Lower Your Phone Bills
Q. I’d love to see savings tips or frugal ideas about the dreaded telephone bill. Ours is horrible every month before we even make a call. It starts out at $32, and totals between $70 and $90.
Most of the responses we received were in reference to long distance however there is one thing that is very important when it comes to your telephone bill. First of all realize that the phone company is a business and will do everything they can to get you to "buy". Go through your phone bill item by item and see what you are actually being charged for. They make mistakes on things as well. When I went through mine I realized that I was being charged for a business line on my home telephone. Do not add extra’s to your line. Do you really need a double line, caller ID, call return etc.? When I did this with my phone bill it cut the monthly charge down by $26.00 a month.
I recently signed up for Dialpad.com & am very pleased with it. I can call any phone number in the USA at no charge. And there is no downloading, you simply sign in & go. Now you do need a mic but that’s it. Hope this helps. My phone bills had to come down as I am a single mom with two sons to raise. I cut corners where I can
Here’s the way- cancel your long distance service entirely. We did this because we were fed up with all of the extra charges, not to mention the actual cost of talk-time. We use email, phone cards ($6.99 for 60 minutes at our local discount drug), and most often we use a 10-10 number. They bill you on your regular phone bill for straight minutes (ours is ten cents a minute but I have seen cheaper). We also try to practice "long distance awareness"- we ask ourselves "is this call necessary?" . Our phone bill is less than half what it used to be.
I have to say, I have shopped the phone industry ad nauseum, and I ended up with an off peak one-rate. The plan is 4.95 a month, and .07 a minute every minute of the day or night. That is best for me. If you work days, and only call at night, you can get a plan with nickel nights and weekends. There is also variety in international calling plans. I was unable to match that savings for our family with any other regular long distance carrier. I don’t know how it compares to the 10-10- things, because they won’t work where we live for some reason. I have heard that they are the best in terms of not having a set plan. I also know that if you really are very careful, you can find pre-paid cards that add up to a very good buy on minutes. Read them over thoroughly. Using a prepaid card at least you have already spent the money, and won’t be in for any surprises at bill time. In tight times, I think I’d recommend that option until things loosen a bit.
First, our long distance service is packaged with our internet service. If our calls do not go over 250 minutes of calling a month, we have a flat rate of $28 per month for long distance which includes unlimited internet service. We also use Dialpad.com which allows you to make free long distance calls from your computer to a phone. Not exactly phone quality, but very good and I’m sure it will continue to improve!! Found this service works best if you have headphones or a headset instead of just using your speakers, but still works well with just speakers.
Do you really need a cell phone. Doctor, lawyers and such do but the average person? We got along fine without them for many years.
We got Magic Jack. It costs $6 a month (paid yearly) and offers free long distance within the US.
We still have 9-1-1 service but the operator is automated.
But at that savings who cares?