Saving Tips On Telecommunications

[jeffrey]

1. Call your phone company and ask them how you can save money with your current calling habits. Phone companies often have discount plans available that meet your needs, but will not tell you about them unless you ask.

2. If a large phone service calls and asks you to switch services, don't immediately hang up or accept. Always ask if they can offer more. You may get offered incentives that make the change worthwhile. Once you've changed, the competition will always call back and you can repeat the same process again.

3. If you are given an incorrect or no longer in service phone number when using directory assistance, call the operator back and request a refund for both the information charge and for the cost of calling the wrong number.

4. If you keep a cell phone in case of an emergency, consider purchasing prepaid cards for it instead of a calling plan. Since the phone will only be used in an emergency situation, you can simply buy a fixed amount of time for a small fee and thus eliminate monthly bills and taxes.

5. If you own a cellular phone, check to see if it offers free long distance calls originating from your local calling area (many do). If so, use it to make all your long distance calls instead of your home phone and wipe out your current long distance phone bill.

6. If you purchase a cellphone with a recycled phone number, check if you are being billed for premium services such as text messaging. Often the previous user signed up for these services, but never canceled them meaning that premium fees will be billed to you if you don't cancel them.

7. It is becoming more common for long-distance phone services to be switched without authorization (referred to as "slamming"). To prevent this, contact your telephone company and ask to only have your service switched after the phone company contacts you first.

8. Make sure that you are not leasing a phone from the phone company. You can purchase the same phone at a local appliance store for what the phone company usually charges to lease the phone for a couple of months.

9. Comparison shop every few months to see if you're getting the best deal on your telephone calling plan. The phone industry is very competitive and prices change frequently.

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10. Consider using a smaller, lower profile long-distance service company. Smaller companies often have less expensive service and fewer fees.

11. Try to make your calling plan as basic as possible and cancel all extra phone services that you don't use. Extra service such as call waiting and call forwarding can more than double your monthly phone bill.

12. If you make a lot of short calls or the use your fax machine frequently, contact your long-distance carrier for their call-rounding policy. While larger phone companies usually round up to the next minute, many smaller companies offer six-second call rounding. A change could save you quite a bit of money.

13. Check to see if your phone company charges a fee if you receive a paper bill. If so, pay your bill online and save this fee.

14. If the majority of your long-distance calls are within your state, sign-up for a low intrastate rate calling plan.

15. If you rarely make long-distance phone calls, consider dropping your long distance plan all together. It may be cheaper to use a prepaid phone card, a dial-around service or your cell phone if it has free long distance minutes.

16. If you rarely use you phone at home, you may want to disconnect it and use only a cell phone. By doing so you'll eliminate any monthly service fees, taxes and long-distance fees.

17. Take care not to exceed your cell phone monthly allotted minutes since this can be quite costly. Picking an appropriate plan that always covers the minutes you use will save you a lot of money.

18. Cell phones can become quite expensive if everyone in the family has one. Taking the time to determine the difference between necessity and convenience can save a bundle.

19. If you have a vacation home, determine whether you need a land base phone in it. If you're only there a few weeks of the year, a cell phone may be less expensive than the fees charged for a year round land line phone.

[MorrisP]

Avoid Unlimited

In my experience, you pay for a lot you don't use on unlimited phone plans. If you go with a company like US Mobile or Ting, you can choose how many minutes, sms and mb/gb you need. They both say that the average customer is paying $15-$25, which is a lot less than what you would pay for unlimited phone plans.

[parasush]

Saving Tips on Telecommunications

There are handful of effective marketing tools that helps business retain and reach more customers using VoIP phone systems. This type of service will dramatically helps small business save on telecommunications and increase productivity.

With VoIP technology, business no longer have to maintain the separate networks for phone and data. VoIP enables you use the data network that users will probably use to access internet. Employees can able to connect with their clients anywhere in the world at cheaper rates.

[Copper]

I always thought telecom is the side only to spend for a person, but you were different. You initiated some of he matters that I never thought about. I show you my gratitude and thinking of following all those.

[Rainbow Traveller]

Here are some simple ways to start saving now:
1) Inventory and audit and current lines, products and services
A thorough audit of a business’ current telecom services and expenses often leads to immediate opportunities for savings. A business needs to have a complete inventory of the number of lines and circuits they have, how they are being used and what they are being charged.
2) Identify billing errors and opportunities
Though time consuming, a thorough reconciliation of telecom bills is an effective way to reduce costs. Outright billing errors are extremely common, and frequently overlooked. Contracted rates may not be properly billed, taxes and fees can be miscalculated, and cancelled services may continue to be billed.
3) Optimize existing lines and circuits
Many companies will save money simply by consolidating multiple narrow bandwidth lines into fewer higher bandwidth lines. Higher cost circuits can also migrate to less utilized, lower-cost circuits to minimize waste and optimize usage. A simple solution requiring minimal time and effort.

[wilddeuce]

Year 2013 - take advantage of VOIP

If you have Internet at home, a land line and a cell phone, get rid off the land line. Get a VOIP adapter (something like Magic Jack, Obi202). I have an Obi202, hooking up with Google voice, you get free US/Canada calls (incoming/outgoing). On top of it, if you are abroad, you can use your cell phone with wifi, in conjunction with obi app to make free US calls. There are two down sides using Google Voice/Obi202. Google Voice does not provide 911 service, this is where your cell phone comes in. You need a decent Internet connection(at least 3mbps).

I've had this setup for two years now, and it's worked beautifully. I was able to lower my cell phone bill as well. Instead of paying for 1000 minutes plan, I have a 300 minutes plan, saving $15/month. On top of that, I don't have to pay for land line ($30/month saving at least).

[mogoko]

Great tips! As martin lewis said, theres a high success rate with people who haggle with these companies. Just phone them up and threaten to leave,

[SLemon]

A lot of good tips If you have a cell/smart phone with unlimited data or a generous data plan I have saved tons of money using free messaging applications (for example Whatsapp) to replace sms and mms and free voice calls like Viber to make calls, note that the latter needs a fairly fast connection. This will also work on wifi networks, which we can find for free in many public places

Since I often call to abroad or long distance this has paid off for me with a good data plan. The downside is that the people you communicate with need to have these applications installed.

[btacay]

Saving Advice

Scrapping the "old-fashioned" land line and replacing your monthly cell phone subscriptions with a pre-paid plan is an excellent money saving tip. Just don’t stay on your cell phone as long as before!

If you have a computer, use your unique web page provided by the cell service to send free text messages.

[irs]

That was a great tips on telecommunication. Another money-saving tips:

* Get a flat rate plan with the phone company for unlimited long distance (the writer uses AT&T).
* Use your cell phone for long distance calls.
* Get rid of (or do not get) the 800 number with the catchy name (e.g. 1-800-lemon-law, used by a firm in my area). Most of the good ones are already taken, and with the rise of the Web, more people are Googling for your business than looking in the phone book.

[jamesandrew408]

Saving Tips On Telecommunications

Tele communication is very useful in now a days because we can stay in contact with anyone staying any where. Some more features also available with new technology like browsing.

[ScrimpAndSave]

Great tips...thanks!

[cercis]

Re: Saving Tips On Telecommunications

With fraudulent 3rd party charges, make sure you get the taxes, etc back as well.

I had Southwestern bell and was charged for 2 calls when I wasn't even home. Directory assistance type calls. They were something like $5 total per call. One per month.

The first month I called and raised holy hell. I told them that this was not a call I made, and they told me that they had proof it was made from my home. I told them that was funny, no one was in our house at that time. They told me a friend must have done it. I told them no friends had access to our home as we had just moved and hadn't even given out the new phone number yet. SWB refused to do anything to help me. I spent about 2 hours arguing with both parties. I finally got back about $3 in charges.

The next month it happened again. Again while no one was home. OMG, I threw a hissy fit of epic proportions. All over SWB. They told me they had no control over it. I told them that was bull, that in this instance they were just like a credit card company and they were to remove all the charges, the taxes from the previous bill and this bill because I disputed it. I told them I was going to the Attorney General over this (I know, it was just $10 or so, but still). Finally, they told me they'd block this number from my phone. Then she got confused and said "you couldn't have made this call, you don't even have access to long distance from your phone". "That's what I'm saying, I DIDN'T MAKE THIS CALL!" So she removed the charges and turned that party in for fraudulent charges.

But geesh, how many people did they do this to who couldn't prove they didn't make the call? And who got stuck paying several dollars in fees and taxes each month, plus dealing with the hassle (hours) of trying to get it reduced even that much.

The next month, cox cable offered phone service in my neighborhood and we switched. MUCH better service and never a fraudulent charge.

Now we don't have a landline. I worry about 911 sometimes (cellphones aren't that great) but I feel pretty safe.

[jillymcnilly]

Re: Saving Tips On Telecommunications

it's called slamming protection. it's free and i think everyone should have it. what happens is the phone company will mail you the form, make sure you fill it out and return it. if you want to change your ld carrier all you do is call the phone carrier and they can change it for you.

[djaco]

Re: Saving Tips On Telecommunications

One thing you can do (and should do) is call your phone company and tell them you want to lock your long distance. There is a special term for this, but I cannot remember it but the phone co will know what you are talking about. When you make this request they put a note on your account that prevents any changes on it unless specifically requested by you. This prevents other companies from changing the PIC code attached to your phone. The PIC number is the "dial around" code for a long distance carrier. This allows you to use the carrier of your choice for long distance. If you don't lock it, carriers can actually change it. If locked, only you can have it changed.