The best services for bill negotiation (2024)

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, businesses are 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 to save 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 authorize them to do the negotiating.

CNBC 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 as security features. (Read our methodologyfor more information on how we choose the best bill negotiation services.)

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.

At the basic level, bill negotiation apps and services allow customers 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.

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To determine the best bill negotiation services, CNBC 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.