Television has long been filled with ads saying how much you save by switching telecom or insurance companies. This thread allows you to brag about these savings, if any, or by switching from any product whatsoever to one which is similar.
I switched insurance for my motorcycles from GMAC to Progressive and saved a bit over 400 per year for the same coverage. I was stunned.
I switched trash collection companies and cut my quarterly bill from $200 to $70. When I called to cancel with my old company, they asked what my new rate would be (probably to try and match) and the rep was just “Yeah, I can’t touch that”. No idea why the discrepancy is so much; my best guess is a combination of my old company maybe having fewer houses in the area so the cost per house comes out higher?
They are probably monetizing you by analyzing your trash and selling the data.
I save a buck and a quarter buying Winco corn chips instead of Fritos.
I fell into a Macy’s gift card, and it was a “Use it or Lose it” kinda thing (meaning, go NOW or I’ll forget about it), so I wandered in. I don’t think I’ve ever shopped there, and it was a long drive to boot. Anyway, I’ve always wanted one of them lined Levi’s jacket with the fleece collar (cold out here in the winter). $100, but on sale for $80. Great! Grabbed one in my size and headed to the checkout (that’s a whole nuther pit thread, there!).
Lady rings it up, and its on “Double Secret Clearance”. Walked out with it for $26! Can’t for the life of me find anything else I want in that store. Card is good forever, so I got time…
Years ago I moved into one of the units in a new townhouse development. All the units were connected to the default electricity provider for the area. Soon after some sales person offered me a better deal to swap to a different supplier. So I did. And then I received another offer with incentives ( a free month or 2 maybe?) and took it. Then the original supplier contacted me, eager to “get me back” and offered a lifetime “loyal customer discount” which I accepted. So I ended up on a contract paying 15% less than my neighbors who hadn’t ever been disloyal to the supplier.
I’ve been saving about a half dollar to a dollar a gallon at the pump ever since I got my Kroger credit card.
Same here, we were long time WMI customers and by the time we switched we were paying $160 a qtr for once a week pick up. I was surprised to discover several local trash haulers that served the area for less than half the price. I made the switch. I called up WMI to cancel and have them pick up their receptacle and they said okay it’ll be a $30 pick up fee! I laughed said never mind.
I kept using theirs until it disappeared and my new provider replaced it.
We have saved a lot on car insurance by switching companies a few times, but we use an insurance agent who switches us whenever there’s a better deal available. The biggest changes came with changes in status, our kids got older lowering the cost of insuring them until they were off on their own costing nothing. So with those changes the better deals with other companies were available.
I went from Liberty Mutual to Progressive and saved about $2000 on the 4 cars. But NJ is extra expensive to start with and that included 2 kids under 25.
We also downsized last year and including insurance, mortgage, utilities, garbage & Internet changes we saved $13,000 in 2021 over 2020. Biggest chunks was the old mortgage vs. new and gas heating vs. oil.
I wasn’t naming names but yup. I cut off my thought before but, along with the fewer houses on the route, I wonder if part of it is just that WM is the big national company and just doesn’t care about competing on price for individual residential service. Probably make their bread and butter on commercial or municipal/HOA contracts.
I can imagine. I didn’t consider mortgage changes, there have been several, but they were centered around reducing interest rates for long term savings, I don’t think any of them amounted to even $2000 a year. Getting away from oil must be great. My oil burner should only be heating the basement this winter and will cost us a lot less, but the upstairs will use heat pumps so I’m just trading oil bills for electric bills.
When I met my future wife, she said she used Pemco for all her insurance needs because her parents had used Pemco for years. About a year ago I finally convinced her to check out other insurance companies. We got better coverage from USAA on our home and vehicles for about $2000 less a year. The biggest surprise was our travel trailer, $280 a year to free and they reimbursed us for an extended warranty we bought for the trailer.
When I joined AARP we switched our cell carrier to Consumer Cellular and our phone bill was cut in half. We get a 5% discount on CC through AARP and our tax rate is 6% so the discount pretty much pays the tax as well.
Not sure if it qualifies, but we went from a single-subscriber to Xfinity to a group Xfinity rate in an apartment building. Our monthly cost went from about $250/month to $85/month, or a savings of almost $2000/yr.
Tip: decline the 5% year end trash back deal.
I had about a $30 credit at Best Buy that was expiring soon. I didn’t really need anything, but I stopped in anyway. I found that Klipsch speakers were 50% off and walked out the door with a nice set of bookshelf speakers for $119.
Paired those with a 30 year old receiver I had stored away and took them to my office. Way better than any Bluetooth speaker. So at least one aspect of my job is tolerable now.
Later upgraded the receiver to a Rotel integrated amplifier. I’ve got a seriously nice little stereo at work, but yeah, the amp wiped out the savings on the speakers. Maybe I am in the wrong thread.
I have several motorcycles and Progressive is the best. I use another insurance company for my car and home, but they are way too expensive for the motos.
Those of you who have switched to Progressive (and/or Geico): how are they about paying off claims?
It’s a good question. I’ve never had a claim so I can’t answer that.