If you have both cellular and landline phones, phone service can become one of your biggest monthly expenses. There is a lot of competition in both the cellular and landline phone service industry today, so you’ll want to comparison shop when trying to find the cheapest (and best) phone service for you. You’ll also want to keep in mind that all programs are not advertised and sometimes you have to ask repeatedly in order to get the best phone service plan for you.
For example, I rarely use my cell phone and often had many leftover minutes at the end of the month. Two years ago, I was trying to trim my monthly budget and noticed how much money I was wasting on a calling plan that I never used. However, I did want to keep my cell phone in case of emergency or if I was traveling somewhere and wanted to get in touch with someone. I looked into prepaid cell phone calling plans, but there weren’t many options and the options that were available weren’t very cost effective. So, I called my cell phone company (which happens to be Sprint) and asked if they were willing to provide me with an emergency calling plan. Of course, the first person that I talked to said that that probably wasn’t an option, but after talking to a manager, I was signed up for a 75 minute per month calling plan at a rate of $15 per month. Now, I do get charged an additional 40 cents per minute for calls outside of my calling area, but I so rarely use my phone that I save almost $200 per year by going to this cheaper phone service plan. Note that this phone service plan was not advertised, but since Sprint saw me as a “loyal customer” that they did not want to lose, they were willing to work with me to keep me happy.
In calling the phone companies, you will find that this is often the case – companies do not want to lose your business and will do whatever they can to give you the best phone service plan possible. However, a few months ago, I ran into problems with my landline phone service provider regarding rates and surprisingly, they did not want to budge on their prices. They had offered me a program in February and had promised that the rates would not increase, however, they did increase six months later. When I asked for the rates to be lowered to what I was promised, they told me that that was not possible (even the managers that I spoke to would not lower the rates, even though they were offering lower promotional rates for new customers – so much for customer loyalty!). Since they were not willing to work with me, I told them that I would switch phone companies and I did just that. When the customer service representative called to ask why I switched phone companies, I told her that it was purely a price decision, which she sounded very disappointed by. Of course, my new phone company has already increased my “introductory” rates, so I’m not ahead by much, but I have called to complain about this rate increase and have had $30 credited to my account to make up for this inconvenience.
What can you learn from my phone service experiences? The main lesson is that the cheapest phone service plans often not advertised. As a consumer, you’ll need to be proactive in asking for the phone service plan that works best for you. Phone rates seem to increase a lot more often than other services, so you’ll definitely want to keep track of your bill and ask the company for the best phone service plan that they can offer.
