Nickled and Dimed getting carried away

[WIcruizer]

Has anyone else noticed how slowly but surely we're getting nickled in dimed in our monthly budget? Just look at all the services we pay for today that didn't even exist a few years ago:

XM/Sirius: $12.95/mo
OnStar: $15?
OnStar or other GPS: $20
Cell phone: They charge $5 for voice mail, 2nd cell phone for $25
Local phone: Also charge $5 for voice mail
DSL: Reasonable base , but another $10 a month if you want more bandwidth
Cable: $10 more for digital, another $10 for more channels, $10 for HBO..$4 for another box....another $5 for DVR, etc.

Am I forgetting any? It just seems that before you know it, you're paying another $100/month for all these "extras." I recently looked at all my bills, and I was amazed how many extra "service fees" "processing fees" etc. are added in addition to the ones above.

I sense a huge marketing trend where service providers will offer a low monthly rate on just about anything, and once you're sucked in they can nickel and dime you. But $5 or $10 a month isn't very noticeable, so they know it will work. Anyone else notice this?

 

[tlbwriter]

Oh yeah... a lot of people look at the "low monthly price" and don't bother to add it up. I fall for it myself. I saw a little mini camcorder that would be so convenient for WDW and thought hmmm... only $15 a month... No, I didn't get it. But it's very tempting.

 

[HM]

We've tried to keep away from too many of these types of things. Here's what I pay a month.

Onstar: $16.50
Local phone: approx $29
Long distance phone: approx $6
Cell--pay as you go: (only $21 every three months is enough for us)
Cable: Basic and next tier--$49.90
MSN dial-up: $9.95

We've resisted the call of upgraded services for almost everything we use. It really does add up. We only pay for what we know we need.

 

[westjones]

DH and I have been talking about this too!

ACTUALLY, we have also been talking about how much our "free" public schools are costing us this year.

My DDs are on sports teams, this is their first time on a middle school team. In grade school, they had uniforms that the kids used over and over, so we didn't pay for them. The PTSO bought the kids sweatshirts on the team (which was nice). They didn't go to far away games, and the games were free.

THIS year they have to buy special shoes, uniforms, warm up suits, t-shirts, pictures for sports (seperate from the regular school pictures) and of course we have to send money for food to the away games and we have to pay to get into the games now. It is SO much different than grade school. They are also practicing 8-10 hours a week and in grade school they practiced 4 hours a week (I know-that isn't a money issue, but it is impacting our family).

Anyway, sorry, this has been a BIG topic here. I told the girls to try to go one week without bring home something that I have pay for!


OH! And of course there are fundraisers---but I will stop now!
(missing grade school!).

DJ

 

[CheapMom]

I don't pay for any of that stuff except phone and Internet (lumped into 1 bill through Verizon)
I do pay $14.99 for Blockbuster Online though which is not on the list.
My cell phone is pay as you go- I put $100 bucks on it back in August (10 cents/minute) and I still have over 600 minutes left.
Yes- I am constantly forking out $$$ to the school. Then they have sports ... music lessons... scouts... field trips ...
I guess that is why I don't have satellite radio or cable... you gotta make choices- we just can't afford everything.

Oh- by the way- I refuse to buy school pictures- they are so over priced. I can take much better pictures of my kids for a fraction. And I have no guilt about any fundraising proceeds that the school misses ot on by not getting the photos- our school has 1 fund-raising campaign for the year. It is direct donation (no pizza sales or gift wrap...) just write a check and 100% goes to the PTA to spend on various programs. I give generously and I love that I don't feel obligated to buy $30 worth of wrapping paper - while our school gets pennies on the dollar.

 

[tmt martins]

TAXES the flipping TAXES on all this stuff is what kills me.
I have Nextel (5 phones on plan ) DD is a pay as you go $0 plan you only get billed if used.She used it at WDW in OCT. for 1min37sec total of $.72 the taxes on that was $6.52 .

I just don't understand how we are letting them get away with taxing all these services that they don't put a cent back into.Then on top of this the COMPANY gets the TAX BREAKS.

 

[Chicago526]

We've kept it down to a minimum too. We have digital cable and broadband internet to the tune of $110 a month, but since we don't go out to movies and use the internet a lot, I consider them both "entertainment" expenses. Other than that, we've go two cell phones for about $90 a month, but DH's contract is up next month and I can put him on my plan for $10 extra a month, and that will knock it down to $50. DH and I both have long commutes so we do need the cell phones, and we use them for long distance calls (free), so our land line is just basic service at $20 a month.

We don't have the satalite radio, OnStar (although that's one of the few things I think is a GREAT idea, and may get it in the future), NetFlix, or any of the other "only $9.99 a month gets you _____ " type stuff. So I guess we don't do too bad, overall. The extras we do have are for the most part justified.

 

[kelleigh1]

Here's a new one which I discovered after getting my long distance bill the other day. It's a 99 cent paper bill charge. Now I'm getting charged for getting a bill. I'm cancelling my long distance. It's costing us $10 per month just to have the service and that's without making any calls.

 

[d-man's mom]

I agree that the taxes are what really get to me. My cell phone bill is like $60 a month but my home phone is very low.

I don't have onstar/gps, cable, or internet but do have Sirius- I'd rather pay the $13 a month for commercial free music than for 100 channels on tv and still find nothing I want to watch.

 

[tlbwriter]

And I have no guilt about any fundraising proceeds that the school misses ot on by not getting the photos- our school has 1 fund-raising campaign for the year. It is direct donation (no pizza sales or gift wrap...) just write a check and 100% goes to the PTA to spend on various programs. I give generously and I love that I don't feel obligated to buy $30 worth of wrapping paper - while our school gets pennies on the dollar.

My DD's school went to donations instead of sales for this year's fundraiser. I do like that all of the money goes directly to the school - when they sell overpriced crap, the school hardly gets any of that money. And it was a lot easier on me not having to make deliveries. However, I didn't feel like asking friends/coworkers/relatives to give money without getting anything, so I ended up making the "suggested minimum" donation on my own. In spite of the drawbacks, I prefer this style of fundraising.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

The cell phones are the part of the bill that are killing us. The cable is always 45.00/month, and our home phone is 20.00/month. We don't have internet access (yet). My husband has 2 cell phones, as he uses them for work all over the state, and cell service is really sporadic in NH. What works in one area doesn't work in another, and nothing seems to work everywhere. The cell phone bills for his 2 and mine are 150/month. I can't see any way to cut that back, and trust me, I've looked

Jen

 

[nbodyhome]

I don't do anything like Onstar, we don' t get nickled and dimed on much, really. We do have the cell phones, at a decent enough rate, I can deduct mine on taxes so it's not as big of a deal. I am careful to not get fees at our credit union, and we do spend a fair bit on cable - it's not necessary, but we enjoy it. We have switched to vonage to save on phone fees, and I don't pay a lot of little bills. My husband has Sirius or something similar, but he pays that out of his budget. I don't like anything that is a monthly subscription like that, except for Netflix - it saves a lot of money staying in and watching movies instead of going out.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We have cell phones, On-star (free this year--but keeping it FOREVER!!!), DSL, and super basic cable.

I keep wanting to upgrade teh cable--but I know that when I do--we will watch more tv and of course nothing good will be on. So we do not upgrade and that is fine by me.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Oh- by the way- I refuse to buy school pictures- they are so over priced. I can take much better pictures of my kids for a fraction.

I SO agree with this!!! Last year I took my kids to Walmart, all 5 of them, and got the $4.88 package, then paid a little more to have an individual taken of each of them and still came out just under $100. Looking at the picture order forms from school this year the cheapest package that includes an 8x10 is $27.00 times 3 school aged kids is just under $90. It's absurd!!

And Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts just kills me! $5 a month for dues, then another $10 for rock climbing, a little more for camping, a t-shirt here and the fundraisers (which I don't know what they're covering after I've paid for everything else!!)

 

[Free4Life11]

Here's a new one which I discovered after getting my long distance bill the other day. It's a 99 cent paper bill charge. Now I'm getting charged for getting a bill. I'm cancelling my long distance. It's costing us $10 per month just to have the service and that's without making any calls.

This is a great idea! My parents use to pay $40 - $60 a month for Long Distance, and were only making 300-400 minutes of calls. They were being charged almost $20 in fees/taxes.

They use the Sam's Club 3.4 cents per minute calling cards.

 

[tiffany123]

We too are charged for long distance service that we don't use. We use only phone calls for our very infrequent long distance calls. I called to have our long distance service discontinued and was told it would cost almost $20 to do so! Talk about a rip-off!

 

[Free4Life11]

They charge you to cancel your long distance servce?? That IS a rip off!

 

[hsmamato2]

That's why it pays to pay attention - We have dishnetwork, w/ the base programs- they're always sending ads trying to get us to sign up for "just a little more" for just 5 a month.... no thanks! Our t.v. bill is 42. w/taxes each month, dsl is 15- phone is around 35 or so- cell phone is $25 per every 3 months, and I use it for very little...so it's still about 100 per month, using just bare basics(well, satellite t.v. isn't really bare basics... )the rest, though, is minimal- that's why i say no thanks to any other offers,caller i.d.,etc...

 

[bicker]

All of these changes are reflections of how we want to do business, evidently. Too many folks jump onto what seems like a "good deal" because the initial price is low, without trying to understand why the price is low. Full-service service providers, those who provide a full service without "nickel-and-diming," are basically laughed out of the market, as customers figure why should they pay more for the "same" thing.

 

[KTSMOM]

We used to be charged $3.00 for long distance just to have the carrier. We never call long distance on our home phone as we have free long distance on our cell. I got rid of that immediately.