In Finance, what is Non-Negotiable?

I bought a savings bond for my son a few years ago. It will mature in about twenty years. He is the only one who can redeem it. That protects him.

I can’t cash it for extra money to splurge on my own wants and desires (not that I would want to do that), and no one else can use it either. So when the time comes he will be the sole beneficiary of the money that accrues on that bond.

He can do whatever he wants with it, use it to fund college or whatever. But it’s his money.

@MrMoody - Yeah, "one off" items here and there won’t hurt the store much. I do agree that customers have more leverage at their disposal than they realize.

It’s in the commercial sector that non negotiable contracts tend to be set in stone, but sometimes even that can change and end up hurting you in the end. For example, our church went on a building program some years ago. They got some decent rates on wood supplies from a particular vendor.

The vendor was willing to lock in their rates for a set time period. That helped us for awhile. Then hurricane Katrina hit. That vendor’s costs suddenly went through the roof since they were located in that area.

They honored the same contract with its rates, but as soon as the term of contract expired they hiked their rates. We had to put our building program on hold until for awhile until we could find another vendor with lower rates.

It’s interesting to discover what is really non negotiable and what is not. In times of economic downturn, financial advisors will tell you that it’s possible to go into a store and negotiate prices on certain items, even if the store does not normally allow you to do that.

Of course it depends on how badly they need to clear out the items and if there are already enough people willing to pay for the item at the regular price.

It couldn’t hurt to try. You just need to be reasonable. Don’t ask for 50% off or something like that. But it doesn’t hurt to see if you can get 20% or so in my opinion. I actually think you gain more leverage if you show that you’re buying a bunch of stuff instead of one item. The store will still make a profit on volume.

@wavy58 – I think that realtors might be more willing to negotiate with people on prices than homeowners, since they have a lot of properties to move. When you are dealing with the homeowner directly, it can be tough to get them to lower their price.

My neighbor has been trying to sell his house for over a year. He is determined to sell it for $150,000, but for many people around here, that is just too much.

He has had several offers up to $120,000, but he tells people that he will not settle for less than $150,000. He is retired, and I think that he is worried about having enough money to support himself and his wife for the rest of their lives. He may never sell that house, but he will die trying to get $150,000!

The vast majority of the time, house prices are negotiable. My brother got the owner of his current house to come down $10,000 on the price.

When the real estate market goes through tough times, realtors are more lenient and willing to negotiate on the prices. I keep up with the local newspaper's real estate publication, because I am thinking of buying a house, and I have seen prices drop by over $50,000 at times.

This just makes me wonder how far they would come down on a price in a negotiation with a customer. Those listed drops were based on current market value, and I have a feeling that they might be so desperate to sell anything at all that I could talk them way down.

@Perdido – I have had that same trouble in my workplace. I work at the counter of a fine jewelry store, and I just don't have the authority to lower prices.

I think that the more expensive an item is, the more people assume that they can negotiate on it. In some cases, like in antique stores, that is true, but in others, you just have to respect the price that the store owner has placed on an item.

I have had several people walk out in a huff because I told them that the prices were non-negotiable. I don't know if other jewelry stores have this same policy, but the only time we offer an item for a lower price is when we have a sale.

I work for a newspaper, and the sales representatives have all their customers sign contracts before they advertise with us. I am a graphic designer for the newspaper, and I overhear a lot of their phone conversations with customers. I recently heard that one of them became upset because the sales rep would not negotiate the price.

She told him that our advertising rates are set in stone, and they are the same for everyone. He complained that since he had been a loyal customer for years, they should cut him a deal. She told him this was just not possible.

He was a car dealer, so he naturally assumed that everything was negotiable. He thought he could talk anyone down in price, but he didn't realize that some businesses just don't operate that way.