NEGOTIATE YOUR BILLS!

I know I've said this before but it's worth repeating. Call me weird but I look at every bill that arrives in my mailbox, yes I still mail in my payments, to see exactly what I am being charged for. Today, my phone bill arrived, I'm sure I'm one of the few people who still have a landline, but I need it for my security system. Anyway, I noticed right away that my bill was higher than last month, so I checked the charges and I also took a look at the "important information" booklet that came with the bill. Sure enough there was a rate increase, my bill has gone from $23.39 to $25.01 a month. Well I discovered in the "important information" booklet that there are two types of Residential Monthly Telephone Rates for Minnesota; Flat rate and Measured rate. Hmm that got me to thinking, what is the measured rate? I promptly picked up my cell phone and dialed up Qwest. 

After pushing several buttons to get to the extension I wanted and a short wait I was able to talk with a representative. I inquired about the measured rate, what's the cost, how does it work, etc? I was told that the measured rate allows limited hours of use, great, I don't use my landline. What's the cost? 

Local Measured Service Usage Charges*: customers pay 2 cents a minute for every minute over their usage allowance of 180 minutes (3 hrs) a month. Hook me up! There is an installation charge of $18.35 which I tried to get out of but couldn't and you still have to pay taxes and other service charges, but obviously they will not be as much as before. I will be saving about $15 a month by switching. Another thing I learned is if I were to switch my cell phone from AT&T to Verizon I could save $5 per month on my landline! Hello? I'd then only pay $4.70 a month for my home phone. 

Now it's time to contact Verizon and see what kind of deals they have. I know I can get a discount through work and the fact that I have three phones, one for me, one for mom and one for pops, I should be able to negotiate something good.  

* I looked all over the Qwest website to find information about the Local Measured rate and could not find any.