Guidelines To Reduce Cell Phone Bill Shock
If you’ve ever experienced cell phone bill shock from excessive overage fees you’ll appreciate the new guidelines aimed at helping people avoid the fear of opening their monthly bill. The government had been threatening to enact cell phone bill regulations to reduce bill shock after hearing too many stories of families paying well over $1,000 for a monthly cell phone bill, so the cell phone industry with the FCC and the Consumers Union instead worked together to adopt guidelines to reduce the likelihood of this bill shock.
The guidelines won’t eliminate overage charges, but they will provide users alerts when they are nearing and when they have exceeded plan limits for the month. While many wireless service providers have ways to track usage during the month, having kids who use their cell phone a lot or having an out of the ordinary month can leave people with a giant cell phone bill they didn’t expect. Those with cell phone family plans seem to be particularly vulnerable when it comes to bill shock because they just don’t realize how much their kids are using their phone.
The guidelines will take effect in two stages, so it won’t be instant relief for those waiting for this.