<p>My bill has drastically increased and I have no idea why. When I access my account online the details of the bill are impossible to find. I “chatted” with them and requested they email me the details of my bill because I do not want to spend another hour chatting with them to find the details of my bill when it should be easy to find on the website once I have logged into my account. It’s not easy, it’s impossible. I have another contract and a line with another company and may just switch all my lines to the other company, which I was going to do eventually anyway. I assume this will go on my credit report? Maybe when they see I switched all my numbers to another company they will call and give me some answers in an effort to get some money for the bill? Any ideas?</p>
<p>You’ll eventually get a deragatory mark on your credit mark for sure if you refuse to pay.</p>
<p>I’d demand that they produce an easy to understand itemized bill, and explain in clear english what accounts for the price increase. If anyone puts you on hold, gives you the run around, throws out a bunch of stupid jargon, or doesnt know what they’re talking about, repeat these words: “I need to speak to a customer retention specialist”. These are the people whose jobs are to keep you from leaving. Ask them about your bill. If they cant clearly help you understand why you legitimately owe more, close your account, and tell them you’ll send them your final balance as soon as your lawyer gets a chance to review your bill.</p>
<p>This is an example of why I prefer prepay cell phone service. No contracts, no having to deal with retention specialists, no having to have lawyer to deal with contract and billing hassles. I pay for my cell phone service in advance and have service for the following month. I don’t pay and they cut me off. Simple plan.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. The only thing that’s kept me contract is the subsidized smart phone model. I usually don’t take bribes, but I couldn’t function without my iphone at this point.</p>
<p>btw lovestheheat, Im hoping you dont actually need a lawyer. I think AT&Ts surprise megabills are like bank overdraft fees. They figure most people wont notice, or will get so frustrated with confusing bills and bureaucracy that they’ll just pay it. But they probably have the power to take off the extra charges if you threaten to leave. You can always remind them the cost to find a new customer will be more than the customer to keep you content.</p>
<p>Gee, how did you know which cell phone company it is?</p>
<p>I use my iPhone 4 on prepay company Straighttalk for $45/mo. Straighttalk has me on AT&T’s network too, I just don’t have to deal directly with AT&T and all their nonsense! [Welcome</a> | Straight Talk](<a href=“http://www.straighttalksim.com/]Welcome”>http://www.straighttalksim.com/)</p>
<p>Thanks guys. I spoke with a customer retention specialist. Told her I wanted to view the details of all my bills for the last 6 months. I refused to try to navigate the website again, even with her “help”. She tried to tell me I would have to pay for all but a copy of the current bill. I refused. She is having them mailed to me no charge. Strange how they can’t email them. She changed the deadline for paying the current bill, until after I get the details of all the bills from the last 6 months and I can review them - to 2 weeks from now. My mother passed away in May and I have just been paying the bill because I have been preoccupied with taking care of her estate. I think I have been overcharged for at least a few months now. I will check into Straight Talk.</p>
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<p>Go for the new Nexus 4 when it comes out. As powerful as the crazy expensive ones, but only $300 unsubsidized. Plus no extra software loaded on by carriers. Just gotta get it straight from Google.</p>
<p>What cell phone company are you with? We have Verizon, I click on one of the phone numbers and all the details show up. Some of them are in drop downs but if you can post on this forum you can find them on their website. Maybe look into switching to them…just make sure you are out of contract before you do any changes or you will be paying a hefty fee for that.</p>
<p>I’m with AT&T but have already started a new account with Sprint (went for the cell phone bribe). I will switch all my numbers over soon, or go with Straight Talk or something similar for the additional lines. My contract with AT&T ran out a long time ago. We need a lot of lines.</p>
<p>Don’t just skip out on paying. That’ll likely follow you around and haunt you for quite a while to come. It’ll also probably end up costing you more than this bill after you get hit for interest, penalties, collection agency costs, etc.</p>
<p>Instead, figure out what the problem is. I don’t know why you’re having such difficulty with figuring out the problem by reviewing the bill online. It seems pretty straightforward to me. Can’t you see where the charges are? It’ll usually be in one (or more) of the following areas - </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Scammed by third parties who say you downloaded a game or something else and are charging it to your phone account. You can usually get these removed by the phone company if you in fact never downloaded them purposely.</p></li>
<li><p>Internet access - i.e. maybe you watched some movies or other videos which use a lot of data which can end up costing you a lot or maybe you’ve been doing a lot of web browsing on it which can cost a lot.</p></li>
<li><p>Too many texts - if you don’t have unlimited texting and exceed your limit it’ll add up on the bill.</p></li>
<li><p>International calls - if you’ve been making these, it can get expensive.</p></li>
<li><p>Too many minutes used - if you exceed your calling minutes the costs can add up quickly.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I was forced to switch to ATT from T mobile this fall when Tmobile no longer had coverage in my area. ATT is the only choice if one likes to receive calls and texts without running outside and waving the phone around. This forum isn’t long enough to detail the nightmares I had getting my account set up. 4 hours of customer service later, I still wasn’t receiving a paper bill. It took them 3 weeks to set up my “internet site” (used only to log into my bill), then they didn’t send a paper bill OR an email notifying me there was a bill. They went in and changed my on line user name and password, but couldn’t tell me the new ones. etc etc etc.</p>
<p>All of the above was a 3 minute set up process with T mobile. I cannot agree enough with OP about how difficult it is to find one’s bill on line at ATT with a corporate account (I have a business, but only 5 lines. Can only assume they also stink with individual accounts).</p>
<p>Oh please, T Mobile come back…</p>
<p>The new Nexus 4 on a prepaid plan would be a good setup for many folks. The 16GB Nexus 4 is only $50 more than $300 outright 8GB version.</p>
<p>[Top</a> 4 US pre-paid wireless plans for the Nexus 4 | Android and Me](<a href=“News.Wirefly | The Leader in Mobile Phone News and Reviews”>News.Wirefly | The Leader in Mobile Phone News and Reviews)</p>
<p>I got my daughter a Google Galaxy Nexus this past summer to replace her feature phone. We took the SIM card from her feature phone, and put it in the Galaxy Nexus and everything works! The data rates are expensive but she just disables it and uses WiFi. She can use data in an emergency.</p>
<p>The Google Nexus 4 is $350.</p>
<p>I received my first AT&T iPhone bill recently. It was long and detailed but I had no problems understanding it. I had no problems finding it on their website either. My plan costs $60/month with 3 GB of data. I could drop to 300 MB and save $10 as I found that I don’t use much cellular data. I’ll decide on that in a few months though.</p>
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<p>I agree that phone bills are hard to understand. We have five cell phones and the bill is astronomically high.</p>
<p>My strong advice: Don’t online “chat.” Get on the phone and talk to a human. Go over every line that you have a question about. There is a chance that there is a mistake (being charged for overseas texts or unauthorized fees or services - known as “slamming” or “cramming”). But, most likely, you will discover that all the little parts of a phone bill add up very quickly. </p>
<p>And, i hope you were not serious about asking what happens if one does not pay their bill. That is never an option.</p>
<p>GladGradDad - It wasn’t a matter of not understanding the bill. The details were not listed. Even when I clicked on bill details. They listed all the texts and phone calls made and how much each line cost but no explanation to be found for the base charge of $129, or why the bill was for $218 and why I supposedly owe over $500 even though I paid my bill in full last month, even though that bill was for over $300 and I don’t know why. I know that charge breaks down. I have always paid my bills but a company can’t just send me a bill that is way more than it should be with no explanation and I write a check.</p>
<p>^^ That’s when I’d get on the phone with them and sort it out. I know that can be frustrating with almost any service provider. You need to stick with it and get it sorted out though and not just skip paying. You should also write down the date you talked to them, ideally the representative’s name, what you asked them, and what they said in response. Keep a log of this. If you’re not getting anywhere with them ask for a supervisor. Be as calm and polite as you can be with them. Keep in mind they have some power and choice of whether they waive some charges or not.</p>
<p>Good luck with it.</p>
<p>On the iPhone, voice is either $40, $60 or $70. Voice with Canada is more. Data is $20, $30 or $50 for 300 MB, 3 GB or 5 GB. Text messages are $20 unlimited or $0.20 per message. There are some other miscellaneous services. This is for the individual plan. It’s fairly easy to get to $129 per month though. Unlimited voice and 5 GB will do it and that doesn’t even include taxes and fees. Your plan pricing information might be elsewhere on the site - I don’t recall if it’s broken down in the bill.</p>
<p>The first bill that I received was complicated because it covered two months, some one-time charges and it added a discount as I added an employee discount after I started using the phone. I was able to figure out all of the costs from their bill and the month bill is about what I expected (you don’t know the fees and taxes until you see the first bill).</p>
<p>I have AT&T. I agree with BCEagle that 129/month is a possible monthly charge. If this is your first monthly bill with AT&T, the “doubling” of the bill may vary well be that you are billed in advance for the standard monthly service plus a partial month charge (which can be just shy of 4 weeks) from the start up date. I know this since every time we add a feature, the service rep has reminded me that the first bill will be a month in advance plus a proration.</p>