TRACNotes
Vol. 3 # 41 --
October 14, 2005
 |
 |
BECOME A TRAC MEMBER
By joining TRAC, you will be joining thousands of consumers who want to learn and be involved with telecommunication issues that affect all of us. In addition, you will also receive free TRAC publications during your membership.
|
|
 |
BUCKS WATCH
TRAC's Top Ten Ways to Waste Money on your Phone Bill
- Make local calls from business lines when you don’t have to. – Most carriers charge their business customers much higher rates for most services than residential customers.
- Get your monthly charges from your long distance carrier (MCI, AT&T, Sprint) on your local phone bill. - Local and long distance carriers usually charge a fee for this convenience when your long distance provider is different than your local provider.
- Call long distance during the day on peak-rate calling plans. - If you need to make a lot of peak-period calls (usually 7:00am-9:00pm), consider switching to a long distance plan that offers one rate 24 hours per day.
- Have no calling plan on a long distance carrier. – This will incur “basic” rates, which are usually the carrier’s highest rates, despite the name. Check with you carrier to make sure you are not on a basic rate plan.
- Have a second phone line if you don’t really need it. – Instead of buying a second phone line for your chatty teenager, encourage them to communicate with friends online via instant messaging or buy them a prepaid wireless phone.
- Call 0-0, 555-1212 or 411 for interstate directory assistance. - Try using the Internet yellow pages or calling local friends and family to find the number instead.
- Have more than 30 minutes “left over” on your cell plan every month. – Most consumers buy wireless service plans with more minutes than they actually need. You may be paying more for unused minutes than you would if you went slightly over on a lower-minute plan.
- Make any operator assisted call. – Expect to pay anywhere from $3-$5 per call for any call that uses an operator. Collect calls are the only exception, but then use collect only when you want the person you are calling to waste money on their phone bill. Try carrying a prepaid phone card instead.
- Pay roaming charges on a cell phone. - If you plan to spend a lot of time outside your home calling area, consider signing up for a national plan.
- Don’t sign up for TracNotes. (www.trac.org)
WIRELESS WATCH
Bar Code Scanning Technology Could Finally Put Camera Phones to Good Use - It seems that just about every new wireless phone on the market these days comes equipped with a digital camera. However, many consumers are unsure of how to go about making the best use of their new device (click here for some suggestions from TRAC). Thanks to a new service currently being tested called ScanZOOM, consumers could soon start putting their camera phones to good use helping them to save money. ScanZOOM’s PriceGrabber technology allows users to take a picture of an item’s barcode. The UPC information is then transmitted via the phone’s Internet capability to ScanZOOM which compares the price on the item scanned with the cost of the item at other nearby stores and at Internet retailers (such as Amazon.com for books). Additionally, scanning some items will return user recommendations and comments. The software is free to download, but users must also order a small lens (for $5.00) that they then attach to their phone’s camera to allow it to scan the barcodes. Additionally, using your phone’s Internet connection to access price data and comparisons will use up airtime minutes and possibly cost your for data usage. The service is currently available as a free public beta test for American users on the T-Mobile and Cingular GSM networks, but only with 16 supported handset models. SCANBUY Inc., ScanZoom’s parent company, hopes to bundle the service in with major carriers’ service plans in the future. Using a camera phone to save money on everyday purchases could prove to be the best use yet for those neat new devices in consumers’ pockets. For more information on ScanZoom, click here.
TRAC IN THE NEWS
1-800-FREE-411 Saves Consumers Money, Says TRAC - Consider checking out 1-800-FREE-411 before dialing 411 or 555-1212, notes a recent article in the October 9 edition of the Virginian-Pilot on the free directory assistance service which quotes TRAC. “From what we can tell from using it, there’s no hitch,” TRAC research associate John Breyault, was quotes as saying. “I was pretty excited by this.” To read the recent TRACNotes article on 1-800-FREE-411, click here. To read the Virginian-Pilot article, click here.
INTERESTING LINKS
FCC Main Page: http://www.fcc.gov
FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm
List of State Regulatory Commissions: http://www.naruc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=15
What do you think? Got a tip you want to share? Nominate your "Scam of the Week" and your "Tip of the Week" - If we select your submission, we'll give you a one-year free membership in TRAC and acknowledge your contribution by name in TRACNotes. Send an e-mail to trac@trac.org to submit your ideas!
TRACNotes is distributed to TRAC members and those who have signed up on the TRAC website "Newscenter." If you do not want to receive TRACNotes, simply click here and let us know. You won't receive these in the future. We hope you choose to remain a part of our network, and that you find TRACNotes helpful. Our goal is to provide you with useful information about what is happening in the telecommunications marketplace for consumers and to keep you up to date on TRAC's policy advocacy. If you like what you see, please consider becoming a member of TRAC by clicking here.
©2005 Telecommunications Research and Action Center. TRAC grants unlimited rights to reproduce TRACNotes or any information contained in it provided attribution is given as follows: "Source: Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org"
