How do you find the best long distance BILL?

Long distance companies purposely hide and confuse their charges so that they can bate you with "low" rates. In reality, most long distance companies make their money back with hidden fees and taxes that you normally won't find until it's too late. It is a good idea that you familiarize yourself with some of the most common fees (which you will see VERY CLEARLY on your ChinohillsPhone price estimates). Check the information below for some common terms, legal taxes and charges that might appear on you phone bill.

Number portability service charge: A Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-approved charge that pays for the administrative costs incurred by your local phone company in allowing you to switch long distance carriers.

Presubscribed interexchange carrier charge (PICC): Long distance companies pay these charges to local telephone companies for access to their local phone networks. The FCC regulates the price but does not require that long distance companies pass the charges on to customers. As a result, some long distance companies pass this cost directly onto their customers while others include it in the per-minute charges. The PICC charge can be very expensive for businesses with more than 1 phone line, so buyer beware!

Municipal charge: This fee is charged by your local municipality to defray the costs of community services such as the local Emergency Services (911) operation.

Universal Service Charge or USF: This fee is put into the Universal Service Fund, which helps make telephone service available to everyone, including low-income customers, customers in high cost rural areas and to serve customers with disabilities. More recently this fund has been used to wire schools, libraries and hospitals for access to the Internet. This tax is assessed to all interstate and international calls.

Subscriber line charge (SLC): A charge similar to the PICC, the SLC is billed to you by your local phone company instead of your long distance carrier.

Remember, here at ChinohillsPhone we factor ALL of these charges in to your free rate quote so you won't be surprised and also so you can compare apples to apples: your phone bill to ours. Fast. Easy. Simple. Free. That's ChinohillsPhone!