying something. Hopefully, this post can help change that for some of you reading this.

This piece from Money magazine lists several ways you can haggle for a better price. They give the following as an overview of how to be successful at this:

To gain leverage, you need to know three things: where the industry's weak spots are, how much competitors are charging and what value you bring.

They then list the industries where you can haggle, how to haggle, how much you can save, and how easy it is to save. I'm going to list the highlights for each area:

• Mortgage brokers: For the sake of both transparency and savings, you want to work with someone who will agree up front to how much the fee will be. Interview brokers to see if they'd do this. Then, no need to beat around the bush: "Just ask what their typical commission is and whether they're willing to negotiate,"

• Health clubs: August is one of the industry's slowest periods. If you're not yet a member, go in toward the end of the month, when commissioned sales reps are nearing their sales goals. "Tell them straight up that price is an important factor for you," Spencer Ellis says, "and ask what wiggle room there might be on rates."

• Cell-phone service: Look at websites of all the major carriers for enrollment deals. If you're willing to switch, find an independent retailer that represents multiple providers, as reps there are empowered to offer the best incentives, says Donovan. They may also have unadvertised plans. Visit at the end of the month.

• Cable-TV, telephone and Internet services: Whether you're an existing customer or shopping around, play the companies against each other by mentioning competitors' rates and saying you'd consider switching to save money. See if locking in for a year or more will get you a better price. If you don't succeed, call again and talk to someone else - or ask for the retentions department.

• Electronics, clothing and other stuff: Use a comparison-shopping site such as Shopzilla.com to find the lowest price on the item first. Bring a printout to the store. Once there, "the key is identifying who has the authority to give you a discount," says Shell.

Overall, it's pretty basic -- know what prices others are charging, share this with the business in a polite but firm way, and be prepared to walk/shop somewhere else. Kind of like making an offer on a home, now that I think about it. ;-)

Anyone out there have any haggling tips or successes to share?

Comments

[Todd]

I love to haggle. Why should one assume the asking price is what you have to pay? As you alluded to, the key to negotiate a great deal is being able to value something very well. This is how you get good at buying antiques, stocks, baseball cards, real estate, etc. If you religiously track the sales prices of the things you want to buy you will be in very good position to know what something is worth and therefore what you should offer for it.

[snow_drops]

"If you don't succeed, call again and talk to someone else."

How true. I called 3 times yesterday to ask my current internet provider to match an offer I got with their competitor. The first rep did not have a clue what to do. The second rep insisted that they provide different products (more antivirus, etc), and hence he couldn't lower my bill. But the third one was willing to match the price for 1 year. That's a saving of $12+tax a month for 12 months.

So the moral of the story is, if at first you don't succeed, just try again and again. ^_^

[Mark]

My cable/phone/internet bundle intro period just ran out...now it's $40 more. I plan to call and haggle. I've been told all you have to do is tell them you're switching to a competitor and they'll keep you on the rate for another 6-12 months, and then you just repeat the cycle again. We'll see what happens.

[Dave]

I did this recently. For some reason our DSL provider only provides the second slowest speed (we're in a major metro area with a majority of twenty-somethings who want fast internet, I don't get it), so I was looking around for better deals. The cable internet company wouldn't match my current price for DSL (which I sort of understand, as it's 5x faster), but my DSL company had my exact same speed offered, for 15 dollars less a month, with a free Starbucks Wi-Fi account!

I just called and told them I wanted to switch to the new plan, or I'd cancel my account and call back to the new account department. They just switched me.

Not haggling per se, but I save 15 bucks a month on my internet, and have Starbucks Wi-Fi now!