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Tips For Cutting Your Phone Bill

A Little Planning Can Save You A Lot

No Monthly Fee Plans:

If you have a calling plan that does not require a monthly fee, you may still be required to pay a minimum amount per month.

Here are how some of the more popular plans work:

• AT&T's Five Cent Evening Plan: 5 cents in the evening, 9 cents during the day, $5 minimum per month.
• MCI's 9 Cent Anytime: This plan has a $5 minimum per month.
• Sprint Standard Weekends: This plan costs 10 cents on weekends, 25 cents during the week, with a $5 minimum.

Finding the best calling plan for you:

All calling plans are not created equal.

Some plans are good for heavy phone users, while others are best for the light caller.

Here are some things to know when you go shopping for a long-distance phone service:

• What day of the week do you make most of your long distance calls?
• What time of the day do you make your phone calls?
• How many minutes do you use in an average month?
• Do you make most of your long distance calls in-state, or out-of-state?

When you gather this information, you can go on-line or call the phone company's customer service numbers to look for rates and determine what is the best calling plan based on your calling patterns.

Monthly Fee Plan Formula

If you pay a monthly fee for your calling plan, do you know how to figure out what you are actually paying per minute after you factor in that fee? Here's a simple formula:

• Take the number of minutes you usually talk per month, and multiply it by the amount you are paying per minute.
• Add the monthly fee
• Divide that by the number of minutes used

This is what you are actually paying per minute with a calling plan that requires a monthly fee.

Here is an example of how the formula works with AT&T's One Rate 5 cent plan:

In this example the caller makes 30 minutes of long distance calls.

With this plan, the monthly fee is $7.95 30 x .05 = $1.50 $7.95 + $1.50 = $9.45 $9.45 divided by 30 = .31 cents

A person who makes 30 minutes of calls under this plan is really paying 31 cents per minute, not the 5 cents per minute promised by the plan.

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