How I saved $256 on my bills!

First of all I just wanted to say, I LOVE Negotiating! : D It has helped me in so many ways and benefited both myself and the person I am negotiating with. The last two weeks I have to talk myself out of some very expensive bills!

My first bill is my AT&T bill. I went on a Cruise and used my cell phone for texting and sending pictures in Mexico like a dumbass without signing up for their International plan. So when I got my bill it was $420!! I was shocked and felt like an idiot for using it when I shouldn't have! Now keep in mind, I work in Customer Service, so I know the process of that as well!

So I called AT&T and spoke to an agent named Samantha. The first words were out of my mouth, I am an idiot and take full responsibility for my stupidity but I cannot pay this, at first it took me a minute to figure out what the bill was for and then remembered I went on my cruise and can you please help me or connect me to your supervisor? Well, she of course was being her friendly customer service self, pulled up my invoice and said well, what I can do is re-rate your invoice as if you had the International Plan at the time of your trip. So she re-rated it and took off $196 in charges!!! I was so thankful! I offered to do anything she wanted like give her a compliment or anything else to help her out in anyway and unfortunately there wasn't anything that could be done. But I was so grateful! : D

My second example is I have my paypal connected to my other checking account that I hardly use, well I didn't know I was receiving all these overdraft charges till I got my statement. What had happened was I bought a $6.00 Hannah Montana doll off eBay. I didn't have any money in my paypal and so it was hitting my checking with no money in it (now I really felt like a dumbass). So my bill was $132 in overdraft charges! : O

So on my last break at work, I went to the bank and told them the same thing I am an idiot I take full responsibility but I cannot pay this. So with this they had to get the manager involved, they removed $60, let me keep my account and make payments on the rest.

So I saved a total of $256.00 between both bills. Really, it pays to ask ;)