Wednesday, January 20, 2010

do you use your cell phone or does it use you??

There are many ways to cut down on your monthly expenses, and reviewing your cell phone bill can save you hundreds of dollars in a year. Here are some steps I have taken for our family.

If you can get by with just a cell phone then cancel your home line. This could save you a minimum of $30 per month with taxes and fees.

Options to reduce cell phone expenses:
1. Limit capabilities to what you really need, ie. Texting, internet, data, minutes etc.
2. Split a plan with family members. I share my minutes with my husband and my parents. Adding my parents to the same plan rather than having separate plans saves me $42/month and saved my parents about $60/month.
3. Review the number of minutes you are using. If you use less than you pay for reduce your plan. Plans typically jump by $30 per increment in minutes.
4. Sprint has an unlimited cell phone feature that doesn’t charge you anytime you speak to someone on a cell phone plan which can help you reduce your plan minutes. Does your carrier provide the same service?
5. Review the corporate discounts where you work. We get 23% off our bill just because of where I work.
6. DO NOT call 411. The charge is $1.79 every time you call. Put a phone book in your car or if you keep internet access on your cell phone google the numbers you need. Store every number you call in your phone. That way, if calling 411 is a must at least you will only do it once.
7. If you need to call internationally get a calling card for international calls.

1 comment:

  1. You can also get a Google Voice phone number. You can use the same phone number to ring a variety of phones (e.g. work, home, cell, whatever) and you can use it for outgoing calls. Rather than purchase an international calling card, I use my Google Voice number on my BlackBerry to call England -- at the bargain rate of $0.02/min.

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