I cancelled my land line a long time ago in order to save money and rely on my cell phone for all phone calls. It occurred to me, while sitting on the phone for 40 minutes with AT&T, my cell phone service provider, that if you’re not careful, a cell phone can cost you more than just paying the extra $20 a month for the land line.
These are not tips from the customer service agent to save money on my cell phone bill, just some things that I realized during our conversation.
Watch Your Minutes
You could probably guess that I’m on the lowest plan possible. I do pay extra for unlimited texting and generally I’m a hardcore texter. It is a rare occasion that I actually talk on the phone. Sometimes, though, for example you have to talk on the phone during the day. Medical facilities for instance, will not discuss your bill via text and are not open on nighttime or weekend minutes. Credit card companies also will not correspond via text messaging. Unfortunately, these are times when you may find yourself on hold for a long period of time, thus eating up your daytime minutes.
Make sure you use the handy code on your cellphone to check your usage if there’s a question. Also check online, AT&T allows you to see how many minutes you’ve used and how many are left. You do not want to end up paying for over your minute calls because in my case, they are about .45 cents per minute.
Reject Incoming Calls
Not a big deal, but if you don’t want to rack up minutes in the daytime, reject incoming calls. Even if you just let them go to voicemail, messages are counted in your anytime minutes.
Pay Your Cell Phone Bill Online
Either pay your bill online or through the automated selection on your phone. If the customer service rep has to take your payment there is usually a fee, AT&T charges $5 but will sometimes waive it. Paying online also cuts out postage . I usually pay my bill over the phone, especially if I’m close to the due date.
Check Your Bill for Unnecessary Features
With most bills, there is usually something extra being billed that you’re not aware of, or do not use and aren’t aware that you’re not using it. Take a look at your next cell phone and see if there’s anything you can cancel or switch around. For instance, my unlimited texting costs $30.00 a month. If I text less and need more minutes, I may need to change the plan. I have also never had an expensive phone so I don’t buy the insurance and can’t speak of whether it’s necessary or not. I wait for the special free phone deals usually.
As you’ve probably guessed, I got a surprise on my bill from last month. I never pay attention to my minutes because I don’t usually talk on the phone. When I received my bill, however, I had around $65 in overages. After studying my bill and talking with the customer service rep, I still have no idea how it went over so much. I have incoming calls but no one could tell me where they were from and I honestly still can’t think of anyone that called me so much.
Luckily, after much patience and a lengthy 40 minutes on the phone, the customer service rep agreed to remove the overages. They could tell that in the many years I’ve had my cell phone with this exact number that I’ve never gone over nor racked up so many minutes. I also think it was because the rep for some reason or another couldn’t tell me where the calls came from. Still, it was a learning experience and even though I still have no clue what happened, I vowed to pay more attention to my bill.
One last note…I found out that it’s also possible that my 40 minute phone call to AT&T could count toward my anytime minutes unless you call through a certain number or the code on the phone. That’ll be the next thing I call them about…tomorow.
Operation WITHIMMG: Edited Friday Day 5 for spending
Day 6: McDonald’s with daughter $10
Day 7: 0
Day 8: 0