Thursday, September 19, 2013

It must be a day to save money

Cliff and I went to see the insurance man about our house insurance, since I knew already that it costs less to insure a home the owner is living in.  Indeed, it turns out we are getting far more insurance for quite a bit less money.  

We have moved our auto insurance a couple of times lately, the last time to Progressive.  While we were talking to our independent insurance agent, I had him look over our policy.  Guess what?  He gave us twice the amount of insurance for less money.  Folks, there is a definite advantage to dealing with an independent insurance agent.  Why did I wait so long to talk to him?  

Back at home, I called Direct TV to have them set up a time to move the dish next door.  We had everything agreed on, and then he asked what credit card I wanted the moving cost to go on.  
"You charge for moving it next door?" I asked.  
"Yes, there is always a charge for moving.  That will be $75."  
"Oh well, never mind.  Once we are back at the house, we can have cable."
The local cable TV isn't great, but it was good enough for me to make a threat that I could follow through with, if I had to.  
"Oh no, I'm not going to let you do that," the guy answered.  
I did have to do a new service agreement, which means if we leave before a two-year contract is up, we pay $20 for each month that's left on the agreement.  But we like Direct TV pretty well. I don't see us changing.

That got me thinking about that cable option at the old house.  I loved their Internet, it was SO much faster than DSL.  And wait, if we don't need the phone company for Internet, we don't need the phone!  So I called the cable company and set up a time for them to hook us up for Internet only, which costs $30.  Getting rid of DSL and the phone, even counting the five-dollar bundling discount we'll lose with Direct TV, will save us $50 a month.  

Now all I have to do is call the phone company and bid them goodbye.  

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like the savings are adding up for you.

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  2. I need to be more like you. I just stay with what I'm used to, even if it costs me more money. :( My house insurance bills are staggering, but you're right. The much bigger house I live in is less to insure than the one I rent out.

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  3. I do love cable and have never had DSL, but when you can save money, I think you should. Everything here seems to just cost more.

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  4. That's great! I love it when these companies have competition and have to work with you if they want to keep you. I've saved a lot of money in the past just by calling up our local 'whatever' company and saying, "We really need to cut our expenses, so I'm going to have to drop 'whatever'." They usually rush to give you a better deal then, especially if they think you're going to go to the competition. As I tell my kids, it never hurts to ask.

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