As we head into the 2020 holiday season I’m reminded of some money-saving advice I gave myself at the beginning of last year – pair down that cellphone bill.

One of my new year’s resolutions and an always useable LifeHack – These 7 tips will help you put money back in your pocket instead of spending it on your cell phone bill:

Friends & Family –
– Friends & Family plans offer huge savings, look at how your family uses data and minutes as well as the number of devices you have – for the right people this can save you as much as 50% on your bill.

Are you a light user? Go Prepaid –
– No contracts, no surprises, no overages at the end of the month – just a phone to use when you need it. Provided of course you don’t use it a lot.

Adjust your plan to match your usage –
– Track your minutes so you know what you use, the same with data, before trying to reduce what you use to see if there is a better plan.
– Pretty self-explanatory, don’t pay for things you don’t need.

Use apps to text with friends –
– Apps like WhatsApp & Telegram are: Free, work internationally, and are secure so you know no one is listening in. Best of all at the unit level when compared to a general group text basically free.

Watch out for Data drain –
– GPS, ringtone downloads, games, premium voicemail, health apps – there are lots of cell phone extras to choose from, but in the end, and they all chew up data, increase your bill, and drain your battery (a pet peeve of mine).
– In your settings turn off the background app update feature.
– Always chose free apps overpaid/freemium versions, the latter is particularly good at getting you to spend money down the line.

Wifi Networks
– Tap into locally available wifi networks and default to bringing in data and information that way – it will save you tons of data. As a warning though if you have sensitive data on your phone this may expose you to risks.

Renegotiate!
– Or at least threaten it, you’ll be amazed at the help you magically get.
– Over 65? There are discounted government & carrier plans.