PITTSBURGH (4/29/09)--If you're looking for ways to cut costs, pull out your wireless and land-line phone bills. You may be paying for services you don't want, don't need, or didn't ask for (Post- Gazette April 19).
When Rena Crispin's phone bill spiked, she ignored it for a few months, thinking it was a pro-rated charge for changing her land-line's package plan. When the bill remained unusually high for another two months, she went online to check details. "I discovered I was paying for five monthly charges I didn't want, at $5.99 each," says Crispin, who is a managing editor at Credit Union National Association's Center for Personal Finance.
Because voice service is a fairly cheap commodity, phone service providers are pushing extra services, to the extent that they "inadvertently" can tack them on to your plan when you make changes.
In Crispin's case, when she originally called to change her package plan, her provider did as she requested and set up the new package, which cost less and didn't include the five services that were in her old plan: three-way calling, speed calling, call forwarding, automatic callback, and repeat dialing.
What the provider didn't tell her was that they continued all five of those services from her original package and billed $5.99 plus tax for each one, in addition to the new package plan. (At Crispin's request, her provider discontinued the unwanted services and refunded her in full.)
Take steps to trim your phone bill:
For more information, read "Cell Phones: Get What You Need" in Googolplex.
Printed Monday, November 23, 2009
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