Ask and you will receive, don’t and you won’t!   We all hate bills and there is nothing worse than a monthly bill that includes a letter with excuses explaining why they are increasing fees.    Ever wish you could erase those increases?   Ask, and you will receive.

We all love to hear the word yes to our requests.  This past week I heard yes from two places where I am the customer and they sent the letter stating I WILL be paying more for their services.  My initial thoughts were, this stinks, every time I turn around somebody is taking more out of my wallet.  There is nothing I can do about it.

But then I remembered I wrote a series of articles myself on loyalty ,  one of which suggested to pick up the phone and ask to opt out of an increase.

The first call was to Mastercard.  $89.00 for an annual fee just did not seem right, but I have been happy with the card.  I lost my frequent flyer status on one of the airlines I fly so that Zone 1 loading option was working out good now, and they give me double points on all the reservations.  It won’t hurt to make a call and try again (last year they said yes) to eliminate the fee.

Amazingly the auto menu was easy to navigate and I found my way straight to where I knew I needed to go, ‘CANCEL my card’.   The credit card companies have learned that getting new customers is very costly, to lose one you already have on the hook takes the profit right down the drain.  Within a minute a friendly voice was asking if they could help me.   I explained I only use this card for booking flights and could not see spending $89 for the use of a card (which they would see my records is actually good business for them – they collect the 2-3% from all parties, even though I always pay on time to not occur interest charges).

The nice lady ran through the list of benefits of the card to which I said those all mean nothing to me.   She then asked the question I was waiting for.  If we waived your annual fee would you consider keeping the card for another year.   I paused for 5 seconds and sighed.  Well you know what, it is a hassle to pick up another card, since you are offering it, I guess I’ll keep this one more year.   I asked if it would be ok to pay this bill short.  Why yes of course, we’ll credit the fee within 3-5 days.  Thanks.  YES!!

To think I was just going to pay the bill and forget about it, we’ll take a Ben Franklin any day.

While I was hot I thought I might as well address the email from our security service for their annual rate increase.  This was a little more difficult as the email just came that morning.   ‘Due to extreme call volume, call waiting time will exceed 10 minutes’.   For a $2.50 a month increase, I decided this call could wait until later.   But I remembered my phone has this little feature called ‘speaker phone’.   I had plenty of other emails to do, so I hit speaker phone and waited.

Fifteen minutes later the ‘cancel my service’ attendant picked up the line.  The tone was pretty clear they had been through a number of calls already with people not wanting to pay the increase in fees.  He ran through the spiel of benefits of the service and actually touched on a couple I had not thought of, one being the fire alarm monitoring we had.  He did buy my excuse that I didn’t need a security service any longer since my two large dogs have been scaring away the everyone lately.   But the thought that they were at risk in a fire softened my animal loving heart a bit.

Just enough for me to say YES, I will receive not only the no increase in my rates, but the extra $2.00 off per month he was able to find for the loyalty discount.

Ask and you will receive, don’t and you won’t!

(If this is your first time visiting Average Joe’s Portico, you have to read the Do you Dare  tab to understand the shift, or just read on)

DO YOU DARE TO CROSS INTO THE PORTICO?

Many a Christian will quote Matthew 7:7 when it comes to giving advice to a person who is struggling with finances, health, job, relationships and every other need.   “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”  (ESV version)

It is the catch-all to every problem.  Just go to God and you will get whatever you want.   Don’t and you won’t, ‘that is why you are struggling’, is the cold answer that some provide.

And sometimes answers come as quick as the phone calls I made last week to get out of some fees.   But we all know those Yes answers from credit card companies are rare.  And often it takes a lot more than a simple phone call.  Honestly, the answer is no more times than a yes comes along.  But just because the answer is no, does not mean do not try again.

A more accurate version of Matthew 7:7 is in the Amplified version:   ‘Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.’

In our instant access society of fast food, instant messaging, instagram and instant everything we have become cold to persistence and patience.  Sadly, many have put their relationship with God in the same set up.   Churches cater to this thinking by cramming in all you need to hear and see about God in a one hour session that is supposed to provide just enough to help you get through another week.

If you are just barely getting by, maybe that is the reason why.

Maybe your need is the Amplified version?

Ask (and keep on asking) and you will receive, don’t and you won’t!