Phone Bill Savvy Family

Since late fall I have been devising a plan to convince my parents to get me a new cell phone. I tried the "tell them about a phone till they give in" plan, the "everyone has a better phone than me" ploy, and the "I'll stop bugging you if you get me a new phone" trick, but none prevailed. Finally, observing my mom trying to save money on everything, I devised a plan to save even more money, which could hold a reward in store if completed successfully. What was this plan you might ask? Well it all started when I asked my mom if I could open the cell phone bill. She asked why and I smoothly replied "Oh, no reason in particular." Even though she knew I was up to something, she let me look at it. As I sorted through the bills I noticed that there were features added to my mom's phone that she didn't use, actually she doesn't even know how to use them because, like many parents, she is slightly oblivious to new technology. Anyway I showed her that every month she had been wasting $20, which over the four years she had the phone totaled up to be $960. What did we do about it? I researched how we could change features on our plans and the service provider we are with, AT&T, has a nice feature on their website where you log in with your password and cell number and you can pay and check bills, access plan info, add/remove features, and add additional lines. That night I went through our plan on the AT&T website with my parents' permission and removed the unwanted features. By doing this I saved them $240 a year. All of this paid off in the end because my parents are rewarding me with a new phone (I still have to pay for half, but that's better than paying for the whole thing), which I am getting today and will review soon. So, as you can see, helping your parents understand technology and what goes along with it can be very rewarding in the end.

Helpful money saving tricks:

Check your plan- Sometimes when you are setting up a new plan and ask for the most basic one available the service provider will tack on extra unneeded features. A good example of this is the situation with my mom's phone. She asked for a basic plan just for calling and they added a mobile web and road side assistance neither of which she needs. She didn't know about these until I checked the bill a few weeks ago.

Add features- If you are planning on using features like texting or mobile web make sure you add them to your plan. Only add features you will use frequently. If you are not sure you will use a feature try it for a month and if you don't like it or can't see yourself using it often then just remove it from your plan.

Be aware of fees- Many features on your cell phone have hidden costs. Things like texting, instant messaging, mobile email, and mobile web are all things to be aware of. If you don't have these features on your plan don't use them if you want to avoid extra fees on your bill.