How To Save Up To 50% On Your Cell Phone Bill
February 4, 2007
Do you spend more than you’d like on your cell phone bill every month? I felt the same way; here are some tips I used to cut this monthly expense in half!
Get a Discount
I take advantage of a group discount through both my employer and my insurance company. These combined discounts add up to a savings of 12% a month.
Save On Equipment
Free Cell Phone
Cell phone providers are always offering discounts on new phones if you’ll sign a several year contract. Oftentimes, if you go with a lower end cell phone you can get the phone for free. Don’t buy the newest, fanciest phone and you could save $50 - $100. Assuming a two year contract, that averages out to $2 - $4 in savings a month. Another 3.5 – 7% monthly savings.
Smart Battery Usage
How many times have you been cut-off mid-conversation because your cell phone battery died on you? Check out these tips on how to make your cell phone battery last longer. If you can avoid paying $20 – 30 for a new battery over a two year time period you’ll save another 1 – 2% per month.
Replacement Cell Phone
When the audio on my cell phone went bad I got a quote from the Sprint PCS store for repairs. Because it was 4 years old, ancient in cell phone years, the replacement parts weren’t available. They offered me a new phone for only $30 if I signed up for the insurance plan on the new one.
I canceled the insurance plan after the first week and they didn’t charge me the $30 when I picked up the new phone at the Sprint PCS store so I got the new phone for free! When your phone goes bad, work with the company to get a new one and you could save $50 - $100 dollars! Factor those savings over a two year period and it averages out to another 3.5 – 7% monthly savings.
Manage Your Minutes
Leverage Customer Goodwill
I’d been a Sprint PCS customer for 6 years when Local Number Portability gave consumers the option to switch phone numbers between providers. Sprint wouldn’t lower my fees to convince me to stay with them; however, they did give me more minutes for the same price. In the past, overage charges cost us about $5 a month. Now I don’t have to worry about extra fees, which used to tack another 5-10% on our total bill.
Share Minutes
My wife and I use a shared plan across two phones, much cheaper for us than signing up for two lines of service. I figure we save about $10 a month by sharing minutes. Another 15% in savings!
Dropped Call Credit
If you use Sprint PCS, check out this tip on how you can get a dropped call credit. According to the site, the average credit is $11. I imagine if you try it every month they might get wise to you but it might be a good way to knock off a few bucks every once in a while.
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