If you feel like your monthly bills are always increasing, you're not alone. In some major cities across the U.S., energy bills are expected to spike as much as 10% due to fluctuating fossil fuel prices and climate change. And year over year, it's not unusual to see your bills creep up thanks to expiring promotions, taxes, fees, add-ons, etc.
Of course, you can always contact your service providers directly when you want to negotiate down fees and subscription charges. But with our busy lives, not everyone has the time to spend hours on the phone with no guarantee they will score a better rate. Increasingly, there are businesses popping up that offer bill negotiation services, either through an app or a website, that lets consumers hire experts to do the work for them.
For a fee (usually a percentage of your total savings), trained professionals who are up-to-date on the latest rates for various companies will negotiate for you with the goal of saving you a nice chunk of change on your monthly bills. After all, these businesses only make money when you save.
Typically, these services can negotiate your phone, internet and cable bills. However, some companies also include medical bill negotiation along with home security and other subscriptions. Usually, all you need to do is upload the monthly bills you want negotiated, and let the experts take it away. Sometimes, you'll need to give them authorization to do the negotiating.
Select reviewed roughly a dozen bill negotiation companies, looking at fees, types of bills negotiated, Better Business Bureau and consumer reviews and ratings, as well security features. (Read our methodology for more information on how we choose the best bill negotiation services.) Here are our top picks:
Select's picks for the top bill negotiation services
Bill negotiation services FAQs
Best overall
Billcutterz
Cost
Charges 50% on whatever savings you earn (can pay monthly or receive 10% discount for paying in full for the annual amount)
Standout features
Also aggregates quotes for car loans, car insurance and renters/home insurance
Categorizes your expenses
No
Links to accounts
Not required; you create an account and send your bills to Billcutterz (as opposed to linking bank accounts)
Availability
Sign up online for free (no app required)
Security features
Encrypted website with bank-level security, the savings experts undergo background checks and are extensively trained to ensure customer security
See our methodology, terms apply.
Pros
- Types of bills negotiated: cell phone, cable and satellite TV, internet, landline phones, cable/phone/internet bundles, alarm and security systems, satellite radio and electricity (only in eligible states)
- Customers only get charged when they save (for example, if you save $60 a month on your cell phone plan, you'll pay BillCutterz $30 each month or save 10% by paying annually; but if BillCutterz doesn't find any savings you won't get charged at all)
- Average savings turnaround time is two days (48 hours)
- Has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (average 4.5 star BBB rating with 24 reviews)
- Available to small businesses, nonprofits and individuals
Cons
- Does not include medical bill negotiation
- Electric bill negotiation only works if you live in a deregulated market
Best for texters
AskTrim.com
Cost
Offers 14-day free trial, after it's $99 per year; one-time bill negotiation fee is 33% of total annual savings
Standout features
Communicates via SMS text: Scans users' bills and texts them to get permission to cancel any subscriptions it finds. Users can easily ask questions
Categorizes your expenses
No
Links to accounts
Yes, bank and credit cards
Availability
Offered online and via SMS text
Security features
Trim uses major bank 256-bit SSL encryption and Plaid API so user credentials are never stored, hosts servers on secure Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is used by the Department of Defense, NASA and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), plus two-factor authentication or OAuth when signing in
See our methodology, terms apply.
Pros
- 14-day free trial available
- Syncs to your bank accounts and credit cards
- Makes it easy to cancel unwanted subscriptions
- Website says customers save over $600 in their first year on average
- Trim negotiates cable, internet, phone and medical bills, plus credit card interest rates, for a fee (Trim works with Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon and most other providers)
- You can also ask Trim (via SMS or Facebook Messenger) questions like how much you spent with a certain merchant or for info on your credit card balance
- Offers a FDIC-insured high-yield savings account called Trim Simple Savings with a 4% annualized bonus on users' first $2,000 saved and .001% on any amount saved after that
Cons
- $99 annual subscription
- One-time bill negotiation fee is 33% of total annual savings
- Does not negotiate satellite radio, electric or utility bills
- Has less-than-average Better Business Bureau score (2.53-star BBB rating with 46 customer reviews with 79 customer complaints in the last three years)
Best for saving on utilities
Billshark
Cost
Charges 40% on whatever savings you earn and $9 per canceled subscription
Standout features
Also provides free auto and home insurance quotes
Categorizes your expenses
No
Links to accounts
Not required; you create an account and upload your bills (as opposed to linking bank accounts)
Availability
Sign up via app (iPhone or Android) or online
Security features
Encrypted website with bank-level security (256-bit encryption), doesn't store your credit card information or provide your information to outside companies
See our methodology, terms apply.
Pros
- Types of bills negotiated: internet, subscriptions, cable and phone
- Provides a page to record outages with phone/internet/cable companies and request a statement credit as compensation
- Only charges customers when Billshark finds savings
- Accredited with an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau (a 4.45-star average BBB rating with 150 reviews)
Cons
- Does not include medical bill negotiation
- Charges $9 fee to cancel subscriptions
Best for finding unused subscriptions
Rocket Money (formerly Truebill)
Cost
Free, with option to upgrade to Truebill Premium Service for fee of $3 to $12 per month; bill negotiation costs between 30% to 60% of the 12-month savings achieved as a result of the negotiation
Standout features
Easily cancel unwanted subscriptions, track your spending and credit score, automate savings and get help lowering bills
Categorizes your expenses
Yes, Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) instantly identifies your top spending categories
Links to accounts
Yes, bank and credit cards
Availability
Offered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android), as well as online
Security features
Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) accesses users' transaction data via an encrypted token, uses Plaid API so user credentials are never stored, provides bank-level 256-bit encryption and hosts servers on secure Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is used by the Department of Defense, NASA and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
See our methodology, terms apply.
Pros
- Negotiates cell phone and cable bills, plus helps you get refunds for some bank fees
- Free version available
- Syncs to your bank accounts and credit cards
- Instantly finds and tracks your subscriptions
- Website says 80% of people save money by using Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) to find and cancel unwanted subscriptions
- Provides breakdown of user spending and notifies of upcoming charges and low balance alerts
- Helps users create a budget
- Users can see their Experian VantageScore 3.0 credit score and get access to their credit report
- Provides an interest-free pay advance up to $100 directly to qualifying users' checking accounts
- Users can set goals, save money with autopilot Smart Savings feature
- Concierge service available to identify bills to be lowered and, for a fee, Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) will negotiate on users' behalf for the best rates (non-refundable negotiation fee is anywhere from 30% to 60% of the 12-month savings achieved as a result of the negotiation)
- Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) Premium Service features include free access to Smart Savings feature, unlimited budgeting categories, custom spend categories, real-time account balance updates, premium chat, subscription cancellation concierge, “Truebill Offers" and educational material
- Coming soon: Users can track their net worth
- High Trustscore rating of 4.3/5 stars (from 392 reviews)
Cons
- Costs between $3 and $12 per month to upgrade to Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) Premium Service
- Non-refundable negotiation fee anywhere from 30% to 60% of the 12-month savings achieved as a result of Rocket Money's (formerly Truebill) bill negotiation on users' behalf
- Less than 10 Better Business Bureau reviews
- Does not negotiate internet, landline phones, cable/phone/internet bundles, alarm and security systems, satellite radio/TV or electric bills
Bill negotiation services FAQs
What bills can you negotiate?
The best services on our list will negotiate everyday household bills including internet, cell phone, cable and even sometimes medical bills.
Typically, you upload the bills you want negotiated to a website or app. Then you answer a few questions and provide your authorization so the company can negotiate on your behalf. Then, a savings expert will call your providers and negotiate lower rates on your monthly bills.
For security purposes, you may need to authorize your bill negotiation rep with your service provider, either by making them an authorized user or sharing the appropriate pin codes/safe words for them to unlock access to your account information. Some services may also have the ability to call using your name.
What do bill negotiation services include?
At the basic level, bill negotiation apps and services give customers the opportunity to submit past bills for review. Depending on the service, a team of experts and/or a secure software will scan your bills to find opportunities to negotiate lower costs and/or statement credits. These opportunities might include areas where you are currently being overcharged, moments in which you lost services but were charged anyway (such as during a power outage), billing errors (which are especially prevalent on medical bills) and more.
While these services are not free, many programs only charge customers if they're able to save you money first. Typically, you'll be charged a percentage of the savings, anywhere between 30 and 60%. Be sure to double check the fees and costs for each of the above services before signing up.
Read more
Our methodology
To determine the best bill negotiation services, Select analyzed over a dozen options offered by the top companies in this market. We narrowed down our ranking by only including services that offer free sign-up and charge transparent rates based on how much savings they earn for their customers. This means you won't pay unless the service is actually able to negotiate savings on your behalf.
In addition, we chose bill negotiation services that have at least two security features, such as two-factor authentication and fraud detection, so you can feel comfortable sharing your personal information.
We also considered the Better Business Bureau accreditation, as well as user ratings and reviews.
