Double my pleasure, triple my bill

Most wireless phone services have upgrade packages, Verizon is the same. I got the Christmas book of toys from Verizon. I could, as they suggest, double my pleasure with a new phone and more hours for about triple the monthly pay. Gosh, that's so tempting, but I'll pass.

I saw a neat little ditty that would suit me well, but ... to get it it will triple or quadruple my monthly bill. I say, "forget that!" What bugs me is that the posted rate is different than the monthly bill without overages. There is the "connection fee", "wireless fee", "services package fee", phone insurance, applicable taxes, all adding to $10 to $20 on top of the rate you agreed to pay. Now, if you get ring tones, you are paying at least $24 annually to have that feature, as well as the fee for each ring tone.

They might as well have the Loch Ness Monster tax and the Katrina distater annuity and September 11th recovery fee for what the other fees are. I should be paying $40 monthly, but I'm not. Each month is $52 after all fees and taxes, despite the fact that I don't have any roaming, out of area or overages.

I'm seriously debating dropping Verizon, as the calls often do to me and going with a company with rollover minutes and other features. The Cingular/Sprint any 5 people free is a stupid gimmick. Only five people ... that's not a benefit. I have a month to figure it out and so I shall.