The Great British Discount Challenge

As we are regularly told, times are hard. With negligible recent GDP growth and increasing threat of unemployment, the sound of belt-tightening is a common one in households across the nation.

In conventional thinking one solution to limitations in domestic cash flow is to earn more. You could sign up for more hours or start a small home business to supplement your income and oil the wheels of your household spending. Alternatively you could opt to forgo luxuries and keep your income the same, leaving a little more in the pot for the essentials.

I propose to you a third option. Recently a number of my yearly renewals have come up on Insurance, breakdown cover, mobile contracts etc. With this combined overhead looming I set myself a challenge, to screw down every supplier and see how much I could save. I have written before about gestures of placation from UK companies in order to keep us customers sweet, and it seems that you just need to know the right buttons to push. Thus far I have saved/reclaimed £650 from 3 phone calls. By no means am I claiming to have a Derren Brown-like talent for suggestion, but spending less is easier than you might think.

An example. Recent call on RAC breakdown cover for 2 drivers:

Me: "The account holder has been a member since 1981, £135 seems too much"

RAC: "Let me see what I can do"

(prepare myself for a 'computer says no moment')

RAC: "How about £70 for the same package"

Me: ".....that will be fine"

It seems retailers and service providers have a 'break glass in case of difficult customer' option, which is to slash their profit margins to close the deal. Mobile phone contracts are the prime example of this behaviour, next time you come up for renewal, look that loosely-suited shop attendant in the eye and ask him to halve the line rental and give you double the cash reward up front. My bet is the result will be at least one or the other.

It is simply about asking more. The Pareto Principle has been used to suggest that 80% of a companies revenues come from 20% of their customers. This is what organisations bank on, cash cow customers who happily accept the first price. 

So why don't you try and join me in the challenge next time your renewals come up. And yes, I will graciously accept a cheque for 5% of everything you save.