Is Your Wireless Carrier Is Ripping You Off? Find Out Now!

You just received your cell phone bill and there are some surprises. “How long has this been going on!?” you ask yourself. In this article, I'll tell you about 7 ways your wireless carrier is ripping you off.

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Cell Phone Insurance

Cell phone insurance sounds like a great idea. You have insurance for your health, home, and car, why not get it for your phone too?

Unfortunately, cell phone insurance is a major rip-off. Cell phone insurance simply isn't worth the money when you add up the annual cost plus the deductible you'll have to pay if your phone breaks.

Oftentimes Apple users can get a much cheaper device replacement at the Apple Store than they'd get through a cell phone insurance plan.

Selling You Bad Accessories

When you buy a new cell phone in-store, the salesperson helping you out often tries to upsell you with accessories. It's not their fault — they get paid on commission. The more you buy, the more money the ear.

However, these accessories are mediocre at best and your wireless carrier charges way more than these accessories are actually worth. You'll find much better deals on the same exact accessories by shopping on Amazon.

Simply put, don't buy phone accessories in-store. Go home and order them online!

Roaming Charges

Roaming charges have mostly become a thing of the past. Roaming is when you go outside of your carrier's network, but still have access to cellular data, calling, and texting.

Although most wireless carriers have stopped charging customers for domestic roaming, some still do. Double-check your plan to make sure you won't be charged for roaming.

Pay-As-You-Go Plans

A pay-as-you-go plan lets customers pay per message, minute, megabyte, etc. At first glance, these plans look appealing because of their flexibility. After all, you're only paying for what you use!

However, when you add up the cost of each message, minute or GB of data, the amount you pay quickly adds up. We only recommend pay-as-you-go plans for people who rarely use their cell phone.

For the average user, a prepaid plan is more cost-effective. Cheap prepaid plans include unlimited minutes and messages as well as a little bit of cellular data to get you through the month. Best of all, there won't be any surprises on your cell phone bill!

Our favorite prepaid plan is AT&T's 8 GB plan — it only costs $25 / month!

Overage Charges

Like roaming charges, overcharge charges have mostly become a relic of the past. Most cell phone plans give you a set amount of high-speed, 4G LTE data you can use every month. When you exceed that amount, carriers have one of two options:

• Throttle your data speeds to 3G or slower.
• Allow you to continue using 4G LTE data, but charge you for it.

These days, most carriers are doing the former. However, it's important to read the fine print of your cell phone plan to make sure you're not being charged overages. Overage charges often cause headaches and confusion when trying to guess what your monthly bill will be.

Prepaid plans are a great way to avoid overage charges! After hitting your high-speed data threshold on a prepaid plan, you can continue using cellular data at slower speeds.

Unlimited Plans With Low Data Caps

Today's less expensive unlimited plans are pretty similar to prepaid plans. Cheap unlimited plans have a relatively low high-speed data cap (~22–23 GB). Cheap prepaid plans can have as much as 8 GB of high-speed data, which is more than enough for the average user. You can save a lot of money by switching from an unlimited plan to a less expensive prepaid plan.

It's important to keep in mind that a lot of carriers have begun raising the high-speed data caps on their unlimited plan. Some, like Verizon's Get More Unlimited Plan, have a high-speed data cap of 75 GB.

Check out our other article to figure out whether or not you really need unlimited data.

Activation Fees

Activation fees are fees you're charged when your wireless carrier activates your phone on their network. They're a bit of a rip-off, since it doesn't take much for your carrier to activate your phone.

However, activation fees are often waived when you sign up for a cell phone plan online. Head to our cell phone plan comparison tool to buy a a new plan online and skip the activation fees. As a bonus, you won't have to deal with sales reps selling you bad accessories in the store!

You're Now A Savvy Customer!

Keep these seven things in mind the next time you're pick a new plan or buy a new phone! You'll save time, money, and surprise bills dow the road. Leave any other questions in the comments section down below.