Cell phone service providers have figured out ways to bilk their customers of billions of dollars! They hire experts to figure out which bundles will suck the most money out of the customer’s pockets. People are catching on, however, and fighting back with prepaid phones and other work-arounds.
9 Ways Cell Phone Service Providers Rape and Pillage
Last year T-Mobile lost a class action suit for charging early termination fees. AT&T, Verizon and Comcast rejected $4.7 billion in government stimulus handout because the terms of accepting the free money required fairness in the provision of services. They were smart enough to realize that they could make much more than the $4.7 billion if they weren’t held back by the fairness agreement.
Here are 9 ways cell phone providers are able to charge more money.
1) Text messaging (costs the provider a penny per text and while charging us 20 cents)
2) Cell phone insurance (with deductibles and the monthly fee, it’s often more expensive than the used phone they send you.)
3) Early cancellation fees (some providers have stopped this and are charging sign-up fees)
4) New phones without signing up for a plan (go to discount stores or eBay)
5) International roaming fees (cheaper to buy a prepaid phone when traveling in Europe)
6) Miscellaneous fees and surcharges (These little add-on charges total 13 percent of bill charges for such useful extras as termination and activation fees, regulatory fees, equipment shipping and administrative charges.)
7) Wireless service (US is in the top three most expensive countries for wireless service)
Mandatory Voice Mail Messages (announcements that take up valuable minutes)
9) Double-charging Minutes (charging the caller and the receiver)
Do they have us over a barrel? We are all dependent on our cell phones. But with a little ingenuity, we can save money. Buy a prepaid phone if possible. StraightTalk offers a reasonable $45/month for unlimited calling and uses the Verizon network so the service is the same. Verizon will be allowing calls over the Skype network starting in late march. The new cell phone MagicJack is coming.
Keep your eyes and ears open for discounts! Fight back!
