Every which way, as India heads rapidly into what can be defined as an Age of Austerity, every rupee saved will be a rupee earned was never truer now than before. Bringing down small expenses starts with you, and the communication bill is one element here

When was the last time you compared your mobile phone plans, prepaid or postpaid, with other plans from the same or other service providers, to see if you could achieve lower rates?

If you thought that the putting this as a query to customer care at your telecom company was going to get you a solution, then forget it, the call centres are trained to deflect this. Getting on the website or visiting a dealer outlet is a better idea.

In this correspondent's case, a review of plans about two years ago and then once more a few days ago brought about a saving of around 40% each time. Of course, each time this took a lot of research, and that can get your head spinning. But there are easier ways.

Here’s how to do it:-

1. Ask for details of your present plan from customer care. If it is in the “not available any more” list, then chances are that it was either too expensive to survive or it is such an amazingly low-cost plan that you have nothing to worry.
2. Call a competing telecom service and ask them to guide you on competing plans. They will ask for copies of your old bills and guide you accordingly. After this, call your existing telecom service and ask for information on how to migrate, and when they ask you why—give them the competing rate plan you are getting and watch them match it.
3. Check out the MTNL/BSNL websites for rate plans in your areas, or pay a visit to their customer service offices—they are indeed very helpful and can be compared to the Mother Dairy of vegetable shopping in terms of reliability and cost. Take your existing bills along. They also have interesting options combining land lines, mobile phones and broadband/internet/GPRS as well as true third generation (3G).

Every which way, as India heads rapidly into what can be defined as an Age of Austerity, every rupee saved will be a rupee earned was never truer now than before. Bringing down small expenses starts with you, and the communication bill is one element here. Good luck!!