When reviewing your business phone service bill, many particulars show up on your business phone bill along with a few odd items. If you’re aware you can eliminate these charges from your business phone bill.
Toll Free Number Monthly Charges: You don’t need to use your phone service provider for your toll free service. If your phone service provider is charging your company $5 to $15 per number, per month, there are many capable providers that will provide you with the same service with no monthly fee and maybe lower per minute rates. Also, be sincere and take necessary measures for toll fraud prevention to save hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Big picture savings: If your company has 50 toll free numbers and are paying $15 per month, per number, that’s $750 a month or $9000 a year in potential savings.
Non Published and Additional Listing Charges: It used to make a difference to get your business listed in the phone book, not so much anymore. I live in Philadelphia and walk my dog around town daily. Whenever the phone books are delivered I see the same books residing in recycle bins the next week. Big picture savings: If your business has 100 locations and is paying $5 per month for one additional listing, per location, that’s $500 a month or $6000 a year in potential savings.
Wire Maintenance: If you have any sort of business phone system, your business shouldn’t be paying for inside wiring maintenance service from the phone or cable company. Even if you’re using standard phone equipment, you probably don’t need this service. Not much can go wrong with internal wiring. If you have a phone system, your phone vendor is the person you should call if there’s a problem. Big picture savings: If you have 100 locations and three business phone lines with a wire maintenance charge of $6.50 per line, at each location, that’s $1950 a month or $23,400 a year in potential savings.
Blocks of Long Distance: Many companies subscribe to long distance blocks to buy down the per minute rate of their long distance calling. Times have changed and due to the popularity of email, texting and cell phone use, employees aren’t placing as many long distance calls. If you haven’t made the corresponding adjustments to the long distance bundles you’re paying for, you could be spending more than necessary. Big picture savings: If you’re paying $200 for a 5000 minute bundle of long distance but only using 2500 minutes, the minutes are effectively costing you 8 cents instead of 4. If you can reduce the bundles to 2500 minutes, even if you have to pay more per minute, say 5 cents or $125 dollars per bundle, you would still be saving $75 per location. If you have 50 locations, that’s $3,750 a month or $45,000 a year in potential savings.
Paper Bill Charges: Some business phone service providers charge an additional fee to send you a paper version of their bill. A paper bill charge is usually in the range of $15 per month. Big picture savings: If you have 100 locations and receive a paper bill for each location, converting to electronic billing would save you $1,500 per month or $18,000 per year.
Made Up Charges: Competitive providers have become notorious for making up fees to add to their bills and increase the revenue collected from their customers. Their sales reps often don’t quote the fees and by the time you find out about them it’s too late. These fees are typically in the $50 a month range. If you’re receiving a quote from one of the phone company’s competitors, ask if there are any additional fees or to see a copy of one of their bills. If you find out about the fee before you sign, at least you’ll know the true cost of the services you’re considering and possibly be able to negotiate the removal of the charge. Savings potential: $50 per service location.
Third Party Charges: Third party charges only appear on an incumbent phone company’s bill. Most of the time they are for services you never ordered or requested. They’re bothersome but easy to remove. If you’re purchasing business phone service from your local phone company, it’s wise to review each and every month’s bill and be on the look out for these types of charges. Savings potential: $10 to $25 per third party charge, per month.
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