Cutting Down on Your Telephone Bills

PEDRO was a very good-hearted father who lived with his wife and several grown children in a section of Queens, New York. For the convenience of his family he had several telephones in his large eleven-room frame house. For years he was in the habit of paying a telephone bill that ran from $40 to more than $60 a month. When he would ask who was using the telephone so much, nobody seemed to know. But one day he got a bright idea​—he put locks on the phones. Now his telephone bills are one half to one third of what they used to be.

Having strict rules and enforcing them is another way of cutting down on telephone bills where a family of more than two is concerned. Teen-agers often like to visit for as much as an hour at a time over the phone. Father can rule that if they want to visit for any length of time, they do it in person; and if their friends are a long distance away, let them communicate by means of letters. Of course, an alternative would be to let the youngsters pay for their calls.

You can also greatly cut down on your telephone bills if you give thought ahead of time to what you want to say. Begin by giving your name and come directly to the point. In fact, it might be wise to make a few notes as to the points you want to cover and then check them off as you do. In this way you can get to the business of your call with the least waste of time, not forget anything and yet not seem to be abrupt or hurried.

Giving thought to the type of call you wish to make can also help you to cut down on your telephone bills. If you ask the operator to make a long-distance call instead of dialing direct, it will cost you more. Collect and credit-card calls also cost more. Long-distance person-to-person calls in the United States cost almost double what station-to-station calls cost. In Great Britain there is a flat charge of ten pence for person-to-person calls.

Most of all, you can cut down on your telephone bills (without making fewer calls) by choosing the most economical time to make your calls. In the United States, prime time is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays. A reduced rate applies from 5 to 11 p.m., Mondays through Fridays and from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The lowest rate is from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. any day of the week. During this time you can make a phone call between New York city and Los Angeles or San Francisco for only 35 cents for the first minute, 20 cents for each additional minute. Britain has a somewhat similar setup, having peak time, standard rate and a lowest rate. However, everything there goes by seconds, ranging from a high of a penny for eight seconds to a low of 72 seconds for a penny.

For telephone subscribers there is also the opportunity of cutting down on your telephone bills by choosing the most economical type of service. In some states of the United States there is a flat rate for an unlimited number of calls, and a cheaper rate for 30 calls, with extra calls at so much per call. Depending upon how much you have need of the telephone, you can figure out which type of service will be most economical for you. You might use it so little as to be able to get by with a two-party or four-party service line.

If you are interested in saving wherever you can, then you will also want to ignore all the advertising as to fancy additions. There are such items as “Bell Chime,” “Tone Ringer,” “Trimline” and “Princess” that cost anywhere from $1.35 to $2.05 each month, unless you want to pay for the extra service in a lump sum, the cost then running from $49 to $107.

And, finally, since telephone personnel are imperfect even as their machines are, they are as likely to make mistakes as you yourself are. It is therefore wise to check your telephone bill carefully to see that it contains no overcharges. Make it a habit to list all long-distance calls and compare your list with that of the company. At times cheats may use your number and run up very high long-distance charges. Do not hesitate to protest such charges.

Your telephone is a great convenience and most likely a necessity in today’s world. But by exercising care you may be able to keep it from becoming a costly luxury.