Viewpoint

Here, a monthly perspective from Consumers Union on the latest challenges—and possible solutions—facing U.S. consumers today. See archived installments of Viewpoint.

Stop phone-bill shock

When Gerard Rufo received a $263 bill from Verizon Wireless a few months ago for his family’s cell-phone plan, he was shocked. It was nearly double the usual monthly charge.

“We were on a 700-minute-a-month plan for me, my wife, and my son, and we had never gotten close to going over, but my mother-in-law was sick and we made a lot of calls,” says Rufo, a credit collection analyst from Andover, Mass.

He asked Verizon for some sort of break. The company offered to upgrade him to a 1,400-minute-a-month plan going forward but it would not budge on the $263 bill.

Rufo did bump up his plan but says he’s annoyed that he didn’t receive any kind of notification from Verizon that he was about to go over his monthly allotment of minutes. “I would have liked a heads-up if my bill is going to suddenly double, something like you might get from the bank when you are about to be overdrawn,” he says.

No surprises, please

A recent Consumer Reports survey found that one in five respondents had received an unexpected charge on a cell-phone bill during the past year, with 38 percent reporting that the surprise charge was $30 or more. The survey also found wide support—61 percent—for a government rule requiring wireless providers to notify their customers when they’re in danger of exceeding their plan’s allowance. Support is even stronger among young people.

The Federal Communications Commission agrees. It has proposed rules that would require wireless carriers to provide customers with notification, perhaps by voice messages or text alerts, when they approach and reach monthly plan limits that trigger overage charges.

The commission’s proposed rules would also require mobile providers to caution customers when they’re about to incur international charges or other roaming charges that aren’t covered by their monthly plans and when they’ll be charged at higher-than-normal rates. And the rules would require mobile providers to disclose any tools it can give consumers to set usage limits or review balances. The FCC is also considering whether all carriers should be required to offer the option of letting consumers set their own usage caps.

Consumers Union strongly supports the proposed rules, which would let consumers better budget their telecom spending and avoid nasty billing surprises.