A woman has claimed that using ChatGPT to renegotiate her household bills has led to almost £800 in savings per year. ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot created by the company OpenAI, can write everything from essays to poems, but its ability to problem-solve would prove especially useful to Jessie Hewitson, who’s written about personal finance for 15 years.
Jessie, who was tasked with using the chatbot to see how much cash she could save, started the process by simply asking it what she should do. It led to ChatGPT penning a script she could use to negotiate the amount she spends on her bills.
The journalist decided to start with her broadband costs, telling the tool that she was dissatisfied with her Vodafone coverage for the £35 monthly price. So, having been instructed to check out other deals, Jessie discovered a £23 offer with Virgin, writes the i Paper.
Jessie then requested a script from ChatGPT, which she put to Vodafone. She said: “I read the script word-for-word and the woman from Vodafone immediately folded, offering me a reduction on our bill of £22 a month including VAT. Result.
“This saved me £156 a year. Buoyed by my quick win, it motivated me to tackle the big one: energy. I explained to ChatGPT that we liked our provider (Octopus) and wanted to stick with them.”
Armed with a fresh script from the chatbot, Jessie then entered negotiations with the supplier via email. However, following a “confusing” exchange, she ultimately decided to call.
It would lead to a lengthy conversation with the operator about her options, and it was deduced that an hourly-changing ‘agile’ tariff would best suit her electricity needs and a variable tariff for gas.
In a welcome twist, the operator revealed that they would have saved £45 over the previous month if they’d been on the agile tariff, meaning (if they assumed this was the case throughout the year), she could save a staggering £540 per annum.
When it came to her potential gas savings, Jessie was informed that with the variable tariff, she could have saved £86 over the past year. It was enough to convince her to switch tariffs, meaning an impressive possible saving of £626.
Despite this success, Jessie also explained that ChatGPT “can’t work miracles”, having attempted to use the chatbot to produce a letter that would help her avoid a £90 penalty for not paying a tunnel charge.
However, as good as the letter was, it wasn’t successful in convincing Transport for London, and she had to pay the fine. Jessie also noted that she wasn’t able to reduce all of her household bills in this way either.
When she attempted to renew her house insurance in this manner (adding the fact that she had a lodger to the policy), ChatGPT suggested the provider Emerald Life, and she was quoted the much higher figure of £1,627.24 (previously £436).
Yet, Jessie, who also saved £300 on a hire car using the chatbot, decided to ask ChatGPT to write a reply asking for a reduction, and, having sent this off, Jessie is now “waiting to hear back”.