My frugal friend and author Stacy Johnson (I reviewed his book Life or Debt not long ago) shared his five tips for negotiating a lower price, a better room, a free upgrade, and lots more. In his post Stacy links to a Consumer Reports video about when bargaining works best. He also shares these stunning statistics from the CR survey:
“These results came from interviewing more than 2,000 men and women who had tried negotiating for at least three years,” he writes. “The numbers below reflect how many achieved a discount at least once during that three year period, along with the greatest discount any of them achieved.”
- Furniture: 94% of those who asked got a better deal at least once.
- Medical Bills: 93% of people who tried negotiating a lower bill were successful at least once.
- Home Electronics: 92% were successful at least once.
- Appliances: 92% were successful at least once.
- Floor Models/demos: 91% were successful at least once.
- Credit Card/Bank Fees: 87% were successful at least once.
- Jewelry: 86% were successful at least once.
- Cell Phone Plans: 80% were successful at least once.
- Collectibles: 78% were successful at least once.
Those are pretty amazing statistics! Of course, they neglect to say how many attempts were made before success. I am successful about 25-50 percent of the time I ask for a discount or perk. But I don’t ask every time, and it’s taken me a lot of practice to get good at playing the customer service game. Here are the negotiating tips I live by.
I’ve been carrying around a secret stash of $431 for months, maybe even years. And no matter how big my credit card bill gets I can’t seem to use this $431. What’s the story?
The $431 is tied up in gift cards. Am I alone? I doubt it.
So to reduce my gift card stash I’m putting up a challenge to use all my gift cards by the end of the year, especially before I spend out of pocket on holiday gifts. It just doesn’t make sense to spend cash when I have a good deal of money tied up in plastic.
For some reason, I am terrible as using gift cards even though I love to receive them. The last two times I got rid of gift cards (totaling $94, mind you) it was because I gave them to friends who were about to shop at these stores.
Here are the gift cards filling up my wallet:
Anthropologie – $91.04. Should be easy to spend as my and my sisters luuuuv their clothes.
CVS – $12.04. Remember to USE it, Julia!
Dollar Tree – $20. There is one two miles from my house, gosh dang it.
Gelsons – $20. I can’t bring myself to shop at this overpriced grocery store.
J. Crew -$211. Time I start a cashmere sweater collection?
Jo Anns – $4.37. Maybe I’ll gift this to a crafty friend of mine.
Marie Callender’s – $10. I could use this to buy a pie for a holiday party.
Old Navy – $12.46. The clearance rack is calling me.
TJ Maxx – $50. BINGO! TJ Maxx is great for gifts because there is a wide range of items for sale.
As an incentive I’m going to take myself out for a fabulous sushi lunch (so much cheaper than dinner) IF I can find meaningful uses for all the gift cards by the end of the year.
What gift cards do you have in your pocket? How much money is on each? And how LONG have you been trying to spend them? Spill it. There’s no point in being shy – blog comments are anonymous!
