Thursday, July 16, 2015

READ THE FINE PRINT!

I've had the same Verizon Wireless monthly plan for over 4 years:

  • 450 minutes
  • unlimited text
  • 2 GB of data
I use autopayment, so there's no real need to look at my bill.

And I never really use all of it, so there was no reason to change.


Until I accidentally downloaded 1.5 GB's of music with the Amazon Music app (their user interface is awful!).


In a panic, I called Verizon to see what my options were.

I could pay $10/GB over, or I could change to a 3 GB plan that would cover my data-download anomaly.

I anxiously changed plans with the hope that my old plan would be there when the billing cycle was over.

And yes, the old plan was there.

But my heart sank when I realized that the grandfathered $20/month discount was gone.

I 've spent a couple years wondering why people left Verizon for carriers with lower bills; I consistently paid under $70, so I wasn't really complaining.

However, for the duration of my 2-year plan, losing the irrecoverable $20/month discount will cost me $340.

All because I made a hasty, rash decision without being familiar with my bill and the details therein.

Conclusion:
  1. Read the fine print.
  2. Go over your bills every month, even if it's just to maintain (2 Peter 1:12) knowledge of what the charges and credits are.
  3. And verify the consequences of your financial choices before you make them.
But this isn't the only hasty decision I've made that will cost me a couple hundred dollars:

An incident recently occurred whereby I could've saved over $800.

However, in the midst of the moment, I was so overcome with shame -- I thought the incident was my fault -- that I didn't do anything about it.

Conclusion:
Besides, if I had stopped and prayed about the plan change, I doubt God would've told me to go through with it.

Looking back, it would've only cost me $10 anyway.