Dialing for Dollars

Reaching out and touching someone, whether over a terrestrial telephone network or a wireless one, is easier than ever before. The flip side is that buying phone service has never been more complex — a fact borne out by the rising number of billing complaints, which jumped 65% in the first quarter of 2003 compared with the same quarter last year, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Samuel A. Simon, chairman of the Telecommunications Research and Action Center, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, believes many consumers are irate because they fall for marketing hype and wind up buying more minutes of service than they need. A recent Yankee Group survey of 2,500 mobile-phone users, for instance, found that people on average buy 467 minutes of talk time a month but use just 343 of them. Subscribing to services that best suit your personal calling patterns can save money. Consider these tips:

--Don't blindly sign up for calling plans. Study past bills to find out how many minutes you talk each month, when and where you typically talk and whether you dial mostly locally or long distance. To find a plan that best matches your needs, consult Internet search engines found at TRAC.org and MyRatePlan.com.

--A cost-effective strategy is to nominate either your cellular or your land-line service as your main communications link. Load it with the monthly minutes you need at the best possible price while subscribing to a bare-bones plan for your little-used secondary phone. If your land line is your primary phone, you can get a basic cell-phone plan from T-Mobile for $19.99 a month, including a free phone. That will give you 60 minutes to use anytime, plus 500 weekend and nighttime minutes. Be careful, however, not to underestimate how often you use a cell phone. Exceed your allotted minutes, and the per-minute rate soars as high as 45¢. If your calling behavior varies greatly from month to month, Cingular's rollover feature protects against wasted minutes and money by allowing you to carry over unused monthly talk time.

--Getting rid of long-distance service on your home phone may sound extreme, but if you mainly use your cell and rarely dial area codes, it might be a smart move. According to Yankee Group research, 12% of phone users ages 18 to 24 get by with cell phones alone. By subscribing only to basic local service, you can lower your monthly land-line fee to $20 or less. Just keep a prepaid phone card around for long distance. In short, buy a plan that suits you, and maybe you'll have more time — but less reason — to complain.

You can e-mail Jean at moneytalk@Moneymail.com