Phone bill is probably the most complex bill you can find, it’s far more complicated than your electricity bill. One of the reasons is your service providers use a lot of words that you may not be familiar with.
Here are three elements you need to know or at least ask before you sign a contract:
Flag fall(aka connection fee): As long as your call is connected, you’ll be charged.
Increment unit: In second or minute. You may not be charge per second, rather you’re charged per increment unit. In the case increment unit is 1 minute, you’ll be charged for 1 minute (plus connection fee) even your call is just 1 second! I’ve see some companies charge their customers with increment unit 10 minutes, this is how they make their money.
Unit charge: call charge per second or minute.
Here is a live example:
flag fall: 50 cents
increment 30 seconds
unit charge(rate) 1$/30 seconds
So if your call is within 30 seconds, you’ll be charged for 50c + 100c; if your call is 31 seconds, you’ll be charged for 50c + 200c. Isn’t this much higher than you’d think?