Insider Secrets of Cell Phone Bill Collectors

Negotiate Your Mobile Plan Expenses Down Like Professional – Tips from An Ex-Collections Associate

In a previous post, I mentioned that at one point in my life, I used to work for one of the Big Four mobile networks. In the bill collections department. Yes, cell phone carriers have internal departments set up specifically for collecting on bills way before they send you to an outside debt collection service.

Believe me when I say it was pretty much the WORST JOB EVER. I wouldn’t wish that kind of work on my worst enemy. I don’t know what I was thinking, taking a job like that. Oh wait, yes I do. I needed money! And they had excellent benefits!

But I swear this to you, no job is worth sitting in a cube for 8+ hours a day while also having to ruin a person’s month, or having that person yell expletives and/or threats at you through the phone. You couldn’t pay me enough.

But, ever so luckily for you dear reader, now you get to reap all the benefits of my time spent in purgatory without ever having to actually do the time there yourself. I have gathered together all of my insider secrets of cell phone bill collectors in this post, and I’ll reveal the scoop on just how to use them to your advantage. The best part is, you can also use these tips to lower your cell phone bill, even if you’re not in collections.

So if you’re looking for some strategies to help you pay less every month on your cell phone bill, or are getting calls from bill collectors and just need some insider secrets to help you combat them, read on!

Ways to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill

There is tons of advice out there to help you on your quest to save money with telecommunications, but many of those giving that advice have never worked for these companies or seen how they operate. That’s where I can help by giving you the insider secrets as to what really matters to cell phone bill collectors, so you can then use that knowledge to your advantage.

#1 Everything is Negotiable

This is so important, and that’s why I made it number one. Never settle for any price they tell you. That goes for fees, your monthly charges, the cost of the hardware, etc. Everything can be changed, waived, or negotiated. Sometimes it’s just as simple as asking for it.

Let’s say you’ve been a good customer (i.e. you pay your bill on time) for X number of months, years, whatever. You can seriously call them up anytime and just ask for a discount on your bill. It’s crazy how simple that is, right?

I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but they really do have promotions running at any given time. Of course they don’t advertise them, that would be too easy. But if you are willing to call them up, sit on hold for a bit, and ask for them, then they will look it up for you.

Even if you’re at the stage where the bill collections department is already calling you, this still holds true. Except, instead of asking if you can pay less, you’ll be telling them. Confidence goes a long way in negotiations, and if you’re saying with assurance “This is what I can pay you right now.” they’ll be more likely to accept that than you think.

#2 The “Reconnection” and It’s Fee are Bogus

If you’ve ever been in the position of falling behind on your cell phone payments, you know that if you miss enough payments they will cut off your service. Then, when you can finally pay it and catch up, they try to charge you this “reconnection fee”.

As if some service guy has to physically walk outside to the telephone pole and hook up the wire again and you have to pay to tip him or something. Wrong! They literally click a button and your service is restored.

So don’t hesitate to ask them to waive that fee. The customer service reps are discouraged from waiving too many of these fees per month so they may try to feed you some line about how it goes to pay for the system but don’t buy that bologna.

#3 Ask for the Supervisor

Okay, now I hate to be the one to tell you to “Karen” this, but if you’re not getting anywhere with the customer service representative who answers the phone or called you initially, you should ask to speak to the manager. It’s really not a big deal, because often times they are able to do certain things (like waive fees) with fewer repercussions than the lowly representative you speak to first.

Just PLEASE be nice about it, I promise it will get you further than yelling ever will.

#4 You Don’t Always Have to Pay In Full

If you realize that you just can’t make all of that payment this month, or the amount they are asking for is just too high, don’t give up! You can just make arrangements with them to pay some of it, and as long as you set up a plan to pay the rest of it you won’t incur any fees or risk a service cut off.

I always had customers calling in to make new arrangements over their old arrangements to pay their bill. Were they “gaming the system”? Absolutely! But as long as they paid something, it was allowed.

Now, you have to be willing to be a little tough with this, because the customer service reps are going to try really hard to get you to pay the full amount. But in the end there’s really not much they can do.

However, I wouldn’t recommend doing this too often, because they do keep notes of every interaction that you have with them. So every representative can quickly see what you’ve said and done in the past, and they may be less willing to work with you if they see you’re a repeat offender.

#5 Know the Statute of Limitations on Cell Phone Debt

According to Nerdwallet.com, money you owe for cell phone service has a statute of limitations of two years. This means that after two years, according to federal law, your cell phone debt can no longer be collected on.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always mean they will stop calling you after two years. But if you indicate to them you know your rights and they are wasting their time, they’ll get the message pretty quickly.

The most important thing to note here though is that leaving any unpaid debt will negatively impact your credit, potentially for many years to come. So you want to try to avoid this worst case scenario by all means.

Once you fall behind on your cell phone bill, you have about a 60-90 day grace period before it will be reported on your credit. And don’t worry, you’ll receive plenty of calls, emails, snail mail, and texts from the internal collections department to notify you of your missing payment well before then.

After that time period is over and you haven’t paid anything, you’ll be sent over to a third party collections agency. Remember, if you are paying something, it stops this process from proceeding further. So try everything you can to keep that from happening.

#6 Cancel Data You’re Not Using or Change Your Plan

If you’re in a position where you are current on your bill, but see some uncertainty on the horizon, consider changing your plan before things get hairy. Most carriers today will allow you to be flexible with your monthly plan.

Contracts are mostly a thing of the past, and free wi-fi hotspots are your best friend. So if you find you’re paying for data you don’t use, cut it off post haste. This will effectively lower your bill and avoid unnecessary fees on stuff you don’t need.

This strategy is best deployed early though, because if you aren’t already paid in full, you may not be able to do this. The same goes for joining a family plan. While it’s certainly cheaper, you can’t wait until you’re in trouble to try to implement one.

The Most Important Secret of Cell Phone Bill Collectors

If you’re at all like me, you might feel a little embarrassed or worried about asking for stuff like this. But let me just tell you some facts to help you see on a grand scale exactly how much money and how many people we’re dealing with here, and how your bill is an absolute minuscule amount in comparison.

When I was taking calls in bill collections, we had these projected targets of how much money we were each supposed to be collecting. Now keep in mind, I was one of maybe 200 representatives at just ONE call center of about 30 in the U.S. for just this company.

Our target for “meets expectations” was to collect payments over the phone to average $2,000. AN HOUR. EVERY HOUR. EVERY DAY.

And you might be thinking, because I certainly was at first, “That’s impossible. I’ll never average that number.”

One month in, I was hitting that target and rising past it.

And so was almost everyone else on the floor.

It still blows my mind thinking about the kind of money that’s just rolling in, hour after hour, day after day from the sheer number of customers this company has. Even from customers that can’t pay in full. Even from customers paying over the phone, or snail mailing an actual check. Who actually does that anymore?? The answer is: a massive amount of people.

So don’t for one second think that the company will suffer or that they can’t afford to cut you a break every now and then. Because the truth is, it’s really just a drop in the ocean for them. If you take nothing else away from this, know that these are the real insider secrets of cell phone bill collectors.

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