How Much Is Your Phone Costing You?
Over the last decade, many new innovations in phone technology have occurred, including the rising popularity of using cellular phones and signing up for extra services on landline phone contracts. This has substantially increased the amount of money that some individuals are paying for their phone on a monthly or yearly basis. There are a number of different applications that could cost you more money than you realize and trimming these cost can help you save hundreds of dollars annually.
Extra Services
Additional services on your phone can make the cost of using your phone substantially higher, even if you rarely use the services. Many of the people that sign up for additional phone services such as call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, and three-way calling use these services less than once per month but pay between $3 and $8 for each service that is added to their phone, resulting in an annual cost of $36 to $96 per service per year. If these services are going to be used on a regular basis, you can save a large amount of money be sticking to basic phone service.
Ringtones and Games
Most cellular phones allow the user to download games and ringtones to the phone that the owner can use at will. Although these games and ringtones may have a minimal initial cost, these costs quickly add up for people that change their ringtone frequently or sign up for monthly game subscriptions. It is much cheaper to use the basic ringtones available on the phone when you purchase it and to refrain from signing up for any games that require a monthly subscription.
Information Calls
Did you know that you get charged every time you call 411 for information or directory assistance? The average consumer that makes one call to 411 per week can spend $26 or more annually in fees charged by the phone company. A cheaper alternative is looking in the local phone book for information or searching for the telephone number that you need online using one of the many directory services available on the internet.
Excessive or Inadequate Cellular Phone Plans
If you constantly go over the amount of minutes available in your cellular phone plan each month, you are paying a steep price for those additional minutes. On the other hand, if you only use a fraction of the minutes available in your plan each month, you could be wasting a large amount of money. The best course of action is to determine how much you actually use your phone each month, choose a plan accordingly, and monitor your usage online so that you do not go over the amount of minutes included in your plan and have to pay the penalty rate.
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