Moneysuckers - the phone bill

Last September, I joined the iPhone world. I had moved home for a couple months and decided that the save on rent was worth justifying the data plan. I signed up for another 3-year contract with Fido, with a 2-year data plan option, and committed myself, for better or for worse, to paying a lot of money every month.

Yeah, exactly.
Image credit: Toothpaste for Dinner

A snapshot into the phone bill

Let's take a look at how much I've been paying.

Apr 6, 2010	81.26
Mar 6, 2010	106.42
Feb 6, 2010	85.08
Jan 6, 2010	87.27
Dec 6, 2009	80.02
Nov 6, 2009	93.15

Ouch.

If on average I'm paying $85 a month, that's like $1000 per year! I could take a sophisticaed Parisian holiday on that money. Smart students know better. By making a couple tweaks, I paid $55.94 in May - $30 less than I would have otherwise. By making another couple of changes, my June phone bill is slated to run around $20. Now that's something a Student Sophisticate can swallow.

The data delusion

Most people who get the iPhone inevitably sign up for a data plan. They make you do it, in a sign-up-or-pay-$800-for-your-phone kind of way. Most people pay the $30 for 1GB plan - if you were "lucky", you might have even gotten $30 for 6GB.

But unless you're downloading movies onto your iPhone every day, chances are you'll never hit 6GB. You won't even hit 500MB. A quick look at MyAccount showed that I hovered around the 250MB range for most of the 7 months I used the phone.

So it won't surprise you that the first thing I suggest is....

1. Quit. The. Data. Plan.

Wifi is everywhere now. Cancel your data contract and enjoy the same amount of productivity as you did pre-iPhone.

Cost: $200 penalty for premature end to contract.

Payoff: A savings of $30 a month. Yowza.

If you're not willing to go that far...: If you say you're going to cancel and put on your best angry voice, you'll be transferred to a customer relations agent who will offer you $15 for 500MB instead, a "secret plan". That's still pretty good. When I did this, they added 500MB but forgot to remove the 6GB, so I had 6.5GB for $15. They're so organized. :)

2. Take off the System Access Fee

One of the greatest secrets cell phone companies don't tell you is that the system access fee is no longer a "mandatory" component of your payment. That's right, it's no longer an integrated part of any phone package. What that means is that if you're still paying the SAF, you're paying them an extra $6.95 a month for no reason.

Get them to take it off. They won't do it right away, but again, acting angry gets you all sorts of benefits with the Phone Companies.

Cost: about half an hour of phone time, negotiating and acting your best bitchy self

Payoff: An extra $7 a month, baby. Almost $100 per year (not including taxes saved).

If you're not willing to go that far...: Seriously, just do it. There's absolutely no change to your phone plan, and they're ripping you off. With this in mind, why wouldn't someone want to act like their best bitchy self?

3. Slash and burn

Warning: This one is not for the weak of heart. I'm telling you to get rid of your voicemail and caller ID. Will your social life die a painful and tragic death? Will your job prospects diminish and suffer? I don't know. But mine haven't, and I'm saving about $150 a year.

Cost: Nothing! One simple phone call.

Payoff: An extra $11 a month, or about $125 a year (not including taxes saved).
If you're not willing to go that far...: Try taking off just one, or the other. A couple dollars makes a difference.