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Today’s post is contributed by Amy Nickson, a passionate writer on finance. Amy is a professional blogger whom has started her own blog and also works as a contributor for the Oak View Law Group. Please share your opinions by commenting below.
If you ask me how to save money, my answer is “Trim your phone bill”.
Do you know why?
As per the recent survey, most of the people in our nation spend thousands of dollars each year to buy cell phone plans that they don’t use at all. This is how we are wasting our hard-earned money.
Yes, we all love talking on our phone; but we should be careful while buying the plan. Otherwise, the cell phone bill will increase our financial stress with time. Downsizing the phone bill helps us to save some bucks as well.
People often overlook the simple ways of saving money. But, if you carefully review your spending habits, you can find out numerous ways to set aside few bucks in your day-to-day life.
In this article, I will tell you how you can reduce your phone bill. Don’t worry, it’s very easy; check out some tried and tested tips here:
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Analyze yourself
If you’re not a massive talker, texter, or web surfer, then go for a plan that suits you. Pay only for what you use. You just need to plan strategically. If you don’t talk much but use the internet more, then choose the plan accordingly.
Remember, video streaming, pop-up notifications, online games, music, automatic play features are data hogs. You need to monitor data usage time to time. By doing so, you will find a significant reduction in your next phone bill.
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Choose the right plan
Choosing the right plan is important. To do so, you need to check how often you use your phone. Find out your previous phone bills to check your usual call duration, total internet usage, and total messages. It will help you to understand the pattern of your phone and internet usage. This will help you to choose the right plan.
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Cut down unnecessary services
Cut down junk; find out the services that are useless. Consider only important services like GPS service, roadside assistance, and visual voicemail.
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Consider a prepaid connection
I think paying the phone bill upfront (Prepaid plan) helps to stick with your budget. It is like going to shopping with cash and no credit card. Once you spend all the money, you know you are done with shopping. A prepaid connection allows you to pay the bill upfront. You know how much you are going to be charged. That’s the key.
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Stick to the minutes
If you really want to downsize your phone bill, then you need to cut down your talking time. Staying under the minutes is not difficult. If you tend to cross the minutes, then go online to find some apps that work as good reminders.
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Say “no” to the cell phone insurance
These days, many people are buying cell phone insurance without knowing about its advantages. Some agents push people to buy the insurance plan for their phone. Buying cell phone insurance doesn’t make sense. Because there is no point to buy a costly insurance for a $500 or $400 gadget. Insurance can be beneficial for those items that are expensive. For instance, life insurance, home insurance, dental, car, and health insurance. If your phone is expensive, then you can buy insurance. It will help you to get money in case of theft or damage.
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Get family cell phone plans
A family cell phone plan is ideal to share minutes and data packages. However, you need to check the usage habits of all members before buying a family phone plan. Thus, you’ll be able to save a significant amount.
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Make free calls
If you’re paying for the internet, consider free calls whenever possible. Get Viber, Skype, and Text free in your smartphone to enjoy free calls.
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Never dial toll-free numbers from your cell phone
Toll-free calls are free when you’re dialing from your landline. Don’t dial toll-free numbers from a cell phone. It charges heavily.
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Get senior discount
If your age is 55 or above, then ask the provider for the senior discount. Get a senior plan to experience a lower phone bill. Go online for more information.
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Consider WiFi
Using WiFi allows you to browse the internet without wasting data. You can surf Wifi at home, office, coffee shop, gym and so on.
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Turn off roaming service while traveling
Generally, smartphones start using data automatically to give email update or weather update while you’re traveling. So, don’t forget to turn off data roaming while traveling.
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Search a suitable service provider
Cell phone service providers often provide offers to attract the consumers. Some service providers offer free night minutes. Whereas few offer free weekend calls or internet data. So, you need to pick the right offer as per your need.
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Read the cell phone terminology carefully
You need to read the terms and conditions before signing the contract. There can be many hidden charges. So, don’t forget to ask about them before signing the agreement.
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Download free texting app
When you’re using a smartphone, you must utilize its advantage. Download free texting apps on your phone to reduce the text cost.
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Turn off autoplay feature in your phone
Go to the phone settings to turn off the autoplay option. If you don’t do that, the videos that appear in your social media will start playing automatically once you log in.
Final thoughts
Don’t incur additional charges. Know your limit. As I have mentioned earlier, track your data usage and set up an alarm to avoid incurring additional charges. If you pay your phone bills on time, then you can negotiate with your service provider to get the better deal next time.
This trick works because service providers don’t want to lose a valuable customer.
Notes from Monica:
Amy mentions a lot of great tips to save money on your cell phone bill. My family and I are currently researching new cell phone service providers for when my contract expires in a few months. In the meantime, I’ll use some of these tips to save money on my cell phone bill and avoid incurring additional charges.
Bonus tips:
If you aren’t 100% satisfied with your cell phone service don’t be afraid to let your service provider know. My husband and I were experiencing an excessive amount of failed calls. I contacted our service provider and they credited our account a few times. The worse that could happen is they say know.
Like Amy said, only pay for the data you use. We currently use a free service offered by our cell phone provider that slows down our data speed before we exceed our data allowance to avoid overage fees.
Find out if you’re eligible for any employee discounts. My work gets me a 19% discount on our cell phone plans.
Lastly, consider purchasing your phone upfront instead of getting stuck in a long term contract. This will allow you to switch providers if a better promotion comes up.
Great tips. I am lucky that my phone bill is covered by my employer but we just moved my husband to a discount provider and he says there is no difference. It cut our bill by over 60%. You can search which discount provider uses the same towers as your favorite carrier.
Wow! That’s a huge discount. I will definitely check this out thank you!
Great post and wonderful ideas! It is amazing to me how much most of us shell out for our phones, then again, now a days they are basically mini computers! Love your reminder about a workplace discount. That helps us a ton!
I keep wanting to cut back, but we use the internet for a lot of our side hustling and need it.
Some good tips that I didn’t know about like the texting app and charges for toll free calls! I use google voice for long distance calls and my work phone number. It’s free at least now it is… If net neutrality goes into effect then I’ll have to pay.
I’ve heard good things about Google voice. There are some plans that go through the internet for phone service which can cut down on cost. I’m going to research a few once my plan is closer to expiring.
Great tips! I’ve had the same phone plan for 15 years and have been grandfathered in to their cheap rate. Every time I upgrade my phone I get asked to switch over. Nope.
Exactly. Some plans have been trying to force people to upgrade, but if you can save money keep putting it off.
I had no idea that toll free calls weren’t actually free when called from a cell! Wish that this info was more readily available! ( luckily my husband pays the cellphone bill). Grrr.
Good article. We use that alarm feature you talk about to notify us when we are getting close to going over our data usage.
We just started using it a few months ago because we kept going over by only a little bit every now and then.
I had no idea that calling toll free numbers from my cell phone was not a good idea. Such a good post with practical information to save money. Thank you Monica.
Glad you found it helpful!
These are great tips! I recently adjusted our plan to save some extra money!
Thanks for the tips! I had no idea about the calling toll-free numbers. We spend way too much on cell phones with two adults, a teen and a tween. Definitely sitting down with this list to see what we can cut. Thanks!
I can only imagine. Our kids are too young for cell phones and I still feel we pay too much for just 2 adults.
I’m pretty frugal, and had done all of these except turn off the auto-play feature. Thanks for that tip!
That is great. I need to be more frugal when it comes to our phone plan.
I have a pre-paid phone with AT&T. It is so much cheaper than doing their monthly plans.
I think I need to look into that. Does that include internet?
Great tips! AT&T is the worst in charges but it’s the best coverage we have out here. Maybe one day they will let us customize our plan – I don’t really use a lot of minutes but use Data quite a bit.
That’s why we pay more for our current provider, but we’ve been having an increase in dropped calls which is frustrating.
Great tips! I had no idea plans are flexible. I feel like I am only offered one plan!
I think it depends on the carrier, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
This is one reason my husband and I switched to prepaid! You always know what you’re going to get each month. We’re highly satisfied and haven’t looked back!
You’re the second person to say this. I think we need to switch to a prepaid plan. Just looking briefly it looks like it’ll save us about $60/month.
I like your prepaid connection step. When paying for something up front, it is easier to stick to the budget. When your minutes run out, then you have to wait until the next time you make a payment. It is also good motivation to pay attention to how many minutes you are talking on the phone, or other services you may be using.
Great post. I quickly realized when I moved abroad that Americans pay so much for cell phones, tv, and internet. I also got used to using prepay and buying the phone up front instead of monthly installments. So now that we’re back home we continue to do this and spend way less than our family and friends.
This is very assuring that I need to rethink our current cell phone plan to save more money. thank you!
#12. TURN OFF ROAMING SERVICE WHILE TRAVELING – Yes! This is one of the best tips!
lol yes, it kills your data like crazy
This post was really very helpful to me thanks for sharing with us.
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Thank you so so much. I’ve found blogging to be a lot more work, but I do it because I want to help others. At times I am discouraged, but it’s words like these that really do keep me going 🙂
excellent tips! this is such a useful post!
thank you!
These are some great tips! Even though we have my husband’s company cell phone plan, it still gets higher each time. We’ll definitely start implementing these tips asap. Thank you!
You’re welcome 🙂