Phone bills can be very high if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing. Fortunately, nowadays there are plenty of options available to save money on either your residential line bill or your cell phone bill (actually, why not both?). And if you’re willing to do a bit of homework, you’ll find out that it’s probably not as hard as you might have thought to reduce your phone bill.

Let’s start with the home phone. Some people have taken the (rather extreme) decision to go all wireless and have ditched the residential line altogether. Yet the residential traditional landline does have its uses. Should you decide to keep it, here’s what you need to keep in mind.

First of all, there’s no sense in paying extra for some features that have truly made their way into the mainstream: caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, 3-way calling, unlimited long distance, just to name a few. What you need to do is get in touch with your current provider and ask for a reasonably-priced package that includes them, or if they’re not being cooperative, just switch to another provider. The trick is to try and pay as little “setup” fees to your new provider as possible.

One other popular option is signing up with a standalone VOIP (Voice Over IP) service such as Vonage or Skype, where all the features are included in the monthly fee and all you need is a broadband Internet connection. Or you can opt for your cable company’s bundle package (cable, Internet, and phone service) or your phone company’s package (TV, Internet, and phone service). You will receive one fixed bill for all three services, at a price that’s set for a year. Competition is fierce in this market, so make sure you try and play them off each other to get the best deal.

Reducing your cell phone bill is a little trickier. In this case, instead of getting rid of services, you may actually save money by adding services or moving to a plan that’s in a higher tier, but in a way that will end up reducing your bill. Instead of paying by text for example, get a package for a certain amount of text messages or better yet, get unlimited text to control the cost. Pretty much all the services in a cell phone plan package can be bundled together. Find the bundle that suits your needs best and go with it.

The other area that contributes to raise cell phone bills is over-usage. Sometimes it’s inevitable, but most times it isn’t. Instead of paying through the nose for every minute you go over, consider a plan with more minutes (the extra fee is usually small). The current trend however seems to be heading towards unlimited cell phone plans, although those (so far) make the most sense for individual users, not for families.

It’s not necessary to incur avoidable costs when it comes to your phone bills. You monthly bill can be reduced by scoping out the competition’s offers and looking through your invoices with a fine-toothed comb. The educated consumer almost always spends less money than the uneducated one.

Reduce Your Phone Bill