Call Before You Pay (Janssen)

I have a secret theory that some companies send out bills without a lot of detail or add on extra charges, hoping that you'll pay them without noticing or bothering to find out what exactly you're paying.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me how much we'd paid out of pocket for our daughter's birth. I told her (probably with no small degree of smugness) that it'd been completely covered by insurance.

Then, of course, THAT AFTERNOON I walked to the mailbox and pulled out a bill from the hospital for the sum of $700. My baby was eight months old! What could I possibly owe? Also, goodbye tax return.

I went home and called the hospital to ask what this $700 bill was for (you might have guessed that the bill made no mention of WHAT I might owe $700 for, just that I owed it and ought to pay it quickly before it went to collections).

They told me that $200 of it was my co-pay and $500 was my co-insurance. (I have no idea what co-insurance is). They did rush to assure me that the insurance company had already paid $15,000 for her birth, and had only bumped back this very small $700 charge. This did not make me feel better.

I felt certain that everything we'd read about the health insurance plan insisted that a birth would be completely covered and there would be no copay at all. So I called my health insurance company and asked how come they hadn't paid it.

The answer? They'd listed my delivery as being out of network. Was it? Of course not, and as soon as they looked up the hospital where she was born and my plan, it was clear that she was born right smack in the middle of the network and that I certainly did not owe $700 and they would cover it.

But if I hadn't called, I would never have known, and I also would have been $700 poorer. On Monday, I got a form from the insurance company indicating that they had increased the amount they paid and I now owed nothing.

If I wasn't already convinced that you shouldn't call about any bills you think you don't owe, I certainly am now.

When Negotiating, Make Them Say "No" (Carole)

Some of the most money savvy people I know, live by this phrase,

"Make them say 'No'." 

It means that when you are trying to buy an item or service (car, house, household repair, renovations, something at a garage sale) where there is negotiation involved, you should always bid low, low, low.  The object is to get the other person to say "No."  Because if the sales person says "Yes" to your bid, you COULD have bid lower.

Your goal is to figure out the lowest possible price.

I have a relative who uses this tactic on just about every purchase he makes.  He offers about 75% of the asking price.  He's pretty sure this bid will be safely below the "No Line."  For example, if a car is listed at $15,000 then he offers about $11,000.

Sure enough -- "No!"  (Bidding lower than 75% can often be offensive, but if you have a thick skin and can handle a cool, steely glare, give it a try!)

Now he has a bottom price to work from and he can negotiate up from there.  He almost always gets a killer deal this way.  

There are many strategies that can be used when negotiating on a item, but these three simple rules seem to work in almost every case -- even for those of us who don't enjoy confrontation.

1.  Make them say "no," then work to a price you can both be happy with
2.  Remain pleasant
3.  Be willing to not buy this item.

Please share your negotiation success stories!  What has worked for you?