A Step-By-Step Guide to Lowering Your Monthly Bills
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We've all been there. You're kicking back, enjoying an episode of, let's say, The Bachelor. I'll forever be yours.

Just kind of came to me. When you get an email from your cable or streaming service saying rates are going up, turns out it's going to cost a few extra bucks a month to watch some clout-chasing, attention-hungry, rose-obsessed dude decide which woman he'll divorce in a few years. Looking at you, Gary. Three months. You really made it seem like that was a real love happening there. There for the wrong reasons, Gary. You're there for the roses. I feel like you're just here for the zip line.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you don't just have to sit there and take it because it's possible to lower your bills without canceling anything or making big changes to your TV, streaming, internet, or phone plans. And I've personally done just that many times over. And today I'm going to show you how in three steps I made this happen.

Plus, stick around to the end because I'm going to walk you through the process in real time and give you a word-for-word script that you can use to do this yourself. Now, I know that pretty much everyone is feeling the pain of seeing their bills get more expensive these days. Just last year, Disney+, Paramount+, and Peacock all raised their prices. AT&T increased their internet prices by $5 a month. YouTube TV jumped famously to another $10 a month. Basically, the only streaming service that didn't raise its price was Tubi.

Still free and still watched by absolutely no one but me. Shout out to the Super Bowl, Kendrick and those apple-bottom jeans. Who could forget? Turn his TV off. Turn his TV off. Turn his TV off. That's all I remember. Nothing else. Just a little man in women's jeans. I can say that. He's shorter than me by one inch. Kendrick Lamar Height.

Dang it, we're the same height. Still, eye to eye, me and Kendrick. I prefer skinny, he prefers apple-bottomed. Boots with the fur.

A few bucks here and there may not seem like much, but if you're paying for a phone plan, internet, cable, and a few streaming services, things can add up quickly. Now, you could lower all of these costs by simply canceling subscriptions you're not using, and you could save a ton by looking for cheaper alternatives. Today, though, I'm here to talk about how you can lower your bills without canceling anything. All you have to do is ask. Yeah, I'm serious. Just ask. I'm not going to beg. I'm not going to beg. Please.

Please, please, please. Now, your utility bills like power and water, those are usually set in stone. But a lot of the big name cable, internet, cell phone streaming companies, they'll give you a discount if you contact customer service and ask for one. Just a few months ago, AT&T raised my internet bill by five bucks a month for no reason. How do I know? Because when I asked why, they said, no reason, just...

Inflation and stuff. So I called them, and not only did they restore my old rate, but they also sent me a $100 Visa gift card. Again, for no reason. To make that all happen, I followed these three steps, and they will work for you too. Step one, start with customer support. You can call the 800 number or use their online chat if they have one.

Whichever route you choose, make sure to pick a good time. The best time to call or chat? Usually weekdays in the early afternoon. You'll almost always get to talk to a real human, and that's when wait times tend to be the shortest. Which is great, unless the hold music is a bop. I mean, check out Comcast's hold music. ♪

Let's go. I want to see them live. I'd buy tickets to that show. I'd see them on tour multiple times. Now, before you call, get your most recent bill, which will include your account number and what you're actually paying for. Look out for junk fees like administrative surcharges, network enhancements, or horoscope processing.

Wouldn't put it past them. It's giving Virgo. Very petty. Then when a customer support agent picks up the phone or joins your chat, simply start out by saying that while you're happy with your service, your monthly bill is getting too expensive and ask if there's anything they can do about it. Once you get to that point, you're ready for step two. Negotiate with retention.

The customer service reps who answer the phone usually have very little power to save you money, so you always want to ask to speak to someone on the customer retention team. Those agents have one job: to stop customers from leaving. Because of that, they're often equipped with the best deals. And it helps if you've done your research and you can mention new customer offers or a competitor offer and say something along the lines of, "Hey, I see this is being offered, the same internet plan for 12 bucks less per month. I can't ignore a deal that good. Can you match it or beat it?"

Now, they might give it to you, they might cave, they might not. Don't give up quite yet. Now, not every company has a dedicated retention team, so you may be stuck with the agent who answers the phone. And if that's where you find yourself, don't panic. Just roll with the punches and negotiate to the best of your ability. Ask if they can talk to their manager about matching a competitor offer or lowering your bill to the price that new customers pay.

Again, the worst they can say is no, that's okay. Hold steady. Now at this point, you may have gotten a solid offer for a lower bill. That's great news, but you're not done yet because this is where the whole deal could fall apart if you skip the final step. And I'll break it down in just a second.

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Okay, time for step three, lock in the deal. You may have already gotten a great offer, but you still need to work out the final details. This is where you ask really important questions. How long is the price locked in for? Are there any extra fees I should know about? And can you send me a confirmation email? Receipts or it didn't happen? Just ask Blake Lively.

Now that's a lot of damage. But what if you're not happy with their offer? Well, I'd say just hang up, end the chat, and try again another day. You'll likely wind up with a different agent who will offer you a better deal. It's the old mom said no, so I'll ask dad. Classic trick. Now, if you're feeling particularly disgruntled, don't be afraid to actually cancel your service. A lot of these companies have win-back teams that offer even better deals a few days later. So if you can cancel, it may be in your best interest to play a little hard to get. You naughty, naughty. You teasing me, you naughty, naughty.

And this should go without saying, but don't be a jerk. You want to be a firm negotiator, but this isn't a prisoner exchange. The people on the other line are everyday people like you and me, counting their steps and doing their best to stay caught up on the voice. They're not the enemy here. So be kind and be firm. Now, as you're working through this process, you have to keep in mind that companies don't always make it easy.

Sometimes they make it difficult on purpose. So don't get discouraged if not everything goes according to plan. Stay calm and be ready to pivot if they throw you some curveballs because they probably will. So these steps are the foundation. Just know it's not always going to go according to this layout. And

And to prove it, I thought it'd be fun to try it out live, right in front of your faces. So when one of the guys on my team told me that his internet bill keeps going up for no reason, I asked if he'd let me take a stab at getting it lowered. And he said, like a good man, let me ask my wife. Mrs. gave it the green light, so I gave it a try. Let's see how it went down.

Hello, and thank you for calling. My name is Shelby. I'm a billing specialist here for cable and internet. How may I help you today? Hi, Shelby. This is calling. I was looking at my recent bill and it just keeps getting higher and higher. And I've been a loyal customer with you guys since 2017. And while I'm happy with the service, the monthly bill is just getting too expensive. And so I was looking to reduce service or get rid of it and switch to a competitor unless you guys can lower it.

Can I please get the phone number or account number that is associated with your account so that I can look that up for you? Sure. The phone number is... Thank you. Okay. I do see where your current statement is for the 93. Okay.

I am seeing on the website it says $70 a month for the gig. Could you offer that to me for a year to try out the gig? Because I'm technically a new customer for the gig service. Could you talk to a manager and see if they'd allow that? I could look into it for you, yeah. That would make my day. Okay, just give me one moment.

Thank you so much for your patience. So after reaching out to other members of my team, that is just a new customer promo. And since it would be an upgrade for your services, what we would be able to offer that for is, you know, the 110 with the router, the 100 without. Oh, man.

So I will get the bill down to $75 once this is all said and done.

Yes. Wonderful. If you can send a confirmation of that, that'd be awesome. Okay. I appreciate that, Shelby. Thanks so much. Of course. Thank you. I'd call that mission accomplished. Sure, I had to adjust the strategy as I went along, but like we talked about earlier, that's how it goes sometimes. Most importantly, I saved my colleague over $200 a year on a single bill. Now, if you're watching this thinking, but George, I'm a typical millennial who's allergic to phone conversations and low-stakes confrontation.

Don't worry. I made a PDF with the exact script you can follow to get your bills lowered, and you can download it for free by clicking the link in the description. Just be ready to adjust on the fly if they hit you with any twists and turns. And yes, you can literally copy and paste this into the chat box and swap out a few words to make it extra easy. Now here's the deal.

Cable and internet may not be the only things you're wasting money on. So if you want to keep more of your money where it belongs, keep watching to see my list of 15 things that frugal people do not waste money on. I'll also drop a link to that video in the description below. And if you enjoyed this video, be sure to subscribe to the channel and click the like button. And if you actually use the script below to save money, leave a comment letting me know how it works out for you. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.