$400 cell phone bill :O

[huskermommy]

OMG! I just got our cell bill and it's $400!!!! :! WHAT NOW? How will I ever pay this?!?!?!

[MorganRiley]

thats really high....didnt you get a plan for a certain number of free minutes?

or calling after a certain time is free/weekends too??

[Purple*Lotus]

Well the first thing I suggest is finding out why it happened by going over the calls made and the times. Because it is going to happen again if you do not correct the problem

[Ruthla]

I'd contact the cell phone company and see if they made any errors- and if not then to set up a payment plan.

[huskermommy]

Originally Posted by MorganRiley

thats really high....didnt you get a plan for a certain number of free minutes?

or calling after a certain time is free/weekends too??

Originally Posted by ~*Jaime

Well the first thing I suggest is finding out why it happened by going over the calls made and the times. Because it is going to happen again if you do not correct the problem

Yes, I got a plan w/medium amount of minutes w/free weekends and incoming. I'm in the process of going over every call on the bill to see how this happened. This is the first and I think it's because we may have just simply used the phone too much until our land line was hooked up.

Originally Posted by Ruthla

I'd contact the cell phone company and see if they made any errors- and if not then to set up a payment plan.

After I analyze the bill I'm going to call and see what they say if I find a problem. If not, and it's all my STUPIDITY! then I'll have to set up a payment plan. Are cell phone companies pretty good about that?

All this got me really thinking about our finances and our current situation. I think we need to figure some things out. I wish we had money set aside for this. ACTUALLY, this should've never happened in the first place!

[nicoley73]

After I went over my minutes and had a large bill, I started checking my balance every week. Verizon has a thing set up where you can call and they send you a text message with the number of minutes used to date. So if we start to get close I don't use my phone much and warn DH not to answer his...(he's the offender for the most part.)

[huskermommy]

That's a great idea! I will check to see if US Cellular offers something similar

[MaddieMay]

I don't know about other companies, but this is one of the reasons I love rollover minutes from AT&T.

[pbjmama]

I think you can check your minutes online with every service. Of course you could call during off peak time too. I hope it is an error on their part!

[nolansmummy]

s been there. it ended up we were using too many texts and getting online too much along with my little bro ( he's on our fam. plan) deciding to talk to his new g friend every second of every day. Yikes.
THe company worked with us and set up a payment plan, we have cingular/att btw. I know most companies i've had you can push certain number combinations on your phone and it will tell you how many minutes you've used.

If you can't figure out what went wrong just by looking at your bill, call the company, they should be able to tell you exactly where you went over. My dh used to work for a cell company, its easy for them to look it up.

Hope you can get every thing worked out.

[Purple*Lotus]

I have US Cellular, if you call 611 from your phone it will tell you how many minutes you have used that month, as well as how many texts you have sent.

[Garden~Lover]

Did you go on the internet from your phone? We had a super high bill early this year and it was because ds was going on the internet.........:

[polyhymnia]

On tmobile you dial #646# (#MIN#) and it tells you how many of your minutes you have used. Sometimes we go over a little bit and it is 40cents per minute. OUCH! We also get charged for texts (we don't have a texting plan), even incoming ones, which is annoying. I just have to remind my friends with free texting that I DON'T have free texting.

[annethcz]

I don't know if this is universal, but when I first signed up for my cell phone, I had a certain number of days (60? 90?) to change my plan. If you think you'll be using the phone more than you anticipated, it might be cheaper in the long run to switch to a different plan which includes more minutes, rather than pay for overages every month. The fine print on your contract should indicate if this is an option for you.