In 2017, Citizens Advice found that loyal broadband customers faced a 43% rise in their payments at the end of their minimum contract.

A survey by Which found that the average person could save £725 per year just by haggling for everyday products and services such as energy, mobile phones and insurances. 

For an average Credit Card debt of £2,500, paying £60 per month over the minimum payment could save you over £3,000 in interest. You would also pay off the balance 20 years sooner!

An overpayment of £60 per month on an average mortgage of £137,000 could save you £7,500 and pay your mortgage off 3 years early. Imagine that.....an extra 3 years with NO mortgage payments.  

• Grab your bills/policies/agreements, so that you have all the details handy
• Use comparison sites to check deals with other suppliers.  There are loads of different comparison sites and the companies they compare can vary. 
• Compare policies, prices and customer service

This might sound like it is going to take forever, but if you have all the details to hand, then comparing prices is relatively quick and easy.  

Not all companies are made the same.

Which research suggests that with some companies you have up to a 90% chance of success if you try haggling with them.  

The research showed that previous customers have had the following rates of success at haggling with these companies:

Apparently when haggling with the AA or the RAC customers had a 90% success rate! That seems like pretty good odds to me.  

Why not start by comparing prices on breakdown cover?

Hagging with Sky showed an 86% success rate, while with Admiral/AA insurance it was around an 80% success rate.

The phone/broadband providers didn't fare much better with Virgin Media/ PlusNet/ EE/ Vodafone/ Three all showing an above 75% success rate.  

As you can see, the chances of getting a better deal when you haggle with these companies is fairly high, so start with one of them! They are easy to haggle with.

• Use a chatbox – it’s easy and gives thinking time
• Phone – it’s more immediate, but you might have to wait to get through
• Email – this is much slower, but means you are more removed from the process

Start the call/chat believing that they want to give you a better deal and that they want to keep you as a customer.  This helps you to be a in a positive frame of mind as you start the process, which can only help the situation. 

Starting off with a negative attitude means that you are likely to be grumpy and it will be an unpleasant task.  

• Be polite
• Tell them you have compared deals and tell them the best price you can get elsewhere
• Think about it – don’t take the first offer. 
• Be persistent.  Ask if that is the best price that they can do.  They will often come up with another offer, when pressed.  
• If you don’t get a good deal, ask to be put through to the retentions team. They can often offer better deals
• If you still don’t get a good deal, try again. You might get someone different!
• Remember you can always switch supplier, if haggling with them isn't working.  

Haggling with Sky has been fairly popular over the years and many people already realise that you can get a much better deal by simply speaking to them. However, as you can see, it's not just Sky - all these other companies are fairly easy to haggle with too.