The Call About Your Tariff

Companies price in your inertia: the discount goes to the new customer, while the old one pays a markup for not calling. It is only their advertising that calls this loyalty.

Pick one contract that has been running for more than a year: mobile, broadband, electricity, home or car insurance. Find what you pay now and open the same provider's price for new customers on their site; look at two competitors in parallel and note their figures. Call and say it plainly: I pay this, you charge new customers that, a competitor charges this — what can you do. Do not threaten, simply stay quiet after the question and let them answer. If what they offer is worse than the competitor, say: then I am switching, please tell me how to terminate. Take it to one of two endings: a new price effective from a stated date, or a termination request submitted.

The call is usually shorter than the fear of it and often ends with a discount they would never have sent you by email. The uncomfortable part is the pause: between the question and the answer you will want to talk and ruin it — practise staying silent, that is the actual skill. If they gave you nothing and you are not ready to switch, set a reminder for the contract's end date: your leverage is stronger then. If the fear won and the call never happened, write the same thing in the support chat — in writing is arguably better, since it leaves a record with a date and a figure.