Saving $240 by making a phone call

New WalletImage by illustir via FlickrSaving money doesn't have to be difficult. Sometimes all it takes is just a phone call.

I was billed $240 for my ABN AMRO Platinum Card for the annual fee. I have been using this card for free for 2 years and called them up to cancel the card because I haven't been charging much of my expenses to this card.

Spoke with the call centre rep who forwarded my call to their cards dept and immediately got a waiver for 3 years because they were in the process of rebranding the card and repackaging the benefits and promotions and would rather retain me as a customer even though I charged only a little of my expenses to the card.

The other recent example was the NTUC Income Car Cooperative. I had recently cancelled my membership and was surprised to receive a bill for a car booking for the supplementary membership that was held by the wife. Called up the CarCoop finance people who said they would check as I had already cancelled my membership before the date of the transaction. Later that day, a call centre rep called me to inform me that the charges would be cancelled as they had billed me erroneously due to a call centre operator making a mistake on the membership number of the person making the booking.

That was $132 saved if I had not checked and paid the bill unthinkingly.

What is the lesson I continue to learn about saving money?

  1. Check your bills carefully
  2. Dispute the transactions or ask to cancel for credit card annual dues
  3. Be firm but polite
Every cent counts and every money saving tip you apply stretches your hard earned dollar!




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