How do you find the best long distance BILL?
You've already taken the first step to lowering your long distance BILL.
You're HERE! You've gone online to search for the company that will offer
you the best deal, and you're here at BILLZilla. Now, you need to know how
to compare apples to apples and not get burned by hidden fees!
Long distance companies purposely hide and confuse their charges so that
they can bate you with "low" rates. In reality, most long distance companies
make their money back with hidden fees and taxes that you normally won't find
until it's too late. It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of
the most common fees (which you will see VERY CLEARLY on your BillZilla price
estimates). Listed
below are some common terms, legal taxes and charges that might appear on you
phone bill.
Universal Service Charge or USF: This fee is put into the Universal
Service Fund, which helps make telephone service available to everyone,
including low-income customers, customers in high cost rural areas and to serve
customers with disabilities. More recently this fund has been used to wire
schools, libraries and hospitals for access to the Internet. This tax is
assessed to all interstate and international calls.
Presubscribed interexchange carrier charge (PICC): Long distance
companies pay these charges to local telephone companies for access to their
local phone networks. The FCC regulates the price but does not require that long
distance companies pass the charges on to customers. As a result, some long
distance companies pass this cost directly onto their customers while others
include it in the per-minute charges. The PICC charge can be very expensive
for businesses with more than 1 phone line, so buyer beware!
Municipal charge: This fee is charged by your local municipality to
defray the costs of community services such as the local Emergency Services
(911) operation.
Number portability service charge: A Federal Communications Commission
(FCC)-approved charge that pays for the administrative costs incurred by your
local phone company in allowing you to switch long distance carriers.
Subscriber line charge (SLC): A charge similar to the PICC, the SLC is
billed to you by your local phone company instead of your long distance carrier.
Remember, here at BillZilla we factor ALL of these charges in to your
free rate quote so you won't be surprised and also so you can compare
apples to apples: your phone bill to ours. Fast. Easy. Simple. Free.
That's BillZilla!
