Puchne me kya jaata hai.
That is to simply put the power of asking. People these days have become very averse of asking simple questions. Be it to your own boss on his decisions or to your colleagues .
Most of us are averse to ‘Asking’. And the same hesitation is especially more visible when making purchase decisions.
Our parents were experts in negotiation. Those were the days when you didnt se ‘Fixed Price’ written on shop walls. Every purchase was negotiable from vegetables to consumer appliances. Slowly there has been a cultural shift. Malls and supermarkets have made the art of negotiation obsolete.
Here are few ways you can easily ask for discounts and save decent amount of money each year.
Pharma product
You will be surprised to know how easy it is to get discounts on pharmacy products. Pharma products have one of the highest Profit margin. You can easily get a 15% discount just by asking for a discount.
Postpaid telephone bill
If you have a postpaid plan you can call up your service provider and ask for reduction in your monthly plan. You can easily get a discount of hundred rupees per month and save up upto 1200 rupees per year.
If just asking doesn’t help you can send a request of number porting. You will get a call from your service provider offering new offers and discounts.
I have tried this with my service provider and I was offered a bill waiver of 500 rupees. In addition, they were offering me various OTT subscriptions free of cost.
Credit card overdue/Renewal charges
If you pay your Credit Card dues regularly and in case you get an overdue penalty you should just try calling up the bank and ask for a waiver.
In most cases you should easily get the charges rolled back. Additionally, if your use of your credit card is high you can also get the annual charges rolled back.
All you have to do is call the bank’s call centre. They should be able to reverse the charges easily.
If this doesn’t work you can always request for closure of your credit card and that should do the trick.
Broadband connection
Another place where you can easily ask for a discount is with your broadband service provider. This especially works if you have a local cable service providing internet connection.
You can ask for discounts over increase in your broadband speed at the time of renewal.
You should be able to get a discounted price or increased speed if you ask for it. Saving can be intune of 1000 rupees on annual plan.
Hotel reservations – when off season
When doing hotel reservation you can try calling the hotel directly on the listed phone number rather than booking it via online portals.
There was a time when online portals give heavy discounts but that practice has slowed down a lot.
It makes more sense to call the hotel directly and ask for a discount. If it is an offseason you can get a very good deal.
Discounts on Dining
Normally you wouldn’t ask for discounts when you go out to eat. But if you are going out with a group it is worth checking the restaurant if they have some offers running.
Especially when you are going out with your team office colleagues, a lot of restaurants near the commercial centres have employee discounts.
Discounts are in range into 10 to 20% of the total bill. When you go in larger groups, the dining bill usually comes into thousands. a 10 to 20% discount can make a big difference in the total bill.
For example you can save 2000-3000 Rupees on a total bill of Rs 20,000 which is a decent saving. Especially if it is your promotion party 😉
Ask discounts when product are damaged
If you are ok to buy products which are slightly defective you can get really good discounts on it. For example there are certain stores which sell branded clothes which are slightly defective. You can get very good discounts on products.
Electronics – show them online price
If you don’t like to buy electronic products online you can use this tip to get the best price in brick and mortar stores.
Once a product is finalized , do a quick search online on the best price of the product.
Don’t hesitate to show this price to the sales executive and ask for the price to be matched. You will be surprised to see most will try to match the price rather than see customers walk away.
These are some quick tips to easily ask for discounts and save a decent amount of money. There are many more places you can save money and you add them in the comment section below.
As you can see just by asking you can easily save 10,000 Rupees annually which can go towards Finzaadi.
