Do You Understand Your Phone Bill?
By Jeffrey Strain, October 27th, 2006 | 3 Comments »
When is the last time you really took a look at your phone bill? Chances are there are quite a few fees and charges on it that you aren’t sure what you’re paying for. Take a look at this bill courtesy of TeleTruth:
What the above image should show is that you probably know a lot less about all the things you’re paying for on your phone bill than you realize. Many probably look at how complicated it all appears and just pay even though they have no idea what it all means.
Part of getting all your personal finances in order is understanding where your money is going. If you take out your phone bill and don’t understand a charge, call the phone company and ask what it is. Complicated bills are in their favor since they realize that most people will simply pay rather than deal with trying to figure it all out. By taking the initiative and learning what all the charges and fees are for, you put yourself in a position where you can change your phone use habits or get a plan to keep your phone bill to a minimum.
Verizon and their competitors are nothing more than a gang of theives desperate to stay alive. I believe the answer to this is simple: http://www.vonage.com. I am on their $15 per month metered plan and get 500 minutes each month.
In my final bill there are a few charges that I am not entirely sure about. I pay 99 cents per month for “Regulatory Recovery Fee”, 99 cents for “Emergency 911 Cost Recovery” and 90 cents for “Federal Uniersal Service Surcharge”. My guess is that these all center on Vonage’s need to support 911 dialing in a VOIP world.
My final bill is $17.87 per month. This represents a significant savings over what I was paying with Verizon a year ago. And with Vonage I get all of the add-on features for free.
Will Vonage be in business a year or two from now? Maybe. But until then, I’m just enjoying the ride.
I agree Phil, voip is the way to go. However, right now, I dont even have a land line.. I went in on a family plan with my mom (in new mexico) (we live in texas) and my brother, and i’m only paying like $20, and 900 minutes/3 = 300 minutes, which I never use in a month anyway. So I’m paying $5 more a month to be able to take my phone with me. I have alltel btw. Not the best quality service, but the biggest network in the US right now.
We used to have Verizon Home Fone Service…We paid like $70/month, then we switched to Optimum Voice, it was not bad, then we relocated & we switched to Vonage & we are paying $30/month for unlimited calls.
I am paying too much on our cellphone service. We have Cingular, $160/month for 5 phones, it still feels like a lot of money to pay.