UCAN

Don't you just love it when companies charge you for absolutely nothing? No service provided, no goods consumed.Nada. Zip. Zilch. Well, that's what AT&T is doing to its long distance customers with something called a Minimum Usage Charge.

Starting in July, AT&T customers who have AT&T as their long distance provider but don't make any long distance calls will be assessed a $2.00 Minimum Usage Charge. Conveniently shorthanded to MUC, this charge just feels like muck on the bills of AT&T landline customers who don't use their long distance. Even worse, the taxes, fees, and surcharges associated with the MUC raise the total cost for no services rendered to around $4.44 per month. At just a shade over $50 a year, that's no small chunk of change.

So what's a savy customer to do? The best thing to do is vote with your wallet--if you remove AT&T as your long distance provider, you will no longer need to pay the muckety MUC charge and give AT&T $50 a year it didn't earn. It's usually best to put a PIC freeze on your account after you make this change so you can avoid any slamming charges. For a great primer on PIC freezes and other phone-related goodies, here's a link to one by our very own Dr. Telecom: 

Did you get hit with this muckety MUC charge? Got a complaint about AT&T? Let us know in the comments or fill out one of our online complaint forms.

Here at UCAN, we get lots of calls asking for advice on the best consumer services. Sometimes it's landline service, 
other times it's an internet service provider, but lately, the most frequently recurring request is about prepaid phone 
service. Maybe it's due to the economy or maybe it's due to consumers tiring of the pain of being in the clutches of a two- year service agreement. Whatever the reason, more and more people are thinking about switching to prepaid phones.

We think this is a fantastic decision, but once you go down the rabbit hole and find yourselves in prepaid wonderland, 
where do you start? Do you follow the Cheshire Cat or listen to the sage advice of the hookah-smoking caterpillar? Before you head down any wrong path, have a quick chat with us about where to begin.

With the cornucopia of prepaid cell phone providers out there, it helps to narrow down your choices a bit. The easiest way we've found to do this is to put yourself in one of two categories: are you (1) a heavy talker, or (2) a light talker? A heavy talker is someone who is on their cell phone more often than not, chatting away with friends, shooting off text messages, sending emails, and browsing the web. A light talker is someone who uses their cell phone sparingly--mainly for quick but infrequent calls--and most likely wants to keep a cell phone for emergency purposes.

Using this categorization, you can cut out roughly half of the plans that you need to look at. This blog will cover the general basics of what to look for in either category. I'll post a follow up blog in a few days with our newly revised prepaid phone comparison chart that gives specifics about each of the most popular prepaid carriers available. If you fall into the first category of a heavy talker, you'll want to find a plan that has unlimited services for what you use. If you talk on the phone a lot, you'll want unlimited minutes. Heavy texter? Look for an unlimited texting plan. The same thing goes for data and email. Some carriers do have unlimited everything plans for those who use all these services, while other carriers have a bit more targeted plans with just unlimited talk or unlimited text for those who are more specific with their phone use. 

If you fall into the second category of a light talker, you'll want to find a plan that fits your phone use pattern. Unlike the heavy talkers who would be looking for an unlimited plan, light talkers would benefit from a pay-as-you-go plan. While it may seem like the unlimited plans are a better deal, light talkers would end up spending less money with a pay-as-you-go plan because they simply do not use enough minutes for an unlimited plan to be worthwhile. As I mentioned before, some use their phones sparingly for a quick chat--say to find a friend to meet up at the mall. With this type of frequent but light phone use, you'll want to choose a plan that has a relatively low cost per minute. For those users who merely want to keep a cell phone with them in case of an emergency, you'll want to find a plan that has the longest expiration period for your minutes.

Thoroughly confused? Not to worry. This is just a primer on prepaid cell phones. My next blog--complete with our updated prepaid cell phone comparison chart--will give you specific examples of the various plans out there for both the heavy and light talkers.

Have you had a good experience with a prepaid cell phone company? A terrible experience? Let us know about it in the comments.

Cramming on phone bills is nothing new, but the FCC is finally beginning to crack down on telecommunication companies for the practice.

For those who aren’t familiar with cramming, it’s the practice of allowing a third party carrier to bill you through your phone bill.  The fee may be for a service you signed up for, but a large percentage of them are unauthorized.  These charges are typically small and go unnoticed by consumers; often the name of the charge is disguised to sound like some sort of standard fee.  One of the most infamous is a small charge named ‘USBI’ nestled between other legitimate regulatory fees.

This practice is profitable for both the third party biller and your phone company.  Say that you’re crammed on your AT&T by USBI and end up paying a couple dollars extra each month on your bill.  USBI will typically give a cut of the proceeds to AT&T; an extra incentive for AT&T to keep their mouths shut about the practice.  Horrifying, isn’t it?

Cramming is one of most blatantly offensive practices phone companies engage in, and up until now the FCC has just paid lip service to the situation.  However, that’s beginning to change.  Back in Octover 2010 Verizon settled with the FCC for $25 million for cramming, in addition to refunding $50 million to consumers affected by the practice.  In June the FCC levied a total of $12 milliion in fines on four cramming companies.  The Senate Commerce Committee found that cramming charges total $2 billion annually, and phone companies are getting a cut of the profit.

And now the FCC has officially proposed new rules on phone companies to prevent cramming.  Notably, carriers would have to notify their customers of the option to block third party charges, and any third party charges would need to be listed on a separate bill to avoid confusion on the part of the consumer. 

I’m thrilled to see the FCC really crack down on this low down, deceitful practice.  Be sure to check your phone bill for any unauthorized charges.  If you spot one, call your phone company immediately and request it be removed.  If you run into any trouble with it, just give us a call at the Fraud Squad: (619) 696-6966.

Source:  FCC press release on new cramming rules