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Money Drain: $500 lost on an unused service

I usually keep on top of my expenses and always read the fine print on them, utilities, credit cards, insurance, mortgage, etc. When attempting to reduce my monthly expenses, I was trying to see what ways I could reduce my cellphone bill, as I had been paying $25/month for web access that I never used. A few years ago when I had upgraded to my smartphone, I also upgraded my service for the data-pack because I wanted to be all high tech. I’ve only used it maybe twice over the last 2 years, so essentially was paying all of that money for nothing, a wasted $500. I should have canceled it a long time ago but was under the false impression it would cost me a cancellation fee of some sort. It didn’t.

– Submitted by: Mick

Lesson Learned:
Give yourself a time-frame with an expense before you decide to shut it off. Tell yourself if you haven’t used the service in 2 months, it’s gone. Keeping a baseline strategy like this will help prevent you from reoccurring expenses that you don’t use such as extra cellphone goodies, gym memberships, etc. Be diligent, because all you’re doing is costing yourself your hard-earned money.

And when in doubt on extra fees, just call them up and ask.

About Crystal Groves, Google+

Crystal Groves is a farmer, web developer, musician, blogger, and personal finance enthusiast from the back hills of Maryland and Pennsylvania. She started Money Drain as a project to encourage people interested in fixing their financial situation to share their stories and learn from the stories of others. We all make mistakes, but in order to change we have to make changes.

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One Response to Money Drain: $500 lost on an unused service

  1. Pingback: Money Drain End of Month Report: January 2012 | The Money Drain

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