Is MA Bell hosing you again?

TheStar.com - Phone rental fee paid for 25 years

According to this letter writer, his mother had been paying a $6.95 a month fee to Bell Canada in order to rent a phone set for her phone line. Last time I checked the handsets in stores now are maybe $30.00 for a cheap handset in Canada (not that I have been looking). This would easily be paid off in less than a year.

So double check your bills to see if there is any way you can save money.

Another example is my cell phone company added a $2.00 fee a month for text messaging. I thought to myself, "do I really need text messaging?" No was the answer, I would rather have a coffee at Starbucks with this money instead of a service I don't use. This was especially important that I noticed the text messaging add on because the cellular phone company adds on extra charges for taxes and the such on top of the advertised rate. So be sure to go through with someone at the cellular phone line by line on your first bill to see what each charge is there for. This may end up saving you a small amount or large amount of money. Remember to only pay for the service you use! Because, like me, you might have ended up paying for a service (e.g. text messaging, etc.) that you may have no use for.

Also re-look at your bills on a yearly basis to see if there is an alternative service you can use that would provide the same or even better level of service. For example, cable companies are coming out with phones that are cheaper on long distance for a single low monthly rate. The cable companies are even providing discounts to their customers if you add further services. For example, if you already have cable with your cable company, the monthly rates for internet and/or phone through your cable company are cheaper. Consider cable companies like McDonald's, your packaged combo deals are much cheaper than if the food/cable services were packaged seperately.

So beware what your paying for because, in the case above, you don't want to have your "Bell" rung later on when it finally hits you that you have been paying for 25 years for something that you could have saved a huge chunk of change on!