Most of my business bills are on auto pay and I don't look at the actual bills very often but I like to check my cell phone bill every month.
Most folks don't realize that third parties can charge their cell phone service provider and that provider puts those charges on your bill.
For three months in a row there was a charge on my bill for "premium services" I called T-Mobile to ask them exactly what the charge is for. It turns out that sometimes when those companies send text messages to my phone with information about ring tones that I can buy even if I ignore the message they put a charge on my bill.
The company that was charging me is call CellJamz I ended up talking to them too and they verified that my phone is blocked and that they had stopped charging me. Their customer service was quick and friendly but they did not acknowledge that their business practices can cause people to be billed for services that they don't want, didn't ask for and never actually receive.
I was able to get the charges removed from my bill but new charges appeared the next month. Ultimately I had to have the company blocked from being able to send messages to my cell phone.
If I did not check my cell phone bill I would be paying and extra $10 dollars a month for ever. For the company that charges the fee it is a great gig. I wish I had a way to make money without having to work for every dime and provide service.
Check your cell phone bill and if you can not find an explanation for every charge and fee call your provider and ask questions. In general I won't pay for any service that I did not ask for and agree to pay for. There are also phone companies, a cable company and a satellite TV company that like to give customers free services that they never asked for and then after a few months they start billing for them. It is a good idea to scrutinize and bill that comes from a phone, cable or satellite dish company.
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You are so right about checking your bills. Several times I have found charges on my Cell Phone bill as well as Credit Card accounts.
$20 here and $30 there adds up.
When my son first got his cell phone there was a commercial on TV about “free” jokes to your cell, so he signed up, being the precious 13 yr old he was.
Of course, the jokes were free with the subscription to another texting service that was at least 40 bucks a month. We tried everything to get these charges removed and/or canceled but for 4 months in a row they kept popping up. I ended up changing his number and shortly there after we left that provider.
I have not had an issue with unauthorized charges since we have been with our “new” (now old) company.
Did you notice the little slip of paper in small print that T-mobile sent out with last month’s bill? Turns out there’s a class action lawsuit against T-mobile for doing exactly this. Also, if you call customer service they will remove all the charges for old texts.
Thanks Dan. Yes I did have the charges removed but I did not know about the lawsuit. I don’t open my bills, I pay them online. I will look for that notice