We see 3 areas where you can act to reduce your spending: you cell phone plan, your cable bill, and your bank account. Let's look at each of them and see what's wrong and how to fix it.
Cell Phone Bill
We will not reveal any new secrets by saying cell phone bills pack in a lot of sneaky charges. These are services that you don't need or use rarely, if at all. You can save some dollars every month by looking at your last bill to find these unnecessary charges.
Here are the main culprits:
Monthly Phone Payments
Remember how you upgraded your smartphone and paid zero dollars? Then you started seeing those repayment installments on your monthly phone bill.
Phone payment plans often end up costing much more than the retail price of the phone.
Paying the full price of the phone up front, esp. when the phone goes on sale, is a better option.
Bloated Data Plan
Check your data usage. You may not need all the 8Gb you liked so much when you signed up for the service. Why pay for more data than you really need every month?
On the flip side, if you need more data and you pay overage fees monthly, it's better to upgrade to a plan with more data. It will be cheaper.
Smartphone Upgrades
Don't upgrade your phone every year. It doesn't pay to upgrade that often, because the early upgrade fees are costly.
Cable TV Bill
First of all, are you still paying for cable TV at all? Cutting the cord and moving your TV watching online with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus may be less expensive. Don't forget to upgrade your Internet to unlimited, though, as the streaming services are bandwidth hogs!
Back to Cable TV companies. They are notorious for hidden and confused fees. Here are some of these.
Introductory Deal Fees
Read the fine print on your great "intro" promo. Check for the extra fees that are not mentioned in the low-bundle price you're getting. We saw a lot of intro deals not being worth it because of all the bundled fees that come in after the intro period.
Equipment Rental
Cable companies tend to charge for every remote, cable box, DVR. Don't rent from your TV company, but buy on your own.
Taxes, Fees, Surcharges
Get a clear picture of what these fees and surcharges are. Shop around and sign up only the service provider whose fees are the lowest.
Paying More Than New Customers
Here is a hack you'd want to use. Don't call your cable company from the phone registered on your contract. They can see what plan you currently have by verifying your phone number.
Instead, call them from a different phone number and ask for the best deal.
Bank Account
Bank fees tend to add up, too. Sometimes, it's the worst situation: you don't expect these fees and they come and your account is empty. Then it creates a vicious circle - the fees drive overdrafts, which add up new fees. Here is what to do.
Keep the required minimum in your account. If not, direct-deposit your pays to your checking account.
Keep track of your outstanding check, direct charges, debits, ATM withdrawals, card transactions. This allows you to know your true account balance.
Also, when you travel outside of Canada, check what fees your bank will charge if you use your credit card overseas. Discuss with the bank and apply for a card that does not have such fees.
Let's sum it all up in this short video:
If you are able to reduce and avoid such hidden costs, these are your savings. Take a full control of what's happening with your finances behind the scenes.
More saving tips: