but I won. I currently pay $17.97/month for the service ($215.64/year). I called up the regular 1-800 onstar number, told the woman that I got the service for a year when I bought the car and renewed it last year, but hadn't used it at all. Given that I have AAA and a cell phone, and the fact that I haven't used it, I was thinking about cancelling, but didn't really want to, and could they offer me any discounts to make the $18/month bite a little less painful. She told me the best she could give me was a prepaid year for $199 + tax ($210.94). At first I jumped at it, but then I figured out it only saved me $5 for the year! You've got to be kidding me! So I asked her to give me a number for customer service that I could call.

They transferred me to their sales department (better than the cust service reps). After reminding me of all of the great features onstar has to offer (blah, blah, blah), I finally got their "cancel save" offer of a prepaid 12 months for 169+tax=$179.10. It's only a savings of $36.54 for the year, but I'll take it, especially since DH really wants it! Plus now it's prepaid so I don't have to look at the monthly charge on my credit card bill. Given my recent success knocking down my DirectTv bill by $75 ($10/6 months and $5/3 months), I'm now encouraged to call all of my service providers that I'm no longer contractually obligated to and see what they can do for me. (Not sure who else that is, because I'm still under contract to Verizon Wireless, but I'll go through the budget and find out).

I think the key to my experience for both Onstar and DirectTv is to not stop at the first person you speak with, and get to sales people if possible, because they have more of a vested interest in keeping you as a customer.

I also looked into the wireless phone jack. I found one at Circuit City with decent reviews for $60. I still have $25 in discounted gift cards, so it will only be $35 out of pocket. Significantly better than the $175 or so for Verizon to come back. I'll pick it up today or tomorrow and see how it works out.

I also need to head to ShopRite today - I never made it there earlier in the week. Also, we're having another couple for dinner tomorrow night, so after I figure out what I'm going to serve, I need to pick the things up.