Works For Me: Bill Inserts

I am one of those rare people who reads the inserts that come in the bills. Mostly it's just trash. In fact, when I open the envelope I stand over the trash can, scan through the insert and dump the ones that don't interest me.

But every once in a while there's a good one. Like a couple of months ago when the Cox bill (we use their Internet & telephone services) included a small paragraph announcing their NEW International Calling Plan. My interest peaked when I read the monthly rate for the plan would be .99 cents. Much better than the $3 a month we had been paying.

A few days later I called the Cox customer service line. The young guy on the other end of the phone informed me that this was a new Plan, different from my current plan. To be specific I would go from $3 a month and .35 cents a minute to .99 cents a month and .07 cents a minute. No hook. No gimmick. No change in actual service just a lower price.

I asked if this change would be automatic or if I needed to do something. That's when I learned a valuable lesson. He said that do to "government regulations" I needed to give him permission to make the changes. Because of some hoity-toity sounding government Act they could not automatically switch people over to a new plan. Huh?! What he really meant was, "We like to make 3X's the money on those poor folks too busy to read the inserts we send them."

Needless to say I immediately gave permission to switch me over!

Saving at least $24 a year with a 5 minute phone call? Works for me!