5Ways Wireless Carriers Gouge You-And How to Fight Back

5 Ways Wireless Carriers Gouge You--And How to Fight Back

Cell phone carriers are notorious for slapping consumers with fees and unexpected charges. But if you look carefully at what you're paying for and figure out what you need, you can keep your monthly bill down.

Yardena Arar
Oct 13, 2009 8:20 pm




Are you paying too much for your cell phone and its services? Even if you're sticking to your monthly allocation of minutes and messages, you might still be paying more than you have to.

The only way to tell is to take a cold, hard look at your plan and your handset--and at the way you actually use them. Here are five ways your carrier might be milking you for extra bucks--and what you can do to stop those unwanted charges.

Texting Fees: I have never understood why these are broken out from your data plan, but that's the reality. Texting fees are good candidates for a self-audit, though, since some carriers have been raising them. Two obvious possible overcharging scenarios: Either you're not using anything close to the number of messages allowed by your plan, or you're being hit for overage charges because you underestimated how often you'd use text messaging.

Both are annoying, but you can avoid paying extra if you reassess how much you're really using text messages--and how you're using them. If you're sending a lot of one-word messages (such as "OK" or "Yep"), you're building up your monthly message count with a lot of empty air. Try to send fewer messages--ones that actually say something--and you might find that you really don't need an unlimited plan (I've yet to break the 200-per-month limit on my $5 SMS messaging plan).

On the other hand, if text messaging is the communications medium of choice in your circle, or you're hooked on using SMS for TV show or concert promotions, perhaps it's time to move up to a plan with unlimited texting. While you're at it, take a hard look at your voice plan--if you're doing all that texting, maybe you don't need so many voice minutes.

More at: 5 Ways Wireless Carriers Gouge You--And How to Fight Back - PC World

The one about the handset subsidy caught my eye...

I would not be your average consumer, and I believe I know how to bargain with them to cut out things I don't need. I may pay a little more than I want to, but I will not be paying for a huge everything plan.

~Lordbob

The last time I had any full service plan for a cell phone was back in the 90s! I used to travell out of state for work and carried one for that. Between the air time and long distance charges you couldn't believe the monthly total.

The paid cards are another trip at times where rollover minutes were supposed to be applied to the next card if you bought one before the time limit? HAR! I have one sitting here now that's been a great dust collector!