Rich Little Poor Girl Friday #5

Lesson #5: ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE

Skimming the fat off my annual expenses, I decided to downgrade my top-of-the-line high speed connection to something a little more practical.

Why pay for 60 GB and on-line gaming speed when you only use an average of 5 GB a month? For my purposes I can tolerate a slower connection and save myself $21.00 per month.

When I phoned my internet service provider I was told that I would be charged a $20.00 admin fee to drop down to the “lightest” – and cheapest – high speed plan. WTF?! Yet another example of financial punishment aimed at those who can least afford it.

Being a long-time, loyal customer, I asked if the fee could be waived. Yeah, I’ll admit I dropped the “low-income” bomb and turned up the charm, but dammit all, it worked!

Annual savings including waived admin fee: $272.00. Cha-ching!

This is just one example of “asking and receiving”. It may not always result in fees being waived, interest rates being dropped, or unreal unadvertised deals being granted, but if you don’t ask…

You’d be surprised (pleasantly) at how far customer service reps are authorized to bend to keep a client from running into the arms of their competitors. Try it. Even if you only save yourself twenny bucks, it feels great.

Now go buy yourself sumpthin’ pretty.