Everyone hates car repairs and I’m no different. Nothing feels like throwing money away more than to paying for something you can’t see and gives you no additional benefit from what you had before. It seems almost crazy.
My husband’s car had been acting up. Once in a while instead of shifting gears it would just go into neutral and get stuck there. He would have to coast over to the side of the road and put it in park before it would shift again. Which obviously is pretty dangerous! You can’t just have your car randomly going into neutral. So we took it into the shop hoping and praying it just needed a transmission flush.
Nope! Our worst fears were confirmed that the car needed a whole new transmission.
The bill was $3,200 plus tax. Which would come to $3,489.60 according to my calculations. (9.05% sales tax)
Because we knew this money would have to come from our emergency fund, which meant we were basically paying cash, my husband asked for a cash discount. They said yes and offered us a new bill of $3,000 including tax. Which is really amazing and honestly I don’t think the guy realized what a crazy deal he was giving us. That’s a 14% discount! We would have been happy with 5%.
So having cash saved us almost $500 plus we don’t have to pay interest, or stress, by having this floating around on our credit card for months or years.
We did have to go down there with $100 bills, which felt very strange. I went into the bank to get the money and as the teller was counting out my cash she asked “Car repairs or air conditioner?” haha. Car repairs.
So the moral of the story is to ask for a cash discount! Don’t feel bad about it. Paying cash benefits the company too. They avoid a transaction fee from the credit card company and get their money faster. Keep in mind that the fee and delay of payment is factored into your price. You deserve a discount if you pay in cash. Otherwise you are paying for something you aren’t using.
Have you ever asked for a cash discount? How much did you save?
As much as possible, pay in cash. I don’t understand why is it that there are a lot of people who would prefer to pay in credit or get a car loan when they know that they will pay higher price, which is not a very good investment if you ask me.
Yes! When I went to pay the $5,000 in hospital and doctor bills I had accumulated after having my baby, I called the hospital and asked for a cash discount. I was told no. Ugh. I had read this tip in a magazine article about lowering medical bills. I’m sure if I had delayed payment they might have discounted the bills a bit, but I didn’t want that damage to my credit.