Nowadays, pretty much everybody has a cell phone, and the associated bill that comes with it. On some months that bill can be so high that you almost get a heart attack when you open it, especially on those times where you had no idea it would come up to that amount. I'm going to give you a couple of pointers that should help you avoid such unpleasant surprises in the future. Keep reading if that catches your interest.
1. Going over you allotted quota. I don't have any statistics, but I feel comfortable saying that is your bill comes to an unusually high amount, then four times out of five it's because you exceeded either your minutes, text messages, or Internet usage limit, or any combination thereof. What makes this so costly is that, compared to your "normal" rates (which are the ones within your plan), overage rates are almost crazy high. The only silver lining to this is that your bill will clearly state exactly what it is you went over on and will total your overage charges apart from your normal bill.
How to keep this under control: move up to a more generous plan in terms of minutes, text, or Internet usage. The initial reaction to this is usually "But I'm trying to SAVE money". To this I reply that consistently going over is certainly more costly than moving to a plan allows for more of your most used services. If this is not a possibility, either because you don't want to or can't afford it, your last resort will be to just keep a close eye on your usage and stop using the phone when said usage is getting too high. Not easy, but doable (and certainly economical).
2. Third Party Subscriptions. You've probably seen their commercials on TV. These subscription providers are known for their shady business practices, but they never seem to go away no matter how many complaints and lawsuits are filed against them. Their offerings can range from a "free ringtone of the month" club to "horoscope of the day", to a "naughty picture of the day". Theoretically, you can only subscribe by sending a text message to an advertised number or by visiting their website and entering your information there. Yet, they seem to have this knack for appearing on people's bills out of nowhere, which is made easier by the fact that they're not always required to inform you of the new subscription. So be sure to analyze the "direct bill" portion of your bill, because that's where their charges will be listed.
Not too long ago, AT&T settled a class action suit about this business practice. From then on, they've agreed to notify their customers (by text message) every time there's a new subscription that's being added to their account. Actually, technically it's not a notification, but more of a call to action: if the customer doesn't reply to the text, the mentioned subscription can't be added to his/her account. The other carriers should definitely follow suit.
3. One-time fees. Finally, you may be facing a higher bill because of one-time fees: activation fees, re-activation fees, upgrade fees, or non-payment fees, just to name a few. If an account gets suspended because of an unpaid past due bill, most companies will assess you a re-activation fee and nine times out of ten will not waive it. As a general rule, these fees rarely are waived or credited back to your account. But since it never hurts to try, you can ask for discounts, for example as an employee of X company (you never know). Otherwise, you can always try to be nice and courteously ask customre service if there's any possibility of crediting your account. Being a longtime customer with a good record of paying your bills on time will certainly not hurt your chances.
Strategy. Depending on your habits, there are a lot of options you can use to curb your use of cell phone services. If you talk a lot in the early evening, it might be worth it to pay a little extra for early night and weekend minutes. Skype, Vonage, MagicJack, T-Mobile, and so many others offer phone service that uses your existing Internet broadband connection, saving you minutes when you're at home. Also, you should always ask for discounts. We're talked about employee discounts, but if you are a student, ask if the university that you go to gets a discount. If you are retired, ask if the company you retired from gets one. If you're self-employed, put the account under your business's name. As long as you can prove that you use it for business purposes, you'll be eligible for a business discount.
If you're unable to pay your bill in one payment, try calling your carrier's customer service department to try and arrange a payment scheme so that your service doesn't get disconnected. Of course, if you haven't been paying on time, they will be less lenient with you: a good bill-paying record never hurt anyone. In any case, as you can see, keeping your cell phone bill under control is possible with a little discipline and creativity.
1. Going over you allotted quota. I don't have any statistics, but I feel comfortable saying that is your bill comes to an unusually high amount, then four times out of five it's because you exceeded either your minutes, text messages, or Internet usage limit, or any combination thereof. What makes this so costly is that, compared to your "normal" rates (which are the ones within your plan), overage rates are almost crazy high. The only silver lining to this is that your bill will clearly state exactly what it is you went over on and will total your overage charges apart from your normal bill.
How to keep this under control: move up to a more generous plan in terms of minutes, text, or Internet usage. The initial reaction to this is usually "But I'm trying to SAVE money". To this I reply that consistently going over is certainly more costly than moving to a plan allows for more of your most used services. If this is not a possibility, either because you don't want to or can't afford it, your last resort will be to just keep a close eye on your usage and stop using the phone when said usage is getting too high. Not easy, but doable (and certainly economical).
2. Third Party Subscriptions. You've probably seen their commercials on TV. These subscription providers are known for their shady business practices, but they never seem to go away no matter how many complaints and lawsuits are filed against them. Their offerings can range from a "free ringtone of the month" club to "horoscope of the day", to a "naughty picture of the day". Theoretically, you can only subscribe by sending a text message to an advertised number or by visiting their website and entering your information there. Yet, they seem to have this knack for appearing on people's bills out of nowhere, which is made easier by the fact that they're not always required to inform you of the new subscription. So be sure to analyze the "direct bill" portion of your bill, because that's where their charges will be listed.
Not too long ago, AT&T settled a class action suit about this business practice. From then on, they've agreed to notify their customers (by text message) every time there's a new subscription that's being added to their account. Actually, technically it's not a notification, but more of a call to action: if the customer doesn't reply to the text, the mentioned subscription can't be added to his/her account. The other carriers should definitely follow suit.
3. One-time fees. Finally, you may be facing a higher bill because of one-time fees: activation fees, re-activation fees, upgrade fees, or non-payment fees, just to name a few. If an account gets suspended because of an unpaid past due bill, most companies will assess you a re-activation fee and nine times out of ten will not waive it. As a general rule, these fees rarely are waived or credited back to your account. But since it never hurts to try, you can ask for discounts, for example as an employee of X company (you never know). Otherwise, you can always try to be nice and courteously ask customre service if there's any possibility of crediting your account. Being a longtime customer with a good record of paying your bills on time will certainly not hurt your chances.
Strategy. Depending on your habits, there are a lot of options you can use to curb your use of cell phone services. If you talk a lot in the early evening, it might be worth it to pay a little extra for early night and weekend minutes. Skype, Vonage, MagicJack, T-Mobile, and so many others offer phone service that uses your existing Internet broadband connection, saving you minutes when you're at home. Also, you should always ask for discounts. We're talked about employee discounts, but if you are a student, ask if the university that you go to gets a discount. If you are retired, ask if the company you retired from gets one. If you're self-employed, put the account under your business's name. As long as you can prove that you use it for business purposes, you'll be eligible for a business discount.
If you're unable to pay your bill in one payment, try calling your carrier's customer service department to try and arrange a payment scheme so that your service doesn't get disconnected. Of course, if you haven't been paying on time, they will be less lenient with you: a good bill-paying record never hurt anyone. In any case, as you can see, keeping your cell phone bill under control is possible with a little discipline and creativity.
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There are plenty of ways to keep both your home phone bill and your cell phone bill under control. Educate yourself about ways to reduce your phone bill by dropping by Reduce Phone Bill.
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