Keeping Your Cell Phone Bill Under Control

By Melanie Pratt

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 your allotted quota. This is the major culprit. If you get your bill and it's uncharacteristically high, most of the time it's because you went over your limit whether in minutes, text messages, or Internet use or a combination of those. The problem with going over your limit is that the charges are ridiculously high compared to what your rate is for the services within your limit. Fortunately, you bill will not bundle everything together: you will get the detail what you went over on and you will be able to see exactly what your overage charges are.

How to keep your bill low: sign up for a plan that gives you more minutes or text messages or Internet usage. This might sound odd to be advised to move to a higher plan when we're talking about keeping the phone bill low, but it's pretty much a given that the higher plan will cost you less than you would be paying if you constantly went over. If a more generous plan isn't an option, then all you need to do is monitor your cell phone use and stop using any service that you risk going over your limit on. We never said this was going to be easy!

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.

AT&T settled a class action suit involving those mysterious subscriptions. They are now under the obligation of notifying their customers by text message to ask if they want to have the subscription added to their account. If the customer doesn't reply, then the subscription can't be added. Other carriers should take this as an example.

3. One-time fees. The final cause for a higher than usual bill is those fees that typically are a one-time affair. such as activation (or re-activation) fees, upgrade fees, or non-payment fees. Cell phone companies (and utilities companies for that matter) do not miss the opportunity to charge a hefty re-activation fee in order to get service turned back on after the account has been suspended because of a past due bill that the customer failed to pay for. Those fees will rarely ever get waived or credited back to your account, but you can ask for discounts. Ask about discounts or waived fees for employees of the company you work for. You can also wing it and try and ask nicely to have the fee waived/credited back. This will be a lot easier if you've been a customer for a few years and have a good record of paying your bill on time.

Strategy. Analyze your personal habits to come up with your very own money-saving solution. If you do the bulk of your talking in the early evening, consider paying a couple dollars more for early night and weekend minutes. If you're home a lot and have high speed internet, sign up for a Voice Over IP phone service, there are plenty of them from phone companies, cable companies, cell phone companies (T-Mobile @ Home), specific providers (Vonage, Skype, MagicJack); this can save you a lot of minutes. And like I said before, you should never be ashamed of asking for a discount: student discount, senior discount, employee discount, business discount. It all helps shave a few dollars off that bill.

In case the bill is really high or you're really in a bind, there's always the option of calling customer service and making payment arrangements with the company. Just like I mentioned earlier, if you're a good customer, they will try and work out something with you. As you can see, with a little research, and with some discipline thrown in for good measure, you can definitely find more than one way to lower your phone bill.

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There are several ways to keep both your residentialphone bill and your mobile phone bill in check. Educate yourself about ways to reduce your phone bill by visiting Reduce Phone Bill.