In this economy, every cent you can save counts, but many of us are overpaying for our phone bills without even realizing it. You could fight for a much better deal if only you knew that you were overpaying in the first place. To find out if you’re getting a fair shake, consider these tips.
Check to See If You Are Using All the Features You Are Paying For
Sometimes, overpaying for a phone plan simply means paying for things you don’t actually use or need. Many phone plans come bundled with extras like unlimited data, international calling, or premium streaming services, which you are paying for even if they aren’t listed on an itemized bill. These features are often packaged with a phone plan to make it seem worth paying for the whole thing, but it depends on what you actually need.
If you’re not taking full advantage of these add-ons, you’re essentially paying for services you don’t need. For example, if you rarely stream videos or music on the go, a plan with unlimited data might be unnecessary since you can rely on Wi-Fi when at home. If you aren’t making many international calls, why pay for such a feature? Figure out your own usage habits and consider paying for a plan that provides only what you need and nothing more. That’ll save you a lot of money right away.
Make Sure You Aren’t Paying Any Hidden Fees
Hidden fees are another common reason that many people end up overpaying for a phone plan. There are all sorts of hidden fees—charges for activation, late payments, or even taxes and regulatory costs. Such fees are usually mentioned somewhere, but they aren’t always laid out very clearly, making it easy to lose track of how much these small charges are really costing you over time. Even a few dollars a month adds up.
This is why you should carefully review your monthly bill and look for any line items that seem unclear or unwarranted. If there are any fees you don’t believe should be there, contact your provider and figure out what that’s all about. Some carriers may also charge extra for particular services, such as device insurance or cloud storage. If you can identify these hidden costs and cut out the ones you don’t need or shouldn’t be paying for, that will help you save.
Compare the Price of Your Plan to Similar Plans from Competitors
One of the best ways to find out if you’re paying too much for your phone plan is to compare it, and how much you are paying for it, to options being offered by your carrier’s competitors. It’s easy to see that you’re paying too much for something if that exact same thing is being offered by another provider for a lower cost. The mobile phone market is highly competitive, after all. Carriers are always trying to offer the most competitive prices and steal customers from their competitors.
Carriers frequently update their pricing and offerings to attract new customers. Even if you got a deal that was pretty good at the point in time you got it; it may have become outdated over time. The same package you paid for back then might be cheaper now somewhere else, but your carrier isn’t going to tell you that if they can keep charging you the price you signed up for. They’re generally happy to let you keep paying the higher price.
Take the time to research plans from other providers that offer a plan similar to the one you are already using. Don’t forget to consider smaller or regional carriers, too, as they often provide competitive rates that can save you money. By comparing your current plan to what’s available in the market, you can identify what your phone plan is worth on average and whether or not you are paying above market rate.
Make Sure You Are Taking Advantage of All Deals and Opportunities to Lower Your Plan Cost
Carriers frequently offer promotions, discounts, and special deals that can lower the cost of your phone plan. Some examples include discounts for bundling services, signing up for autopay, or being a member of certain organizations, like the military. Some providers also offer loyalty rewards or incentives for long-term customers, such as discounted upgrades or bonus data. Carriers will often not tell you about these promotions, though. It’s usually up to you to figure them out and bring them up.
That’s why you should reach out to your carrier and ask about promotions or discounts that you may qualify for. Be sure to keep a lookout for seasonal sales as well, such as back-to-school or holiday offers, which may offer major savings. The benefit of all this is that you don’t have to compromise the service of your phone plan since these promotions and discounts would be applied to the plan you’re already paying for.
That said, you may be able to save even more money if you switch to a less expensive plan at a time when a promotion or discount is available. If your current plan includes a bunch of features you aren’t using much, try to find an opportune time to make a switch for maximum savings—preferably when there’s a really nice promotional offer going on.
Judge the Value of Soft Factors Like Convenience and Customer Support
It’s easy to judge the billed price of a phone plan and weigh it against specific hard features, like data limits or international roaming. But other, less tangible things are difficult to assign a particular price point to. When considering if your phone plan is worth the money, you have to consider these soft factors as well and figure out how much they are worth.
Two examples of these soft factors include convenience and customer support. If your current provider offers excellent coverage in your area and has a reliable network or has incredibly helpful and quick customer support, it might be worth it to pay a little more for those things, even if it’s hard to quantify exactly how much they should be worth.
For example, how much is it worth to you to have customer service with 24/7 assistance or easy access to in-store help? An extra $10? $15 even? On the other hand, if you’re constantly dealing with dropped calls, slow data speeds, or poor customer service, would you consider it worth it to pay $10 for that?
In this case, you have to make a judgment call about what you value about your phone plan. You may be willing to pay more for it if you feel like it offers something valuable that can’t be ordinarily quantified. It’s difficult to put a number to convenience—only you can determine what that number is.
Ultimately, the only way to determine if you are overpaying for your phone plan is to break the bill down into its component parts. What are you paying for? Are you using everything you pay for? Are there promotions or discounts you could use to pay less for those same things? And is there somewhere else you could get that kind of service at a lower price? Once you have the answers to these questions, you can negotiate a better deal with your carrier.
