How to save money on your cell phone bill

(WFSB) – All month long Eyewitness News is finding ways to save you money.

One of the bigger expenses a lot of people have are their cell phone bills.

Channel 3 spoke with Financial Expert Clark Howard about ways to save on that high cell phone bill.

It seems everybody nowadays has a cell phone. Whether you love them or hate them, most people would agree, they do not like that expensive cell phone bill at the end of the month.

Clark has some suggestions on saving on your cell phone bill that you might not have heard about before.

“I would say 9 out of every 10 people are paying far more for cell phone service than they need to and you can lower your rates with the existing company you’re with,” Clark said. “Verizon has Visible. Cricket is AT&T’s discounter. T-Mobile has Metro by T-Mobile. And you’re on the same network owned by the same company that you’re already with but you can cut your cell phone plan usually by 60-70% just by going with their junior brand instead of the one that has an ad on TV every four seconds.”

“So if these companies have this sort of, you know, they’re the ‘A’ brand but they have a ‘B’ brand, is there any difference at all between the two?” Eyewitness News asked.

“There will be some features that aren’t thrown in and things like that. Let’s take Verizon. Verizon is the most expensive of the cell phone carriers out there. But Verizon is losing customers to lower-priced plans. So they have Visible. Visible is their discount brand. I call it ‘Invisible’ because they don’t really promote it. But Visible is $30/month and for unlimited everything. And you’re not going to find $30 a month from flagship Verizon. For just a single person, it’s $30 a month. And you’re getting the Unlimited Data and all that,” said Clark.

Clark said you won’t see commercials on TV for these brands or stores and that’s how they keep the prices lower.

“But they don’t promote it. They have no cell phone stores. Everything is done online. And all you do is save money,” Clark said.

If name brands aren’t important to you, Clark said there is an even less expensive way to save on your cell phone bill.

“If you’re willing to step a little further out, you can go with an independent cell phone company and cut your bill massive amounts. I have a guide at clark.com where you can see for what you do, how many people are on your plan and all that, who is cheapest,” said Clark.

Clark said before you consider adjusting your cell phone plan, think about how much you talk, text and surf the web on your phone to figure out which plan is best for you, but he said there are opportunities to save hundreds of dollars every year.

— to news.google.com