TELAUSTRALIA’S TOP 10 PHONE SAVING TIPS

1. Low flat rate mobile phone calls. Ensure you get a single low call rate across all your calls regardless of destination or time of the day. Avoid half price for mobile or landline or cheaper after hours calls unless you are certain they suit your call patterns.

2. 30 second increments are costly as you only use on average 50% of the final 30 seconds of the call. On short calls this can increase your timed call charges by up to 50%. Ensure you get per second billing on your phone calls, in particular mobile phone calls and international calls so you only pay for what you use. All telaustralia fixed wire and mobile plans are charged in 1 seconds increments except for our $zero Mobile plan. Note some carroers are now charging in 30 second increments on landline plans.

3. Flag Falls are a hidden cost. Most providers charge flag falls as a connection fee on any timed call for both mobile calls and timed calls from a landline. Many service providers don’t advertise their flag falls for very good reason - they are expensive. Make sure you have low flag fall especially if you make a lot of short calls. Telaustralia has flag falls typically 50% lower than the major Telco’s.

4. Coverage is important so you don’t get charged a higher rate for roaming onto other networks. If you travel around a lot or are based in a Regional area it is important to be on the Telstra network. Telaustralia mobiles are on the Telstra network. Our BlackBerry service is on the Vodafone network.

5. Long Distance calls can be costly. The average Long Distance call is around 2 minutes. Many Service Providers entice you with Call Caps for 1 or more hours but charge a much higher initial per minute rate meaning most calls cost you more. eg you get tp the cap price very quickly. Only go for an attractive capped plan if you make lots of long calls.

6. If you are running a business make sure you have itemised bills that allow you to analyze your spend by user, department and days of the week. This way you can determine where your Telco spend is going and allow you to manage staff that may have excessive use. Online billing can also be used to view recent accounts to establish particular call patterns. Telaustralia offers over 100 itemization options and all customers get free access to online phone bill view.

7. International travel can result in very large phone bills when you get back home. International mobile phone roaming charges are expensive and can be unpredictable due to 3rd party carrier charges in the country you travel in. SMS are more expensive while roaming as well but can be much cheaper method to communicate than using your mobile phone. It may be worth letting all calls go to voicemail and then using a landline to call back. It can also be cheaper to get a local SIM card to make mobile phone calls within the country you are traveling in.

8. Mobile Phone handsets can be incredibly expensive. Everyone loves to have the latest handset with all the bells and whistles. Phone's with cameras, Music MP3 players like Apple iPhone, web browsers, diaries all can add up to be very expensive options that in many cases dont get used often or at all. If you want to keep costs down stick to the essentials. Do you need all those features and will you use them. Considering less than 70% of phones last 2 years before being damaged or lost and requiring replacement this can really add up. Most people could get by with a phone that makes phone calls and Bluetooth for connectivity and may be a basic camera. These features are available in phones that cost under $300.

9. Get a plan that suits you call patterns. Some of the major Telco’s are offering all-inclusive plans that sound like good value but will you really make all those calls? Our analysis show that going onto a standard low rate plan will be cheaper in about 90% of cases. In many cases these unlimited plans have higher flag falls, higher monthly line rental, 30 second billing increments and other add in that keep adding up. When the major Telco’s introduced these plans, it as never with the intention of lowering their margins or profits so ask your self why would they offer it this way? Even better get your potential provider to do a bill analysis for you prior to signing up. Telaustralia has a free phone bill analysis service Fax a bill to 1300 765 182 and we will return a written analysis within 48 hrs.

10. Call to International destinations from your landline can really hit the hip pocket. If you do lots of Business overseas or have relatives you like to keep in touch with then make sure you get a plan that has the Cheap International IDD call rates. Alternately if you have medium speed broadband connection try a VoiP connection for overseas calling.