Chapter 6: Getting theNon-Accountants Guide to Your Phone Bill

In This Chapter

• Checking out your summary pages

• Determining your best per-minute cost

• Decimal rounding

• Choosing your invoice type

• Identifying common billing issues

• Monitoring dispute progress

Your phone bill is probably wrong. Please, don’t take it personally; these things happen. In fact, the problem is so common that some companies exist for the sole purpose of looking at your phone bill and finding the errors so that they can switch you over to a new carrier with a slightly more accurate billing system. Some errors are huge and jump right out at you, and some are small but can cost you thousands of dollars over the course of a year.

These problems plague all carriers, but long-distance carriers seem to have the greatest trouble keeping everything straight. Depending on the complexity of your telecom needs, you may receive phone bills from several different companies, so check them all. In this chapter, I go over the key items to
look at in your invoice to ensure you are being billed correctly. I also cover common billing trouble areas, and give you direction on issuing disputes to your carrier to get credits.