By Sam Walker

While deregulation of Australia’s telecommunication industry has led to more choice for consumers, the complexity of plans on offer is creating angst, uncertainty and escalating bills for many. Wading through the vast number of options and trying to assess the best deal is time consuming and often quite stressful.

If you’re among the confused, overwhelmed, frustrated and angry consumers of phone and internet services – don’t despair.

Knowing the pitfalls and arming yourself with a few basic strategies can give you some power over the service providers.

Michelle Collins, managing director of Cheap Phone Deals, says people are increasingly time poor and the market place is very complicated – she believes the latter is an intentional ploy by the Telcos.

With increasing interest rates and escalating fuel and grocery prices putting pressure on household budgets, people from all walks of life are turning to people like Collins for help slashing their phone bills. “Some of those mobiles are $800 a month – equivalent to a mortgage but there’s no capital gain,” Collins says.

People are going into debt and getting bad credit ratings over phone bills. She warns consumers to beware of the “warm and fuzzies”, such as cheap line rental, which usually means higher call rates, or free phones and televisions.

“It really is important to know your call pattern and know how you have to call.” She advises people to make a checklist of who they call, whether it is to mobiles or landlines, STD or local and whether they need to make international calls. It is not just households looking for better phone deals.

Full Circle Group national sales director John Acland says they deal almost exclusively with businesses. “Some of the apprehension business is having is about where the economy is heading and they’re having their bills revisited to see if they can cut costs,” Acland says.