“How To Profit From Deflation” |
| Posted: 15 Aug 2010 03:12 AM PDT  Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife Enough with all the gloom-and-doom about a bum economy, moribund job market and falling prices. Go ahead. Turn it into an asset instead. Doing so is simple. Just play hardball with virtually every company that sells you anything. In other words, create a bit of deflation on your own. Here are a few examples of how I've done so lately and saved about $1,300 a year (closer to $2,000 pre-tax) with all of three phone calls. Phone, TV and Internet: My family has been using Verizon's FIOS fiber-optic service for a few years for our home connections. A couple months ago, Verizon informed me that our fees were set to rise to about $130 a month for the package. That burned me up, given that Verizon was flogging introductory offers for $85 per month. I called up the company and was informed the $85 rate was for new customers only. I asked whether it is Verizon's policy to reward customer loyalty with higher prices. The rep was silent. I said I'd take my business elsewhere. After some time on hold and bad information about the need to disconnect and re-connect my account, I was told none of that would be necessary for me to get the $85 rate. Estimated annual savings: $540. Garbage Out: In my home state of New Jersey, we not only have the nation's smelliest property taxes but pay extra to have the garbage hauled away to boot. For years it was a total Waste Management monopoly: pay up or rot amid your refuse. Then we got some competition when a second hauler came to town with lower rates. Rather than go through the actual hassle of switching, I called Waste Management and merely threatened to do so unless it matched its rival's lower rate. The rep did so on the spot. Estimated annual savings: $100. Cell Phones: This one I might not have played too adroitly but ended up saving a lot of money anyway. My family was paying Verizon Wireless around $80 a month for two cell phones for which we used only a fraction of the minutes each month. After shopping around, we switched to T-Mobile prepaid phones. By prepaying $100 for each phone, minutes will cost less than 10 cents each. The one potential gotcha: If my daughter becomes a texting fiend I'll have to upgrade to a more expensive plan. My mistake? When I happened into a Verizon Wireless store after switching with a question, I brought up the fact that I'd switched to T-Mobile. The Verizon rep said if I'd asked first, the company probably would have given me a discount. The same, no doubt, would work with AT&T or Sprint. Estimated annual savings: $700. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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