How To Avoid A Cell Phone Bill Nightmare

How To Avoid A Cell Phone Bill Nightmare, There are lots of horror stories, from a $62K charge for downloading “WALL-E” to $26K for texting. How to avoid expensive and unnecessary cell-phone charges, While many of us are now willing to pay upwards of $100 per month to connect our smartphones and tablets to cellular networks, there is still the potential for “bill shock” if we don’t read the fine print.

From the man who was charged more than $62,000 for downloading “Wall-E” while traveling to Mexico to the two buddies in Philadelphia who were hit up for $26,300 after attempting to set a world record for text-messaging, there are many cellular horror stories that will motivate us to abide by even the most arcane rules and regulations. There are also more hidden and less outrageous charges found in practices like text-message “cramming” and in-app purchases that can add to your monthly bill.

Here are the five most common and potentially budget-breaking types of cell-phone charges, along with some best practices for avoiding them.

1) Roaming charges when traveling abroad
Even if you pay close to $200 for all the unlimited bells and whistles on your cell-phone plan, you can still incur additional and exorbitant fees if you travel outside of the country without first changing to an international plan. Most carriers will allow you to upgrade to international voice, data, and text plans for an extra $30 or $40 per month (and on a month-to-month basis). While those plans are annoying and inflexible, it is better to shell out $40 rather than $2,500 or even $200,000 in international roaming fees.

Last year, Florida resident Celina Aarons was hit with a $201,000 bill from T-Mobile when her brother – who is legally deaf and on her family plan – spent two weeks in Canada frequently texting and downloading videos from YouTube. Although Aarons did not have a legal case against T-Mobile, she shared her story with the local media. Subsequent public pressure helped motivate T-Mobile to lower the bill to “only” $2,500. Ouch.