Everytime I signup for an annual service I always make sure to cancel to auto-renewal so that the company has to contact me to renew.
It's coming up to my renewal date for breakdown cover on my uber-cheap commuting motorbike so my recovery company calls up and quotes £60! Considering I paid £34.99 last year thats a huge increase! I pointed this out to the sales guy and he responded with the dreaded line "That was an introductory offer price". Oh.. so you value other people more than your current customers?! I told him not to renew and that I would call up the other major recovery company here in the UK.
After lying to them about my renewal quote (Said it was £34.99) they offered to cover for £28.99. Not bad, right? Well I thought what the hell, may as well see if my current company could match that. After all, its easier to just stick with the same company. They came back and said they would do the renewal for £28! Less than half the £60 they were originally stating.
I'd just saved £32 ($55) in 10 minutes.