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Save Money on Phone Service |
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In a survey conducted by Millward-Brown/Intelliquest, almost 80% of Americans felt that they were paying too much for their phone service. Are you one of the 80%? Selecting the right phone service provider is difficult but it can lead to big savings. To help, Mr. Thrifty has put together a guide on how to save money on phone service. Read on. . .
If so, you are not alone! Mr. Thrifty has spoken with dozen of folks just like you that would like to save on their phone service but don’t know how. This guide should be able to help you get the service you need without stepping on one of the “pricing landmines” laid out by the carriers.
Mr. Thrifty Principle #1: Figure out what service you want
Back in the olden days, like 5 years ago, phone service at your home was easy. You got a phone line from the local phone company (like SBC) and MAYBE, if you were adventurous, you might switch you long distance to another carrier. Today, the choices have become much more complicated. Do you chuck your landline and just use your cell phone? What about using one of those VOIP carriers whose ads are everywhere right now? Why not just use Skype and not pay anything for calls? Lots of decisions.
In his research, here is what Mr. Thrifty has found:
- Cell phones are the most convenient- you have one number for all of your calls. Downsides are that they can be REALLY expensive (especially if you go over your minute allotment) and you can get terrible reception inside your house (be sure to check this out before you go this route).
- Traditional landlines. This is the best option if you want the highest quality, most reliable service or if you make a lot of international calls. Downside is that you might not have some of the cool features that you have with VOIP.
- VOIP. The coolest of the services. Lots of features and there may be some small cost benefits (these get over exaggerated). Lots of downsides: difficult to set up (less that 50% of VOIP customers can actually get things set up correctly), your phone goes down a lot (whenever your internet connection goes down), and you may not have 911 service, although this is changing.
- Skype (and other free VOIP services). This is for the cheap segment of people out there. Cost is very low (almost zero in many cases). However the service is very finicky and you have to be leashed to your computer in order to use it.
Mr. Thrifty’s recommendation: Go with either a traditional landline or a cell phone. VOIP is not quite ready for prime time.
Mr. Thrifty Principle #2: Determine how you use service
Once you have decided what type of service you want, the next thing you need to do is figure out how you use the service. I know the sarcastic reader is thinking “I use the phone to make phone calls you idiot.” That is not what Mr. Thrifty is saying. You need to figure out how many minutes you use a month and where you call. Don’t freak out and think that you need to build a 3-page Excel spreadsheet to accomplish this task. Just have an idea of about how many minutes (or hours) you use a month and where you call.
Having this information on hand will help you greatly with the next step (shopping for a carrier) and is key to finding the best, most affordable carrier for you.
Mr. Thrifty Principle #3: Shop around. Use one of the many free services out there like www.SmartPrice.com
Did you know that there are over 1,100 different phone carriers out there in the U.S. today? Which one should you go with? That is big question. Have you seen the Progressive insurance ad that shows the guy making a bunch of phone calls to different insurance carriers trying to get quotes on insurance? That could be you trying to get quotes on your phone service. Mr. Thrifty is not only thrifty but also lazy and doesn’t want to work that hard. His dad once told him “work smarter not harder.”
The best way to work smarter is to find one of the free services out there on the internet that does the shopping for you. Mr. Thrifty’s favorite is SmartPrice (www.smartprice.com). The site not only provides pricing information for the different carriers, it will actually calculate an estimated monthly bill for you under the different plans. Mr. Thrifty could not find any other sites that did that.
Anyway, the key is to shop around and find out which carrier has the best prices based on how you call. Mr. Thrifty found out that different carriers have different infrastructure in different locations. As such, each carrier has a unique pricing and cost structure. For example, if you make a lot of calls to Japan, there are carriers out there that have a lot of lines that go over to Japan and hence lower prices. It can take some work but the savings can be huge.
Mr. Thrifty Principle #4: Look for hidden pricing land mines
This almost goes without saying with phone companies- read the fine print. Mr. Thrifty was shocked to find out things like unlimited plans really aren’t unlimited. In many cases carriers will start billing you on a per minute basis if you use too many minutes. Other potential land mines are hidden taxes and fees. A good example is Sprint charging something called a “Carrier Property Tax Fee” of about 1.5% of your bill. Sounds official, right? Everyone has to pay this tax, right? WRONG! THERE IS NO OFFICIAL PROPERTY TAX FEE. Instead it is nothing more than a monthly charge that Sprint levies but is hiding it behind official sounding language. That would be like your auto mechanic charging you his property taxes on your car repair bill. Ridiculous! Read the fine print for land mines!
Mr. Thrifty Principle #5: Do not sign up for any of the “miles” or points plans
The WORST telephone plans out there are the ones that give you frequent flyer miles or points. Mr. Thrifty has a friend, Mr. Marketing Vice President, who calculated that you would spend and extra $2,000 in telephone costs in order to “earn” a free round trip ticket inside of the U.S.. Mr. Thrifty says “fly away” from these plans as they are bad deals. You are better off taking your savings and just buying a discounted airline ticket.
Mr. Thrifty Principle #6: Examine your first bill carefully
Ok, so you have finally decided what type of service that you need at home and made the switch. Congratulations! Wait, however, as you are not done yet! You still have one thing left to do- carefully read your first bill. Make sure you are charged what you signed up for and there are no bogus “Line Maintenance Insurance” fees or things like that. You would be surprised at what you can find on your phone bill. Mr. Thrifty once found a company charging him $10 a month for a yellow pages listing that he never signed up for! If you do find something unexpected on your bill, call and complain. A simple phone call might save you $120 a year like it did Mr. Thrifty.
Mr. Thrifty Principle # 7: Relax. Don’t second-guess your decision. Look at things in a year
Last thing to do- relax. Once you have made the change and looked at your first bill, relax. Don’t fall prey to second-guessing your decision or wanting to shop things all over again in a month. You did your homework and made a good decision. Unless something dramatic happens in your household, like Mr. Thrifty gets a 6-month assignment photographing humpback whales off of the coast of Japan, don’t revisit your decision. Prices in the market have been dropping only a couple of percentages a year and it does not make sense to reshop everything. Go ahead, plop down in your Lay-Z-Boy chair that Mrs. Thrifty has not convinced you to get rid of and call away- knowing that you are getting a great deal on your phone service! |
Long distance
Written by Guest on 2005-06-26 19:31:16
I totally fell for the whole 10-10-220 thing. Left a bunch of messages on some answering machines and got a $25 bill for 50 minutes of calls! Rip off! | Hate...
Written by Guest on 2005-07-01 12:48:50
I HATE all of the phone companies out there (that may be too strong of a word but so what). They always try to trick you with thier pricing. Make on little mis-step and BOOM! You have a $200 phone bill.... | $75 phone bill
Written by Guest on 2005-09-12 15:00:37
I signed up for phone service and did not select a phone company. As a reuslt I got a bill for $75 worth of long distance. They were charging me something like $2 a minute for long distance service. Don't make the same mistake I made with phone service...
| VOIP
Written by Guest on 2005-09-19 05:47:47
If you want to save money on phone service, VOIP is the way to go. Cut my bill in half.
Sam I Am
| Cell phone service
Written by Guest on 2006-09-16 14:04:29
Using your cell phone for your primary phone service is not always the way to go. I got rid of my home phone service because of by cell and don't get great reception. Test it first. | Knowing your Phone service usage is the
Written by Guest on 2006-09-27 15:32:14
I totally agree with the article about the important of knowing how you use your phone service. If you know HOW you call you can select the right phone service. If not, you will react to some offer and choose the wrong phone service for your needs.
Jim | Written by Guest on 2007-01-30 11:58:16
Wow. I didn't know half of these things, now I can consider myself informed!
Thanks! | Gift
Written by Guest on 2007-06-08 15:05:56
Nice resource, very interesting reading. | Ringtone
Written by Guest on 2007-06-08 15:05:35
Useful information. Good job. |
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