Am I paying too much for my cell phone bill?
If you spend more than $100 on your cell phone bill, it is a sign that you are paying too much. Most busy people spend around $100+ per month on their phone bills so that it can reach up to 300 to 400 dollars after including family. People with no specific interest in calculating their bills around pay more than usual (without knowing).
Many people might have noticed that their phone bills are high and they are paying too much, which is not a good option. They might have thought of changing plans but are afraid to do so. Of course, reasons can be different, like people might be afraid of losing their contact number or of new cellphone plans.
Now is the time to change, or think, until you have planned to afford to pay such high amounts on just your phone bills.
How Much Do You Pay for a Phone Bill?
The US’s average person pays a US bill as a single user for around $75. The average phone bill per year in the United States is around $900. However, phone bills can be reduced significantly if we act responsibly and disciplined.
In the first step, you need to Understand Your Cell Phone Bill:
Now, think briefly: do you need an expensive phone plan?
How to save money on my cell phone bill?
To save money on the cell phone, you need to:
- Use Wi-Fi when you can
- Cut insurance
- Use automated payments
- Use employee discount
- Try to buy no-contract phones.
- Choose a cheap postpaid contract and limit your spending.
Today, I will discuss the most affordable ways to save quite a lot of money on the phone bills you have been paying for so long.
In some ways, you may be able to keep your contact number, but there are more chances to lose the contact number in the rest of the cases. That would not burden you with losing when, on the other hand, you will be saving hundreds of dollars. So, some of the ways will help you save some of the money on phone bills.
Cut your cell phone completely.
Cutting off your cell phone would be an extreme step for many people. When you cannot pay your phone bills, keeping the phone would be a waste.
I was surprised when I read the report, which mentioned that 20% of people do not use cell phones and go fine without them. Before we entered this era of technology, no one had ever thought of having personal cell phones.
Since it is our need and the obligation from a society that we have to fulfill to meet the status, we call it our comfort zone, but I think that if we allow ourselves to live without it, we can make it. 🙂
Cutting the bills’ source is your ultimate solution if you cannot get through your bills.
Go for the new plan you can afford.
Many plans vary in charges that you need to pay to them. But it is always better to thoroughly research the plans and decide which is best for you. All plans vary from basic to premium or professional (standard).
Now, the question is, what factors do you need to consider before selecting a plan? The following are the factors that you need to consider.
How much data do you use each month?
Many people are working from home now because of a pandemic or maybe because they are freelancers, so they need some extra GBs of data, and some require more or less 1Gb, so that depends upon what you like you need to have. There are substantial price differences to compare with companies when trying to find an affordable package.
If we talk about 2020, many companies only charge for international calls (minutes) for national calls. They usually offer different packages regardless of charging minutes to minutes.
Some other factors are that not all companies have their best ground in your city, or another city may be one company with the best offers and affordable prices in your city but not in the other city. Hence, it would help if you researched all the companies to draw a line between them.
Do you need that expensive cell phone?
If you status and upgrade your phones as the new and latest models come out, you cannot save a single penny. So what we call “show off to impress others” should be deleted from your life if you really want to save some money because it is always unnecessary to spend your whole savings or earnings to upgrade your phone. After all, your colleagues have upgraded theirs.
For example, Apple iPhones launch their latest models every year, and the prices are based on their innovations. People line up in front of their outlets to buy them, and they can save some money if they buy the slightly older version of the latest model of iPhone.
Divide your billings into more than two lines.
You can call it a free trick since many people are doing this or trying to do it one way or another. If you are paying for just a single line, then you will have to pay a complete bill thrown on your budget, which means one for one. If you add up one more line in your connection, then you will have the chance to split up your bill, and that will become one-two for one.
In this way, you can save some money. I know some people say saving a small amount on their bills is not worth saving; it wastes time and effort. But if you start saving a small amount today, that will add up, and at the end of the year, you will save more than 3 to 4 hundred dollars.
Switch to paperless billing.
Many companies offer paperless billing plans; paperless billing plans are those in which you will get the bills and the receipts of the payments all online on your cellphone, whereas most people like to have paper bills to keep the records.
This will not work. Keeping paper bills for your records is an old method, and letting the computer system keep your bill records is a new and convenient method.
Go for an autopay plan and save up to $10
Many wireless carriers offer up to 10% off your monthly phone bill; you have to sign up for any automatic payment plans. When you sign up as a single person, you may get $5 off, and if you have 5 to 6 family members, you can save up to $30 a month.
That is quite an easy task to apply to your budget. It is helpful that bills are paid with autopay features.
Try to switch to a prepaid cell phone package.
Switching to a prepaid carrier is the ultimate option; you can always change your cellphone’s prepaid plans. Cellphones: Some of the plans from two companies might interest you in switching to prepaid.
Prepaid plans are much more affordable and help you save some extra money. HOW? It is pretty simple: if you keep the recharge just for urgent and vital calls and usage, you act as limited and try not to waste the recharge you already have. On the other hand, if you are on postpaid plans, you have no idea how much data you are using, and at the end of the month, you have to pay for all the data you have used unnecessarily.
Try to Change or remove your cell phone insurance.
Most cell phone carriers offer a bundle of plans covering warranties, insurance, and other damages to be fulfilled. Thus, there is a need to think about whether your cell phone needs protection insurance.
If so, then think about the charges you are actually paying for the insurance. Here are some of the reasons you really need to look at before you pay for the insurance. You are paying a few dollars for insurance in your premium plan selection, where you are getting some damage protection like a warranty or Bluetooth handling, etc.
Where you are spending these dollars, like 5 to 10, on insurance, you can easily save and shift the premium plan to the basic plan. You will get elemental cell phone damage or loss protection or repair facility in insurance; you will save $80 to $100 per year on just insurance.
Change your billing (home) address.
Half of the fees added to your bills are based totally on the area where you live. If you have moved somewhere with low charges or someone from your family has moved, you can change your address.
Updating your address is quite easy. There are two ways to do this. Most likely, you can log in to your account or profile and make changes there. Another way is to call a customer service officer and ask them to change your address, which will also be no issue.
After leaving Wells Fargo Bank in 2014, Daniel began a career as a finance consultant, advising companies and individuals on economic policy, labor relations, and financial management.
At Promtfinance.com, Daniel writes about personal finance topics, value estimation, budgeting strategies, retirement planning, and portfolio diversification.
Read more on Daniel Smith's biography page.
Contact Daniel: daniel@promtfinance.com