Liss' Frugal Living Blogs

At the beginning of each year we make it a priority to go over the previous years expenditures to see what we over spent on, what areas need reducing and whether or not anything can be canceled or changed. This year, while fuming over the latest land line telephone bill, I decided to drastically trim the phone budget. I logged onto AT&T's website to change my phone plan. A few clicks later, I had cut my bill in half.

Unfortunately, this change didn't stick! A few days later I received a letter from AT&T welcoming me to my "new plan", which incidentally, was MORE expensive than my previous plan, which certainly didn't make any sense to me!
As luck would have it, I had taken screenshots of the changes as well as printed out a copy of the receipt showing the services that I was Supposed to receive listing the considerably lower rate than the new bill I received.

I tried calling customer service, more than 4 hours later of being on hold, being bumped from 1 call center to the next, the matter was not resolved. At this point, I felt that I had received the old Bait & Switch- half the services for more than twice the money despite the fact that the screenshots showed a major savings!

I contacted the Better Business Bureau and filed a formal complaint.

At this point, I was tired of being jerked around and decided that rather than paying more than $60 a month for the phone line, I would add another phone to our cell phone plan and transfer the number.
I contacted my wireless company, requested a line transfer and for only $9.99 a month we transferred our land line to a wireless line. The wireless phone company mailed us a new phone (free) and began the transfer process, which took 7 days, mainly due to AT&T dragging their feet to release the number.

Interestingly, my new phone was only 9.99 a month, included call waiting, call forwarding and voicemail - my old AT&T line charged me anywhere from $5.-10 for EACH of those services!

Fast forward 5 months:

After watching our wireless bill for several months for any hidden charges or unanticipated expenses, we are thrilled to report that we haven't found any. Our total savings for the past 5 months has been $274.50 just by making a phone call.

Did you know that you can transfer your land line phone number to a cell phone at no or very minimal cost? Incidentally, you can still dial 911 from your "landline" whether or not it is in service.