This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Saving Money on Your Cell Phone Bill? It's Possible!

A quick and easy method to save some money.

We all know what it feels like. You open up your cell phone bill and – wham! You feel like you're emptying your bank account just for going over a few minutes. Does it really cost them for each minute you're talking? I guess that's another topic for discussion.

What most people don't realize, however, is that there's an easy way to lower your monthly bill – and all it involves is a simple phone call to your provider. Let me explain.

I'm with Verizon Wireless. So far, I've been a good and happy customer. I enjoy their network and the support is generally there when I need it. But, I will admit that they are a little pricey at times. I had a pretty simple plan – 450 minutes, free nights and weekends, and unlimited data and text – all for about $69 a month. Not a bad deal. I use the Internet pretty often on my phone, and I check emails throughout the day, so this option seemed to be the best. At that time, I really never used the phone for its primary use (yeah, remember that?) — talking.

Find out what's happening in Dunedinwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Last month, I got a text message from Verizon stating that I was getting very close to my limit on my 450 minutes. It took me a little time to figure it out, but I realized that I was using my phone more to talk to a certain someone new in my life (sorry to break it to you this way, ladies). So, I figured, I'll look at Verizon's website and just upgrade. Pretty simple, right? Wrong!

The next option is 900 minutes. That's a pretty big step. You're essentially doubling your usage. Now this plan is $89 a month, and I could also keep my unlimited data and text (yes, I send way too many text messages). But, here's the kicker: once you reach this golden level of usage, you automatically get five phone numbers to call for free – at any time.

Find out what's happening in Dunedinwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Now, let's think about that. I upgraded to 900 minutes and now I don't use any of them because most of my calls are free? Exactly. I now use a whopping 80 minutes. My guess is that would be mostly calls to and from work. So now this left me upset and I even felt a little cheated. Why should I pay for 900 minutes if I'm only using 80?

I'm at dinner with my parents a couple weeks ago and I mention my dilemma. My mother is quick to point out that I should just “call Verizon and tell them to lower it.” Now, this is where the saying “always listen to your mother” comes in handy. At this point, I laughed and thought she was just joking – until I got my next bill. When I realized my bill had increased nearly $40, I called. Hey, what's the worst that could happen?

So I call Verizon Wireless and I'm fumbling around with the automated system as it apparently didn't feel the need to recognize any of the English coming out of my mouth, and I finally ended with a nice woman named Christina. Now, I told her exactly what was up: “my bill is too high and I'm not using the 900 minutes because my most-called numbers are in my five free ones!” A moment went by and she said, “I think we can help you out.” Now, I nearly fell off my couch. What's this?? Verizon wants to help me save money?

“Let's put you back on the 450 minutes, and I'm going to throw in the five family and friends for free. You can keep all your other options. And ... let's see ... $59 a month sound good?”

Well, yes! I didn't know what to say anything at this point other than “YES!” I thanked her several times, and felt a sigh of relief. I had saved nearly $50 a month by just making a simple phone call.

So here's the moral of the story, kids – don't let the big companies push you around. They want and need your business. Especially in the highly-competitive world of cellular phones. My advice to you is to call them, ask them what promotions they can give you or ask them to analyze your bill for savings.

Try it out, and leave your comments here in the blog. I'm curious to see the results from other companies! And, if you can lower your bill and save some money each month – thank my mother!

'Til we blog again, 

-Mathew

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?