How Can I Reduce My Phone Bill?
One of the primary ways to reduce your monthly cash outflow is to find ways to save on your phone bill. Telecommunications can be responsible for a huge chunk of your monthly bill, and finding ways to reduce that cost can have unexpectedly large returns.
The first step is to list all of the outgoing costs that you pay for telecommunications; this includes your home phone, your office or business phone, your personal and family cell phone(s), and any phone cards you use.
The second step is to check through your telecommunications bills, and identify the destination, frequency and source of most of your calls. Basically, who you are calling, how often or when you call, and from what location.
Once you assemble this information, you should be able to identify with one of the categories below, and follow the suggested cost reduction plan.
| Phone Usage Pattern | Cost Reduction Strategy |
| I call mostly local numbers from my home or office |
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| I call a significant number of international numbers from my home or office |
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| I call a significant number of long-distance numbers from my home or office |
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| I never use the landline telephone at my home or office, I always use my cell |
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| I primarily use my cell phone for calls, but I rarely travel outside of my telephone area code |
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| I make all my calls from my cell after 9 pm and on weekends |
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| I almost never call people, I usually text |
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| I make many international calls from my cell phone |
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| I make most of the calls from my cell to the same few numbers. |
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| My family uses more than one cell phone regularly, as well as the home phone. |
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| My family only uses cell phones, but we have 2 or more of them. |
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