Or how to be a cheap bastard :)

When people call me at work and ask for a better price, and say they are considering my lower-priced competitor, most of the time I will give them the better price.

In my experience, most companies work this way. I've found a shocking number of companies will reduce their prices simply by asking them to.

This of course cannot be done directly through online shopping. You have to call and ask. But sometimes, it's can be a big savings.

For example, if I put together a new computer on Dell's website, it will be a decent price. If I call their salesperson, and tell the salesperson that I am comparing their prices to TigerDirect and Lenovo and wanted to know if Dell was willing to reduce their price, every single time Dell will significantly reduce their prices. You don't even have to say "TigerDirect is $200 less", Dell will automatically just adjust the price fairly low, no questions asked.

Similarly with credit card companies, if you have a good record with them, you can call about once a year and ask them to reduce your interest rate. I usually say I am getting offers in the mail for really low rates, and I want to know if they are willing to reduce their rates or if I should instead consider these other offers. Most of the time, your credit card company will reduce your interest rate. And that can add up to a huge savings over time. Even if you always pay off your card every month, getting the lower interest rate looks good on your credit report.

I've started to expand the use of this practice to even online items. Today I needed to renew our THWATE certificate (that's pronouced THOUGHT, don't ask me why). THWATE is a web server security certificate (An SSL). It's the thing that tells your online buyers that you have at least a basic level of cryptographic protocol for your purchasing communications. I noticed that, though last time I renewed the certificate in 2006 it was $109 a year, this time it was $249 a year. As the Ghost Hunters would say, "What the Fudge?". So I called them, and after hearing the sales pitch for why their new prices were justified (they have 93% market share now, that is the real reason), I told the salesperson I would find a cheaper competitor and switch to them, after many years service, if he didn't get me better prices. One sentence, that's all it took, and my price came down to $148 a year. Still $39 a year more than last time, but a heck of a lot better than the $140 a year more they were asking for. And he could even adjust the price online for me by having me mark off "pay by check", processing the order, changing the price, and then manually changing it to credit card on his side.

This sort of thing works in person as well, for some things. Now I am not saying you should negotiate your bean burrito prices. I am saying however certain things work well with this. Like when getting your car repaired at the dealership (not usually a wise thing, but sometimes necessary), I always ask what current coupons offers they have at that time. Every time, they have a coupon offer, and every time they just give me that coupon price without me having the coupon. And the coupon at a dealer repair location is usually for a decent chunk of change.

So, I encourage you to call before you buy, even for things you buy on the internet, and for some things in person. It can't hurt, will be a heck of a lot less intimidating than you think, and can save you a lot of money.