Almost everyone will use a storage facility at some point in their life: it’s a boon, especially for young people renting small flats without attics, garages or other capacious storage options older generations may be familiar with.
While it’s useful, that also means it’s something you could find yourself charged a lot for. You’ll need to find a deal on the London storage you need the next time you move house, clear space or even decide to start a business!
Today we’re taking a look at different ways you can cut the cost when you’re renting a storage unit so if it’s something you’ve been considering but have been put off the price, today could be your luck day!
Know Your Needs
Make sure you know what you’ll be storing and how long you’ll be storing it for. Many storage companies are happy to have the stable income from long term customers, and so if you go in able to tell them you’re planning on requiring a storage unit for six months or more you’ll find a reduced rate is available. It’s similar for business customers, who again represent a stable income in an industry with peaks and troughs almost built in.
Price Matching
You may have noticed that there are storage companies almost everywhere there’s room for them – they spring up on the outside of towns, and in big cities, many older buildings like ex-industrial warehouses are being converted for self-storage.
That means they’re very much in demand, but it also means there’s a lot of competition! Every customer a storage company is able to capture doesn’t just mean money for them, it also means they’ve starved the competition of another bit of revenue. This means that if you have a strong preference for a particular storage firm, but they’re pricier than you like, try letting them know you have a quote from elsewhere and they’ll often match it!
Some companies will also beat a quote from their rivals, so you could generate a reasonable discount if you’re able to bounce a request between a few different providers each one beating the beaten price from the one before!
Haggling
This takes more courage than making use of an advertised price matching policy, but for the confident it can have big rewards – especially if you’re working in the short term! For storage companies, empty units are costing them money so there’s a real drive to get them filled. Walking in near the end of a working day in a facility with lots of empty space gives you a big advantage. Know what your budget and remain polite as you explain you’d love to find a solution but can only pay X (the amount you want to pay).
It doesn’t guarantee results, but haggling is certainly worth trying for the confident.
