What’s so important that you have to reduce phone bill?
Checking out our friends on social media, staying connected with family through messages and staying entertained through movies online, there is an endless list of things we can do using our mobile phones today. These days, it is hard to imagine we can live one day without having our mobile phones in our hands. Here’s the caveat, there’s no free lunch in life. All these great benefits come with a cost – phone bills. To make matters worse, this cost is rising and becoming burdensome.
Here are some statistics:
In year 2001, mobile phone users in the U.S. spent only $210 per year on their phone bills. In 2010, that figure has grown to $760. A whopping 260% increase!
In year 2012, 21% of Americans said they spend more on their phone bills than on groceries
In 2016, an average person in India has to work for 12 hours to afford in 1GB of mobile data
In 2016, an average Australian household spends almost 3x more on mobile phone bills than on books/newspapers
So do we go back to papers and pens?
It doesn’t have to be this way and it’s not an easy way. Mobile phones today isn’t just for entertainment. We need the phones and data for our daily activities and work. Instead of leaving our phones, we should work to reduce phone bill. It is not difficult and you can reduce phone bill by following some simple steps.
5 simple steps To Reduce Phone Bill:
Data price matters!
Choose carrier who charges less for data, sounds simple right? It may surprise you to know that many people don’t pay attention to the cost of data when choosing their providers. Free phones, brand loyalty and what carriers our friends use are some of the factors that oftentimes are more important than lower bills. Before signing up for a mobile plan check the cost of data offered by the carrier and remember to ask more than 1 carrier. Once you have the information, always prioritize the one the charges you less.
Carriers: Companies that provide wireless communications services, commonly known as internet connection. These are the companies who charge us for accessing the internet through our mobile phones. In this article, our mission is to pay them by working to reduce phone bill.
Read your mobile contract before signing
Today many carriers deploy various intelligent marketing tactics to attract you to be their long-term customers. They offer you very attractive price and goodies when you sign a mobile contract with them.
Take my money already?
…. not so fast.
You need to know that carriers are always competing with each other to get new customers. To succeed, they will regularly offer lower prices or better goodies. All these will mean nothing to you if you had already signed a mobile contract with a carrier.
Imagine signing up for a 2-year mobile plan that costs $30 monthly. Two months after signing up, another carrier offers a plan of $20 a month. There is no way you can switch now because you have a contract with your existing carrier. That means bidding goodbye to $2,200 worth of savings! Once you are in a contract, to reduce phone bill is only a dream. So contract isn’t a bad thing, but you have to do your maths before deciding to signing one with a carrier.
Contract with carriers: A contract with a carrier means you commit to use the company’s mobile internet service throughout the contract period. If you decide to terminate the service early, there will be penalty to pay
Being smart with phone usage Helps to Reduce Phone Bill
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that one of the more obvious ways to reduce phone bill is to use less of your phone. When you use less mobile data, your needs to purchase more data from your carrier reduces. There you go, as easy as ABC. Of course, it is easier said than done. If you just can’t avoid using your mobile phones, like the rest of us, pay attention to the sign below.
This is what we call a “WiFi” sign. When a place has this sign it usually means that there is free internet service offered. Many places like cafes, restaurants and shopping malls offer free “WiFi” as a way of attracting you to visit them.
Doesn’t make sense to reduce phone bill only to incur extra restaurant bills? Choose restaurants with free “WiFi” when you go for your regular meals. There you go again, no extra restaurant bills while attempting to reduce phone bill. While you are at it, look for cheaper restaurants.
It will also help a lot if you spend more time away from your phones. In 2017, an average person in Singapore spends about 3 hours a day on their mobile phone. That is almost 25% of the time you have when you are awake! Pick up a sport, read a book and meet up with your friends. All these are great activities that will contribute to your personal development and you won’t notice that you are without your phone.
If you can’t control yourself, let your carrier help you
So what if you can’t control yourself in using your phone? You can always ask for help from… your carrier! You can choose to opt for prepaid mobile plans. With a prepaid mobile plans, you would buy your data plan in advance. Once your data is all used up, your carrier will stop providing you with internet access. When you are faced with scarcity, you will learn to budget and spend your data wisely. If you are in our MoneyTree class, this will sound familiar to you. In MoneyTree, kids are taught that money is scarce. Therefore, you will need to budget and spend it wisely.
Go with plans that allow for rollover
Better be safe than sorry – you may have encountered this when talking to some carriers. They would advise you to buy more data to avoid being in a situation where you need to use your mobile phone but your data has been exhausted. While it is a valid point, oftentimes it can be wasteful. Many of us don’t use up all the data we have purchased. With all the videos and funny MEMEs out there, how is that possible? It is possible. When the data we purchase is not used, many carriers will expire them. With rollover, unused data can be carried to the next month. This means you need to buy less data the next month and you get to reduce phone bill.
Bonus tip – Everything In One
Before we finish off this article, let us reward you with a bonus tip. We know sometimes it can be a hassle to research for mobile plans across various mobile carriers. So if you want an easy way out, you can always with TuneTalk. TuneTalk offers one of the best mobile plans in Malaysia that will help you save on your phone bills.
The company’s +Vibe 15 plan comes with 4GB data at only RM14.15
You get to enjoy FREE 4GB data for every RM30 top up
When you are out of data, you can get a 20GB boost for only RM20
All these great deals come with exclusive privileges when you sign up with TuneTalk. A TuneTalk customer gets free BIG points and PA insurance when topping up. Sounds like all 5 steps coming together in 1 step? Check out their website for more information.
Follow these simple steps and you will see the fruit of your effort in your next mobile phone bill.