Cell Phone Companies Pledge: No More 'Bill Shock'

The days of nasty cell phone bill surprises may soon be over.

The Federal Communications Commission and major wireless companies this week announced a joint effort to alert cell phone users whenever they're about to go over their monthly subscriber minute or data plans.

According to the new voluntary plan -- aka "Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines" -- the major carriers, from AT&T to Verizon , will begin sending text-message warnings to customers to cover four areas: voice, text, data and international roaming.

The alerts will require no effort to join, as subscribers will be automatically enrolled, though they can always opt out.
That's the good news. The bad news: Don't expect these alerts quite yet, as carriers have a year and a half to comply fully. Participating companies -- which include AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Nextel and T-Mobile USA -- will provide customers with at least two out of the four notifications by October 17, 2012, and all of the alerts by April 17, 2013.

1 in 6 Report 'Bill Shock'
The move follows a survey by the Consumers Union that found one in six of cell phone users has experienced so-called "bill shock," which stems mainly from unexpected overage or roaming charges.
The same study found that two-thirds of bill shock complaints received by the FCC during the first six months of 2010 had charges of $100 or more and 20% were for $1,000 or more. In some extreme cases, customers have been charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for exceeding their plan's allowances.

While the guidelines announced Monday are voluntary, a majority of cell phone customers should benefit from the alerts. "The wireless industry's Code of Conduct will be revised to reflect these basic obligations and to ensure that consumers receive the alerts and notifications they need and the FCC has been calling for," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in prepared remarks Monday. "The carriers have committed to moving as expeditiously as possible to change their systems."

Existing Alerts
In practice, the new guidelines are meant to level the playing field and create an industry-wide standard; some carriers already provide some of the alerts.

• For the past couple of years, Verizon Wireless says it has been sending customers free text alerts on the 20th day of each month if they're trending over their monthly text and minute limits. This July, the company also started sending automated alerts regarding data overages. "The Verizon Wireless customer should know that the carrier meets or exceeds most of the guidelines already," says Thomas Pica, a company spokesman. Verizon customers can always keep track of their usage on their own, too, by dialing #MIN and #DATA on their phones.
• T-Mobile's website says it issues free text alerts to some customers at risk of going over a plan's "Whenever Minutes." The carrier's "Overage Alerts" are available to customers on Even More Plus plans.
• And Sprint announced last year that it would monitor usage of both new and existing customers and provide some proactive alerts. During the first six months of service with Sprint, new customers will get an email the first time they have incurred $10 or more in voice, text or data overage charges. Existing customers will be notified by email if they incur $20 or more in voice, text or data overages in two of the last six months.

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