Day 5: Phone calls: From Ring, Ring to Cha-Ching

Day 5 - It's time to sit down and make some money calls. As much as Law of Attraction followers may believe that faith will put money into their wallets, an even better and more immediate strategy would be to employ the use of the telephone. A few minutes invested in calling up one of your service providers, may lead to a solution to reduce your expenditure and increase your value for money.

Make a list of areas you want to make savings in. Another list for services you want to switch or accounts you want to close or put on hold. Look at the saving as a percentage of our outgoings and think where that money could be better invested.

The persistent BAD PENNY!

A few weeks before I started a challenge, I contacted my credit card company to query why a balance of £1.17 was persistently present in the purchase column of my statement, when I had never made a purchase on the card. It transpired that before the ''purchase' (late payment fee) had been fully paid off, the system switched the order of payments of debt from 'paying off purchases first', to paying off the largest interest rate first. Was I paying interest on £1.17 too?

While searching for the answer, it also emerged that the interest rate being paid was higher that the rate I was meant to be on. I asked if I could get a lower interest rate on the card. They initially agreed then later when I called back, I was told "oh, we were wrong, the interest rate was right". Can I apply for the lower rate. "No". "Why Not?" I asked. "Because of affordabilty" he replied. How bizarre. They were saying I couldn't afford a 6% interest credit card, but I could afford one at 23%!

Clearly they were only thinking about their profit, as the following month I cleared the credit card completely. Six weeks later they sent me a letter, offering me a credit card at 6.4% interest.

Who else can you call?

• What other sources of income can you generate by proactively using the phone?
  
• Are there any jobs or career opportunities that can be set in motion with a call?
  
• Are there any unanswered questions that you can begin to resolve with a phonecall?
  
• What problems affecting your finances, can you put an end to with a few phone calls?
  
• Who do you know that may help you if you begin a better relationship with a ring?

So take some time to sit down and make those calls that could save you thousands in the long run and spare you stress and overwork for years to come? Don't procrastinate now.
 
Set a timer and get to it!

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