Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall introduced a new bill into legislation called The Cell Phone Bill Shock Act of 2010. This bill if signed would help protect consumers from "bill shock" and would force carriers to notify customers by email or text message(free of charge) when they have used 80 percent of their monthly limits under their current plan. It would also require wireless carriers to obtain customer consent before charging for services that are not covered by their regular monthly service plan.
Currently the European Union requires wireless carriers to provide similar notifications to their customers when they have reached 80 percent of their monthly data roaming services.
A recent Federal Communications Commission survey found that 30 million Americans - or one-in-six adult cell phone users - have experienced "bill shock," and 84 percent said their cell phone carrier did not contact them when they were about to exceed their allowed service limits. In about one-in-four cases, the bill increased by more than $100.
When you see that 30 million Americans have experienced "bill shock" you begin to realize how big of an issue this is, couple that with wireless carriers inability to do the right thing when bills are obviously way too large, you see why this could be a big win for consumers.
By Chase Thompson
Source Tom Udall
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