Haggle with Sky, AA & more 2013's top 10 firms to haggle with

Seriously hot haggling

Magic can happen if you haggle with existing TV providers. We've seen reports of users making just one call and getting 50% knocked off their monthly contract, so it's definitely worth trying.

New customer offers abound on digital TV packages, but often people get complacent and want to stick with one provider, as it has what they want and what they're used to. Keen footie fans may want certain sports channels, for example.

Fortunately, it's one of the best areas for existing customers to haggle on � here's an example:

I spent 5 mins on the phone with Sky, told them I could no longer afford their TV and was switching to Freeview. After a few minutes the nice guy offered me 25% off my bill for the next 12 months with no contract tie-in, and ESPN free for 3 months. Total saving of �156/year and free sport. -DrEvil69 - Jan 2012

The best providers to haggle with are Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk. See the poll results for a full breakdown.

For more full info and to benchmark the hottest deals, see the full Cheap Digital TV guide. Here are our hot haggling tips:

• Say you'll move to Freeview. The cheapest digital TV option is Freeview. It's a one-off cost of around �20 for the box, and there's no monthly subscription. It's a great ditch and switch threat to the TV providers. So call and often they'll give you a few months at half-price, or lower your payments.
• Do a channel audit. There's no point paying for access to channels you don't watch, so decide what you want and get the right package.
  
  Scanning through channels (with the family) should let you know which are important. If the channel audit shows you're over-subscribing, tell your provider you want to reduce your package - can they offer special rates?

Red hot haggling

Haggling a discount on your broadband and home phone services is one of the easiest ways to cut costs. Because there are so many cracking deals on the market, you'll have a lot of leverage when it comes to persuading your current provider to reduce your bills (and if they don't, simply switch).

Speaking to your provider could also net you increased speeds, a bigger download allowance, a new (better) router, and possibly some other freebies, as well as a better price. Here's a great success story from DragonQ on the forum:

I managed to get my BT Infinity Option 2 (unlimited) broadband dropped from �26/mth to �17.25/mth (and they threw in an upgrade from Weekend Calls to Evening & Weekend Calls), by just complaining that other companies offered the same product for less. -DragonQ - March 2013

The best providers to haggle with are Virgin Media, TalkTalk and O2. See the poll results for a full breakdown.

For more full info, best buys and tips, see the full Cheap Broadband and Cheap Home Phone guides, but here are a few quick tips:

• Ask for your MAC code. When you call your broadband provider to get a better deal, you should try asking for your MAC (Migration Authorisation Code) first.
  
  This code is what you'll need to switch provider, so by asking for it, their alarm bells should start ringing and it should lead to chats with "customer retentions" staff who'll usually tempt you to stay with better deals.
• Monitor your broadband speed. Doing a couple of speed checks* at different times during the day will give you an idea of the actual speeds you're receiving. If those speeds are way off your package's advertised speed, you could try asking for a discount, as the service is slower than what you're paying for. See the Boost Your Broadband guide for more info about speeds.
  
• Know your broadband usage. Providers usually set their charges based on the volume of data used. This is measured in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB - equivalent to 1,024MB).
  
  If you're only a casual surfer, and know you're not using up hundreds of GBs online, you won't need an unlimited package - going for a download allowance of 10GB should be more than enough.
  
  It's worth keeping tabs on your usage before trying to haggle, using a free bandwidth monitor. ThinkBroadband's tbbMeter promises to track usage on multiple machines in the near future, while Rokario and Netmeter only work per PC, so if you've more than one computer connected to the net, you'll have to tot up the totals.
  
  Once you've got your monthly figures, work out whether it's possible to negotiate a deal by downgrading your package to a lower usage limit, and thus cut your costs.
• Check your calls package. If you're not on the right home phone deal, you could be overpaying. See if you can haggle a discount or ask to downgrade.
  
  You shouldn't automatically pay for the most expensive "unlimited anytime calls" package if you're not going to use the calls.
  
  As a rough rule of thumb, it's only worthwhile taking an anytime package if you make over an hour of peak-time calls each month.
• Pay line rental upfront for a discounted rate. If your provider offers the option, choosing to pay upfront is usually the cheapest way to get line rental. You can try asking if it can switch you on to this to help you save.
  
  A number of providers offer it including BT, TalkTalk, Plusnet and Primus. However, beware paying upfront; there's a risk of losing your cash if the provider goes bust. This risk is bigger with smaller companies.

Hot for haggling on contracts, cold for PAYG

Haggling on monthly mobile phone contracts can slash the price you pay. But it doesn't work so well with pay-as-you-go mobiles, as there are so many hot offers available to all online, and, of course, there's no contract for you to haggle on.

If you've a contract deal, and you're nearing the end of your fixed term, the network will be frantic to keep you, so it's the best time to haggle.

The best providers to haggle with are: Virgin Mobile, Vodafone and Orange. See the poll results for a full breakdown.

For more full info, best buys and tips, see the full Cheap Mobiles guide, but here are a few quick tips:

• Match your tariff to your EXACT usage. The best way to save money on your mobile bill is to match your tariff to your exact usage.
  
  Use Billmonitor* to get a detailed analysis of your latest bills, then use the figures to find a deal, using the comparisons, that's cheaper and best matches your usage.
  
  Once you've done this, call up and haggle a better deal with your current provider using the info you've gathered.
• Compare tariffs first. Comparison sites MoneySupermarket*, Omio* and MobilePhoneChecker* are perfect for quickly benchmarking prices. Simply put in your usage details and they'll speedily reveal the cheapest tariffs available.
  
  Once you've got info on the best deal for you, you'll be fully armed to take on your current provider to see if it can match it.
• Ask for a better handset. Unless you have a Sim-only tariff, your monthly contract will usually come with a 'free' handset, which is subsidised in the monthly cost. There's plenty of room for negotiation here, and it's even possible to make a bit of spare cash in the process, as forumite sionharris says:

  I haggled an outstanding deal with O2: �15/mth for 12 months, with 500 mins, unlimited texts and internet, plus a free Nokia N95. The total cost of the contract is �180/yr.
  
  When the contract ended, I sold the phone on eBay for �235. So I was �55 up on the deal and had free phone use for a year. -sionharris - Aug 2011

Scorching hot haggling

Haggling for a reduction is one of the quickest and easiest ways to cut breakdown cover costs. In fact, in our poll, the AA took the crown in the top 10 UK service companies to haggle with, with a whopping 86% success rate. See the poll results for a full breakdown.

For more full info, best buys and tips, see the full Cheap Breakdown guide, but here is a quick tip:

• Benchmark the top new deals, including cashback. Check out the best buys in our Cheap Breakdown guide, and see if they are better than your renewal price. A lot of users have found that using a cashback deal available to new users as a bargaining chip can help them haggle down the cost of their renewal.
  
  And if you can't secure a better deal by haggling, then ditch and switch to a new deal. Be aware that cashback is never 100% guaranteed - read the Top Cashback Sites guide.

Haggle with care

Haggling on car and home insurance is far better than just auto-renewing - your insurer will often beat their own original renewal price.

Yet this is one area where you should never haggle with just your current provider. It's far better to use comparison sites to find the best price from across the market, then go for hidden cashback.

For full step-by-step systems, read the Cheap Car Insurance and Cheap Home Insurance guides. Here are some haggling hints...

• Never just accept your renewal price... Insurers know many just renew as they�ve no time, so they hoick prices willy-nilly � effectively a fine for loyalty. So you're right to haggle � discounts can come to those who ask.
• �But always compare across the market. The easy way is to combine comparison sites, as each searches different companies. There are full lists of the top ones to try in the cheap car and home insurance guides. Ask your current provider to match the top result. If they can't better it, consider just leaving.
• Try for cashback. Check if your cheapest insurer is listed on cashback websites. You can get up to �100 back on top for signing up this way � another useful bargaining chip when haggling. Be warned though, cashback isn't 100% guaranteed. Make sure you read the Top Cashback Sites guide before doing this.

Haggling works but new deals usually far better

Credit card companies aren�t quite as locked down on rates as you may think. Haggling can be a useful tool in the arsenal, but it should be seen a seconday weapon.

See Credit Card Shuffle for a full how-to, but here are some quick tips...

• Haggle if they up your rate. If a card increases your APR interest rate, call and ask it not to. If that doesn�t work, remember you have a right to reject rate rises provided you meet certain conditions.
• Call and ask it to reduce interest. This almost never works, but "almost never" isn�t never. Having said that, the deals you will be offered won�t come close to what you�d get by doing a new customer balance transfer to another card - where 2 years at 0% is often do-able.
• Room on your credit limit - ask if it�ll let you shift debt from elsewhere. This is the powerhouse credit card haggle. Rather than letting you cut the cost of debt already on the cards, many cards will let existing customers shift debts to them at a cheaper rate. This is often a negotiation but it can work well.
  
  While the deals still won�t be as cheap as new customer deals, doing it this way protects your credit score.

Haggle with extreme caution!

There are a number of reasons you should beware of haggling with gas and electricity companies. While it may reduce your price slightly, there are a number of problems doing it and it's nowhere near as good as doing a full market comparison (which is likely quicker anyway).

• You need to go cross-market. When it comes to energy prices, switch and you get the same gas, the same electricity, the same safety � only customer service and rates change. Therefore, take advantage of the whole market to get the best deal. Don�t just stick with your provider.
  
  To find the best deal, the free MSE Cheap Energy Club checks you�re on the market�s cheapest tariff, then tells you when you need to switch again (as prices change regularly).
• Prices aren�t transparent. In other areas, when you haggle it's easy to understand, eg, �we�ll cut your bill from �50 to �30�. Yet with energy bills, prices are a complex integration of standing charges and unit charges.
  
  So it's very difficult to get a firm price and see how good a deal it actually is when haggling with an energy company.
• Energy firms can�t be trusted. Quite simply, even the info the call centre gives you can be wrong, partly due to confusion. In 2011 Which? found that 33% of call centre info from energy firms wasn�t correct. While this has improved, Which? says in 2012 some companies were still struggling to provide correct quotes.