Beware Front Loaded Offers – If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

How do you know which is the best offer to choose when you decide to rent a self-storage unit? We have decided to put this article together for everyone just so you can get to know which ones are the best offers to go for when selecting which storage company to use and how to avoid common pitfalls.

It may naturally seem like the best deals to go for are the highly advertised, in your face offers but often you might end up paying more. The best way to think about it is to consider supermarket tactics of getting customers to buy lots of ‘on offer’ products making us think that we are getting a great deal. However, this is a well-known trick that we subconsciously fall for time and time again, if you shop around a little bit you can find the same type of product for a lot less.

The same goes for self-storage offers, they tend to reel you in with big discounts and astonishingly low prices but many of these deals will end up costing you a lot more than you intended to pay. Companies are savvy they know how the mind of a consumer works and often try to capitalise on it.

Take this offer for example: 50% off for up to 8 weeks

This offer looks enticing to a customer, however the problem is that this offer is only valid for an introductory period. The issue is that if you continue to store your belongings with them after the 8 weeks are up, the normal price of the unit may be a lot more expensive than if you had looked elsewhere for a set rate. This means that over a period of time you will most likely end up paying much more than if you had known the set rate right from the beginning.

Also, often people forget that the offer only lasts 8 weeks and unknowingly carry on paying at the full rate and are dismayed when they look at their account and see how much they have been charged.

Storage from £1 pound a week

This sounds like the best offer anyone can get right, how can you go wrong? Now let’s think for moment, we have all seen the Megabus driving around advertising their fares as available for £1 but has any ever got the Megabus for £1? I know I certainly haven’t.

This is often just another front loaded offer to grab your attention but the deal you usually walk away with is extremely different than the one you initially wanted. Even if you had every intention of coming out of there with a deal of a lifetime, it often turns out to be a pretty average deal.

Here at Fox Self-Storage, we offer flat rates and transparent prices that are designed not to confuse our customers. Typically over a storage term our prices are similar if not better than any front loaded offers. Of course, we cannot say that all deals are going to be bad, so if you do manage to find one that is particularly good, we are happy to price match on a like for like basis in comparison with a quote from a fellow Self Storage Association member and subject to availability.