Saving money is on everyone’s mind these days. Including T-Mobile’s.
But don’t call up T-Mobile’s customer service and ask them for the best offer. The company is now sending Web visitors to BillShrink.com to see if they can save a few more bucks each month. And, I’m assuming, T-Mobile hopes BillShrink won’t suggest going to a competitor.
“We’re so confident that T-Mobile provides the best overall experience for a majority of Americans, we’re willing to put our value to the test by pointing people to an independent source,” Denny Marie Post, chief marketing officer, T-Mobile USA Inc., said in a statement.
BillShrink is a great starting place for consumers who wonder if they can save a few bucks on their monthly bills. It takes your estimated phone bill and usage, compares it to competing plans, and then offers a handy recommendation, starting with the biggest savings, if available. I wrote about the service last year (see “BillShrink quickly shows how to save on cell bill“). The site will even analyze your own phone bill, if you choose to share such personal information.
BUT what BillShrink doesn’t do is compare monthly phone bills to prepaid plans, which I found are really the cheapest way to get by with a cell phone. It also only compares phone prices from the big four: Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile. Absent are low-priced providers MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless.
BillShrink, which sorts results by “Price per month,” also doesn’t add in taxes and fees, which may lead some consumers into wrongly believing they could save money by switching. And if you’re stuck in a two-year contract, the service does add in costly early-termination fees, so don’t expect to get any money-saving recommendations.
Still, running your own numbers through BillShrink won’t hurt, although the site now requires an e-mail address in order for you to use it. But it sure beats heading to every cell-phone company’s site and reading the fine print.
While T-Mobile comes out the cheapest for me (four phones including 2 Google G1′s), T-Mobile isn’t always on top. Just run the test using BillShrink’s default figures and you’ll get Verizon Wireless as the winner.
And, just for its own customers, T-Mobile encourages subscribers to run their bill through BillShrink. If you get something cheaper, give customer service a call at 888-322-6338. (I bet you can do the same with all mobile-phone service companies).
More on cell-phones:
Check out the Gadgetress Guide to local cell phone services
