Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis has told his viewers the best customers to haggle with in order to get money off your bills.
Whether it’s breakdown cover, mobile phone bills, insurance or broadband, Martin Lewis says there are some great methods to slash your bills by haggling with call centre operatives – as long as you do it in the right way.
Martin listed the companies, from the AA to EE, which are offering customers the biggest discounts for haggling according to his own followers.
Returning on The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV1 and ITVX, Martin showed his audience that 78% of breakdown cover customers who tried to haggle at call centres had success haggling, with the AA and RAC the most successful with an average success rate above 80%.
For mobile contracts, Sky, EE and Lebara were top for haggling success, while for broadband and TV, Virgin Media and TalkTalk were best for haggling with, as broadband customers saw a 71% success rate overall.
For insurance, AA, Hastings Direct and Admiral were the best companies to haggle with and get money off, according to Martin Lewis’ research, with 64% haggle success on insurance overall.
Martin Lewis said: “These are mature industries where everybody’s already got a product. So the way they make money is either by charging you more, or by winning customers from other companies and by retaining their own customers.
“And that’s why you are holstering a huge weapon near the end of your contract. They are desperate to retain you and keep your loyalty.”
Today, January 17, a huge change was announced for mobile and broadband contracts, banning them from mid-contract price rises linked to inflation.
Instead, companies must tell you at the outset of your contract how much it will rise mid contract with a pounds and pence figure.
With annual price rises usually landing in April for the new financial year, it means now is a good time to cut down your bills before the rises take effect – after all, a 10% rise on a smaller number is still a smaller rise overall.
Martin told his viewers that the best thing to do before haggling is to ‘benchmark’ the best deal available to you, so go and check what’s available in your postcode, then ask them to match or beat it.
Then, make sure you have a reason, such as ‘it’s over budget’ or ‘I can’t afford to pay this’.
Martin added: “It’s not lying, it’s just the truth.”
Martin added: “if you have no joy, the powerhouse move here is ask to cancel.
“Customer retentions – those are the departments whose job it is to keep you. They have more discretion, more ability to keep you generally more able to give you a discount.
“So you want to go through to disconnections if you’re not getting anywhere in the first instance.”
Of course, if they call your bluff, you can always tell them you’ll call them back before you make a final decision.
Finally, Martin added: “Always be polite and charming, never rude. Please don’t be aggressive.”
The latest ‘Bill buster special’ of the Martin Lewis Money Show Live is still available to watch on ITVX.
