How Can You Shrink Your Bills?

Your bills are eating up a big chunk of your budget. You’re hoping to shrink them a little bit, but you’re not sure how to do it. These are some ideas that you can use to get more savings.

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Skip the Premium Plans:

Ask yourself, do you really need all the bells and whistles of a premium subscription, or could you take a plainer option for the sake of your budget? For instance, are you signed up for a premium Netflix subscription? You can drop down to a lower service rank. While it may have ads or a smaller selection, the change will be worth the savings.

Or maybe you’re signed up for an Audible Premium plan. An Audible Premium plan is $14.95 per month and the Audible Premium Plus is $22.95 per month. In comparison, a basic AudiblePlus plan is $7.95 per month. That’s a significant drop that still allows you to enjoy your favorite audiobooks!

Opt for Free Versions:

Is there a way that you can get the same service without spending anything? Then, you should think about taking it. For instance, maybe you have a Spotify music subscription. You can downgrade to a free plan, as long as you’re willing to listen to ads. A basic premium plan is $10.99 a month, which is just over $130 per year. A premium duo plan or family plan would cost you even more. You can put that money back into your pocket when you skip the premium plan and choose the free version.

Cancel Unwanted Subscriptions:

Do you have subscriptions that you’ve completely forgotten about? You signed up for free trials ages ago, and you completely forgot that you’re still paying for them. Now’s the time to go through your credit card statements to see which subscription fees you can finally drop.

If you’d rather outsource this work, you could use a subscription-cutting app. Subscription-cutting apps can help negotiate rates and cancel subscriptions. When you’re really busy, this solution could be a huge relief.

Negotiate with Providers:

You can contact your providers and negotiate your rates. As long as you’re willing to spend some time on the phone talking to a customer service representative, you could shrink your bills for the upcoming year. What providers should you contact? Do this for your cable TV, cell phone, internet and home security companies.

Negotiate Your Interest Rate:

Your utility bills aren’t the only things you can negotiate for the sake of savings. You can also negotiate your interest rates with your credit card issuers.

Credit card annual percentage rates are notoriously steep. The average credit card interest rate is almost 25%. Just to give you some perspective on the size of this rate, the average interest rate for federal student loans is 4.99% and the average interest rate for auto loans (for new cars) is 4.07%. A 25% interest rate is incredibly high — and it will undoubtedly affect your monthly credit card bills.

So, if you’d like to shrink your monthly bills, you can contact your credit card issuer to see whether it can reduce your interest rate. You just might get a better deal.

Where Can You Put These Savings?

Once you’ve made all of these changes, you will have some extra savings in your pocket every single month. What should you do with them? The wisest thing to do with them is put them inside a savings account. This can be your emergency fund.

Without an emergency fund, you might not be able to cover an urgent expense that drops into your lap — at least, not without turning your entire budget upside down. If you’re ever in this position, you can go to a website like Creditfresh and find out whether you’re eligible for a personal loan. If you are, you can submit a loan application quickly. The process could take you less than 10 minutes to complete. You just might get approved for this online loan, which you could then use to recover from your emergency.

While this is an effective backup plan, you’re better off having an emergency fund. A personal loan will give you another bill to pay down every month. You’re trying to reduce your bill payments — not add to them.

Your bills don’t have to be this high. Follow these simple tips and start shrinking them!