Saving Freak

Many people do not know about 3rd party aggregators but the cell phone companies know them well.  This type of entity provides content for your internet ready cell phone.  You can download pictures, music, and applications right to you phone and have the cost charged directly to your cell phone bill.  The problem is that there are crooks in this world who are randomly sending out text messages trying to get some unwitting citizen to click on the link and get charged for something they never really purchased.

The cell phone companies claim to be in the middle acting only as a billing agent.  This doesn’t really fly since they receive kick backs from the criminals (this practice is known as “off decking” ).  The only solution is to keep watching your cell phone bill to make sure no odd charges appear.

If you think that there is nothing that can be done you are wrong because AT&T just settled back in June and T-Mobile was heading the same direction the last time I hear.  The market is slowly responding to this crooked behavior but we all need to be on the watch to make sure it doesn’t strike our wallet.

Please!  I am begging you.  Read your phone bill.  Whether it is your cell phone or a home phone always read your phone bill. The crazy companies that run our phone service are never looking out for your best interest.  They are always looking to make a quick buck on extra fees and services that you may not need or may not know that you have.  If you do not read your phone bill you will end up paying more every time.

Here is a quick example from my own experiences:

I have a great cell phone plan.  It consists of four phones with 1500 minutes to share and all the phones have free internet, pictures, text messaging, nights and weekends, mobile to mobile, and my phone gets three extra numbers that I can make and receive calls for free.  All this for $64.00 before taxes (if you want to learn how I did this check out my series on the Cell Phone Game).  Since I negotiated this plan I have had to call every month to get them to charge me what was promised.  Either they charge me for internet on the extra lines or they charge me for  service on the extra lines or something studpid.  So far of the three phones that have been added only one is right.  I am still fighting with them to get this done properly.  I know it can be done and am just waiting for them to get it right.  The key to this is that i read my bill every month to make sure the charges are not messed up.  If I didn’t do that I would have already paid atleast $200 in mistakes by my carrier.

Now this case is extreme but imagine if you were paying an extra $15 per month for something you do not use.  Maybe it is the internet on your phone or nights starting an hour earlier.  If you never read your bill you would think it is just the cost of the plan.  Instead of letting the phone companies get away with this robbery just check your bill and if you do not understand something call in and get them to explain it to you.  Besides, the only thing you have to lose is your money.