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Saving money on long-distance calls
By Lucy
Lazarony • Bankrate.com
When it comes to long-distance calling, loyalty
is a big waste of money.
If you've been with the same company and the same
calling plan for years and years, you're probably paying too much
for your long-distance service.
"They're increasing rates and fees on
existing customers and they offer lower rates to attract new customers,"
says Rich Sayers, editor of 10-10PhoneRates.com.
When was the last time you shopped for or even thought
about your long-distance plan? Was it a year ago? Two years? Five
years?
"Part of it is inertia. Part of it is people
may be using cell phones so they may not be worried about it that
much," says Allan Keiter, president of MyRatePlan.com. "There's
a lot of money being wasted out there."
In this day and age, the only direction your long-distance
bill should be going is down. Residential long-distance bills have
declined 30 percent since 1998, according to a study by J.D. Power
and Associates.
But you won't cash in on any savings if you stick
with the same high-priced long-distance plan that you've been using
for years.
Going local for long distance
Ready to save money on long distance? Follow these tips.
Forget about the big guys. Big long-distance companies
may have nifty TV commercials but they also charge higher per-minute
rates and higher fees.
"Just because someone is talking to you on TV
doesn't mean it's your best deal," Keiter says.
To get a lower per-minute rate with a big long-distance
carrier you often have to pay a monthly fee. And there are new fees
to worry about as well. Both AT&T and Sprint have rolled out
new fees in the past three months.
In July, AT&T added a 99-cent regulatory assessment
fee. This fee gets tacked on your AT&T bill unless you have
AT&T for your local phone service, subscribe to AT&T's One
Rate Simple long-distance plan or you receive benefits from Lifeline,
a federal program that provides discounted local service to low-income
customers. All other AT&T customers pay an extra 99 cents every
month.
Sprint added a similar fee in September. Sprint customers
now pay a 99-cent carrier cost recovery fee every month. The only
Sprint customers spared the fee are customers subscribing to a Complete
Sense telephone package, which charges a single monthly rate for
local, long-distance and local toll calls.
"That's an extra dollar a month with those two
companies that you don't get charged with most smaller companies,"
Sayers says.
If you're fed up with fees and you really want to
slash your long-distance bill, switch to a smaller, lower profile
company.
These companies are too small to own their long-distance
networks. Instead, they buy or lease leftover long-distance capacity
from the big carriers and resell it to customers at discounted rates.
How much cheaper are the rates? State-to-state, long-distance calls
can cost as little as 3.3 cents per minute. Smaller long-distance
companies also charge fewer fees.
"The call quality is the same," Keiter says.
"Nothing really changes. You're just paying a lot less a month."
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