In today’s economy and with the lingering recession, more people than ever are losing their jobs or having their hours cut. As a result most people are looking for ways to cut costs and one of those ways is to reduce your telephone bills.
First, if you still have a land line, you may want to consider giving up the land line and just using your cell phone. More and more people are choosing to give up their landlines in favor of the cellphone. But if you still have the need for a land line, you can still cut some costs by eliminating any extra services such as caller ID or call waiting. You will have to decide if you really need those extra costly services.
Another idea it to check out what is called bundling. Bundling is when you package your television cable, Internet and phone service all in one bill. You can also add your cell phone to the package. This allows you to receive one fixed bill each month instead of three or four different bills each month.
Another option is to go with a Broadband Internet Service (voice-over IP) such as Vonage or Skype. These usually have a unlimited usage and fixed monthly rate. Vonage offers unlimited local and long distance calling in the United States, Canada and over 60 other countries. Those who have a family member in the service or just living in another country should seriously consider this option.
Cell Phone
With cell phones you should take the time to compare different companies to see who offers the best service at the lowest rates. One thing that can make a big difference in your cell phone bill is to make sure you choose the right plan. For instance, make sure you chose the right amount of minutes that you will use. If your plan does not have enough of minutes, you may go over the minutes and then you will be charged for each minute that you are over the allowed minutes. On the other hand if you chose a plan that has more minutes than you are going to use, you will be wasting your money on minutes you will lose each month. AT&T does give you rollover minutes so that your unused minutes roll over to the next month.
Call at off peak times such as after 9:00 and weekends when calling is free. Some plans will let you call free after 7:00 but they usually charge extra for this service. You can also check out what their policy is on calling other people who are in your network. Usually you can call anyone for free anytime if you both have the same provider.
If you travel a lot or make a lot of calls outside your calling area you may want to chose a national plan. But if you rarely leave your area, it would probably be best to chose a local calling plan.
Most of us are looking for ways to save money in whatever ways it is possible. These tips for reducing your phone bills may help you to keep your phone bills at a reasonable level so that you can continue to reach out and touch the ones you love more often.