Sentry Page Protection

​Easy Find Phone Numbers

When I use the telephone book to look up a number, I go to the page to find the phone number, and before I close the phone book I highlight it (using a neon highlighter) for future reference so saving time. This saves a lot of time looking up frequently used numbers. \
​Contributed by Robyn, Toowoomba, 5th December 2009

​Call According to the Plan

Approximate $ Savings: $30 plus per month

Spend a few minutes checking the details of your phone contracts. Most have free calls which are available under certain conditions e.g. times of the day, length of the call. Try and make your calls the most efficient way. You might find it is cheaper to make a free 5 minute call from your mobile to another mobile, rather than use your home phone. Write a note with the best options e.g. use mobile for less than 5 minute calls, and put it on your fridge. If possible, move all your home and mobile phones onto the one provider to increase your free or discounted calls.
​Contributed by Bronwyn, Wahroonga, 20th August 2008

Tell Telcos for a Better Deal

Approximate $ Savings: Around $50/month

If you are not happy with your phone company's service and pricing, TELL THEM. If you can get a better deal with a different company, TELL THEM! Do your home work first and always be polite. Chances are they will give you a discount just to stop you from changing to the competing provider! This has saved my husband and I almost $50 per month and we now have a telephone service that suits our needs!
​Contributed by Angela, Meringandan West, 30th May 2008

​1300 Savings

When phoning the bank or utilities companies (for example) I no longer use the '1300' phone number they provide on the bill as these calls always add up. So now I just search for the appropriate '1800' number on the net and the call costs nothing.
​Contributed by Natalie, Footscray, 10th January 2008

​Over 50% - 70% off your Phone Bill!

See these two websites ... www.engin.com.au or www.mynetfone.com.au SAVE some serious money on your local, national and international calls by going for a VOIP service with engin or mynetfone. You really, really will save 50-70% of your call costs however you will of course still need to pay a monthly line rental and broadband connection, but most of us are doing that already. We have mynetfone at my work place. Our work phone bill has dropped from $5K+ a month with Telstra for line rentals and calls to less than a $1,000 for calls with the new company!! We can cancelled all but 2-3 of the lines we were renting but still have multiple incoming and outgoing calls at one time.
​Contributed by Karen, Launceston, 2nd January 2008

​Phone Costs Assessed Free

Approximate $ Savings: Hundreds/year

Get a company like Talking Power Solutions (http://www.talkingpowersolutions.com.au/) to assess your phone bill for free and then they recommend the best plan for you. It has saved me hundreds of dollars every year. Also, the best thing is that I do not have to contact my service provider's call centre and wait on hold for ages if I have a problem...They do it for me. It is great.
​Contributed by Sacha, Brunswick West, January 30th 2007

​Shop Around and Package Your Internet and Phone to Save Dollars

Look into how you have your Internet and phone bills set up. Iprimus currently have great deals if you package products up. For example they have a deals that includes unlimited local calls, unlimited downloads, etc at a fixed rate. This normally adds up to a lot less than the two put together. Also Telstra provides significant savings if you place all your phones with them i.e. mobile, net and home phone. Just depends on how you use your phone to identify the best option.
​Contributed by Tony, Knoxfield, May 13th 2005

​Pension and HCC Holder Phone Discounts

My Cheapskating tip is mainly for those people on a Pension or Health Care Card that find that paying telephone line rental is eating into their budget too much. Did you know that Telstra have what is called an In Contact Service specially for Pensioners and Health Care Card holders. This service provides for incoming calls into the home free of charge. This equates to a saving of between $22 to $35 per month ($264 to $420 per year) and yes you can still call 000. A Telstra Phoneaway Card can be purchased from any newsagency for around $20 and can be used to make outgoing calls on your home phone at a cost of 49c per call. (except for 1300, 1800 and 1900 numbers). The card can also be topped up over the phone if desired (the phone call to top up is "free of charge").
​Contributed by Sandra, May 3rd 2005

​Regional Call Package

I just found out about Telstra's regional call package where you can make STD calls within an 85km radius for just 99c for up to 3 hours talking time. It's charged at 10c per minute for first 10 minutes and then capped and it's available all day every day.
​Contributed by Diane, Werribee, April 4th 2005