Trim App Review 2020 | An Easy Way to Save Money On Bills

The M$M Trim App Review

How Trim works

How Trim negotiates your bills

Trim can negotiate rates with any cable, internet, and/or phone company – know that they can’t negotiate all of your bills. Here’s how the process works for eligible bills:

• Using the platform, upload or send Trim one of your bills.
• Trim starts checking for discounts and credits.
• A chatbot or Trim representative will contact the company for you.
• You get a text notification saying that Trim has saved you money.

Trim can keep doing this with all of your bills if you’d like, and they only ask that you contact them if you’ve recently negotiated a bill or are about to cancel with a company.

Well, Trim does charge for bill negotiation, taking 33% of the total you save each year. You pay that to Trim upfront. That means if they can save you $20 a month on your cell plan, or $240 over the course of a year, you would pay Trim $79.20.

A fee like that is probably going to sound pretty steep to some people, but you can always negotiate bills on your own, and I’m going to talk more about that in a minute.

Canceling unwanted subscriptions with Trim

Trim’s debt payoff program

This is a fairly new service (started late 2018), and the idea works in three parts.

1. A personalized payoff plan

This starts with you linking your credit card accounts, which you would do to use the app anyway. Trim sees the interest rates on each of those cards and tells you how much to put towards each debt.

2. Trim negotiates for lower interest rates on your cards

Every 3-6 months, Trim will contact your credit card companies and see if they can lower your interest rates. The idea is that lowering your rates will help reduce the amount you owe in interest, saving you money, and maybe even speed up your payoff.

3. Coaching when you need it

Paying off debt is hard, really hard. I’ve been there, and so have a lot of you. It takes sacrifices and constant effort to make more money, cut your expenses, etc. Trim’s coaches keep you accountable even when it hurts.

Trim’s debt payoff program does come at a cost – it’s $10 a month, and that comes with a 90-day refund period if you don’t like the service.

A couple more things to know about Trim’s debt payoff program:

• This is not debt consolidation.
• They don’t negotiate the total amount you owe.

Trim is helping you create a plan, holding you accountable, and trying to lower your rates.

How Trim gets paid

An easy and free alternative to Trim

I think what Trim is doing is really awesome. The whole concept of shaving off small amounts of money here and there is something I love, and those little bits add up. Trim does that by negotiating savings for you.

But, you can negotiate those savings on your own, for free.

Here’s how you do it:

• Gather your bills (credit cards, car insurance, cell phone, internet, and phone bill).
• Call customer service and say, “I am a loyal customer, and I was wondering if there are any discounts, credits, or lower rates you can offer me.” It doesn’t have to sound just like that, but that’s the idea.
• No matter the answer, say “thanks” and move on with your day.

Practicing your pitch is helpful, and know that you’re not going to be penalized for trying. You either hear “yes” or “no.” For this to work well, doing it on your own or using Trim, you need to be making on-time payments.

I recently called my car insurance company about this, and I’m now saving $40 every month, or $480 a year. Had Trim done that for me, I’d have to pay them $158.40. I’d rather pocket those savings myself.

This is a proactive, rinse and repeat strategy to lower your bills that you try every few months. Set a reminder on your phone, write it in your calendar, etc.

If you still want to try Trim, and it is possible that they can lower your bills even more, you can call the companies first and then try Trim. I’d love to hear about your experience if you try this.

The pros and cons of using Trim

Now for the tl;dr version of my Trim app review. I think there are some obvious pros and cons, but I want to go ahead and list everything out.

Pros:

• Trim takes automation to a whole new level with its personal finance assistant.
• They make canceling subscriptions painless.
• When you combine the free budgeting software with how they cancel subscriptions for you, Trim is a great, free alternative to Mint.
• Trim protects your data with bank-level security, including 256-bit SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and read-only access.

Cons:

• You’re paying a steep fee for the bill negotiation service, especially when it’s something you can do on your own.
• Trim doesn’t have any live chat or phone support, email only at [email protected]
• Trim is still working out some kinks. They have already put a couple of features on hold (Coupon Search and Amazon Price Patrol), which might give some users pause before signing up.

M$M Trim app review – my final word