UPDATE: Editor’s note: Added video of Abby Sarmiento taken by INQUIRER.net business editor Ma. Salve Duplito.
Filipinos spend too much on staying connected. When you don’t text, you’re not a good friend. When you don’t call, you’re a bad daughter. Husbands know full well the wrath of a woman untexted.
These days, cutting costs will have to include taking a second look at alternatives to the high cost of getting connected. In our household, only my 7-year old and the toddler don’t incur costs. There are six mobile phones in our household (two for the hubby), a landline and a DSL service.
This should be interesting for financial voyeurs . On a monthly basis, this is what we pay telcos :
Hubby Line 1 – P1,800 (postpaid)
Hubbly Line 2 - P3,000 (Blackberry service paid by employer)
Salve – P2,500 (Blackberry service)
Danielle – P240
Maid 1 – P60
Maid 2 – P150
DSL service – P2,727.27
Landline – P700
Total: P11,177.27
Annualized: P134,127.24
Less company support: P74,127.24
Ouch.
To put expenses in proper perspective, annualize them. Multiply the daily cost of texting for prepaid plans, for example, and find out how much it would cost in a year. My daughter does not think a P20 unlimited texting fee is too much, until she realized she is actually spending P2,880 a year just to text. That’s deducted from her allowance, so she tries to be more careful.
By the way, you can use this tip also for other expenses, like restaurant dinners, taxi rides – just about almost anything. If you eat out two times a week and spend P500 each time, you are spending P1,000 weekly, P4,000 monthly, and P48,000 annually. That’s already tuition for Junior.
Awareness is the first step in cutting down the cost of getting connected. These things are expensive. Trimming the down without losing the connection may be possible with some discipline. Use the landline more instead of texting. Try instant messenger and email instead of calling overseas. Skype works for many of my friends. Cut costs but stay connected. Hermits are lonely.
For businesses that need to call overseas regularly, try VOIP phones. One of our editors in the office, Dennis Maliwanag, tried PLDT’s wireless landline. He’s P700 richer every month after he disconnected his landline service, with a new one that can also receive text messages.
(Model: Feliza Cana, INQUIRER.net)
Sweethearts and business partners Franco Mesina and Abby Sarmiento learned that staying glamorous with a small and hip mobile phone is not as good as being smart using their big portable landline. They have cut down business costs by getting a wireless landline and even bringing the clunky apparatus with them when they go to places as busy as the grocery.
Here’s a video I took of Sarmiento.
Franco says Bayantel charges P699 for the wireless landline service (it an also send out and receive short text messages.) PLDT has a P600 per month service but limits the calls to 10 hours. After that, you pay P1 per minute. Franco and Abby runs a water purifying business and need to be on the go and yet accessible to their people. They swear the wireless landline has cut their telephone bill significantly.
How about you? How much do you spend on getting connected? Annually?
July 5th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Gina, almost everyone I’ve been talking to says Bayantel wireless prepaid is so much better than PLDT.
How long have you been using yours?
July 5th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Sherwin, whats the initial capital for being a retailer? how much do you usually sell every week?
July 5th, 2008 at 9:05 am
DB, that USB sounds like a big bargain and it gets you connected anywhere you are? Amazing. Do you use it? $20 is only P900!!
July 5th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Ria, how would you rate Skype versus YM? I’m trying to get my sister to use Skype but you know how it goes when busy people actually have to download something new…arggg.
July 5th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Paetechie, wow. I wish I could do that! Five hours a week!!!!! I spend more like five hours a day :-), but then again, this IS my work haha.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:43 am
i use bayan wireless prepaid. its actually cheaper than pldt landline plus. i pay 3 pesos per call not 1 or 2 pesos per minute on pldt.
i load 300 pesos per month and any left over credit us rolled over once i load another 300 pesos.
June 28th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
better use your mobile phone to get some discounts in return or sell prepaid loans or even game cards at a discount.
this way you save and probably get more in return than your actual expenses.
check loadcentral.com.ph
I applied as a retailer and buy e-loads for myself and get them discounted
So, instead of buying from other retailer… you get it at a lower cost.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:33 am
There’s a USB that you plug into any computer (with broadband internet connection) anywhere in the world, and make unlimited calls to anyone in the US and Canada. People can make unlimited calls to each other regardless of their locations, as long as each caller has his/her own USB. The USB costs $20 and annual fee is $20/USB.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Salve. Yup that’s monthly. I do go in and out of the country so I have additional expenses when abroad.
My relative and I (as well as friends), we are all scattered all over the world so we do a lot of conversations via internet.
If both communicating parties have access to the internet, you can use Skype and/or Yahoo Messenger for free calls. It is unlimited too. Not advisable to use if the one you are talking to is all about gimme gimme. You won’t have the excuse to say ‘o sige na mahal na to’
June 27th, 2008 at 10:17 am
i spend only about 5 hours a week blogging (mostly when my wife’s watching tv)
so small compared to probloggers, i spend my time in more important matters
June 27th, 2008 at 8:41 am
@teodz, thanks for the tips. When you say you saved after your shifted to prepaid, that means you don’t use your mobile phone for calls anymore? IM and email na lang? You have good discipline! Nice move on the widescreen LCD. Now I have a good justification for it, hahaha.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:40 am
@Andy, are Pluto Internet phones available here in Manila?
June 27th, 2008 at 8:40 am
@Ria, these are monthly costs? I know what you mean about text speak. My friends tease me about how I send text messages because I don’t do shortcuts.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:39 am
@BoneMD, I suggest you get out of the planning stage and into the doing stage!
My planning stage went on for 6 months and all that time I was paying through the nose hehe. Been there…done that.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:39 am
@Peyds, how’s the Sun signal though? I hear its horrible?
June 27th, 2008 at 8:38 am
@Claudine, that’s the thing about company-paid mobile phone expenses. I suggest you try to find out how much they are paying. Waste is waste, whether its the company paying or you :-). But that’s just me, of course. BTW, is your DSL cost annualized?
June 27th, 2008 at 8:38 am
@Peter, I know…I was one of the first DSL subscribers of PLDT and through the years, as the rates went lower, my package got upgraded to the fastest connection. I have to send videos to the office online and I don’t want to take forever doing it. Still, couldn’t hurt to be aware of the new options. thanks!
June 27th, 2008 at 8:37 am
@Frugal Pinoy, apparently, you’re not called Frugal Pinoy for nothing! Really good tips, thanks.
@Paetechie, where DO you get the time to blog? With a full-time job and all. You’re the man!
June 27th, 2008 at 8:37 am
@Korg, thanks for the tip. My DSL connection is PLDT’s fastest package. Have to send videos to the office and I do them online. Hubby downloads lotsa stuff too! Oh the hobbies that break our wallets
June 26th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I’m telecommuting and my monthly DSL connection is shouldered by my company. Had saved a lot since I had shifted to Pre-paid about a year ago because most of my contacts are wired din. Mobile phone is now used mostly for texting. I ended my Cable TV subscription as well as my PLDT landline since most of us here at home has mobile phones. The Cable TV has been replaced by downloaded TV shows from the intarweb and its better in quality. I bought a widescreen LCD that can be used both as TV and as computer monitor from my cable TV savings.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I am here in Los Angeles California and I have a relative in Manila and another in Cebu. We all have DSL and we bought a Pluto Internet phone and we call each other everyday for FREE The only cost we have is the phone which is $125 each
Another relative is in London. When he gets his phone we can call him too.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:41 am
DSL 1000
Mobile: various from 1500-3500
Das it. I also hate texting. If I got something to say that will require more than 2 sentences, I call. I hate hate text speak.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I envy petechie. How’d you do that?
I spend roughly 22.5K annual wired into telcos. Got two postpaid CP (Personal+Business), one land line and another DSL+ Landline package. I’m a heavy net user both for my online updates and hobbies. Planning to get rid of my other land line, the one that is unbundled. But this has been my “business” phone ever since.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:44 am
I am a sun cellular subscriber and my mobile phone bills are very affordable (7800 per annum). I easily call my family and friends without worrying about the cost.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Hmm.. I can’t say I have the same amount of bill each month but my mobile phone is paid for by the company so I don’t pay a penny there. I pay roughly P12,675 for cable and P4,680 for DSL. No landline.
BTW, I’m based in BJ. hehehe.. just to give you an idea how much it costs here. The internet cost is just for my share, my flatmate pay the same amount.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Salve-
The 2 big landline phone companies offer landline and DSL bundles for nothing more than 1000/month. You get a phone AND a DSL connection.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I spend roughly P23,000 or less per year on telcos.
The DSL connection pays for itself at roughly P900/month - I earn my living 100% online. As for my cellphone, I have a prepaid phone and I spend roughly P30 per week on credits at most. I think it helps that it’s prepaid, because with every text I send I hear a peso disappearing in my head. I rarely need to text since I never send forwarded text, but I don’t use it strictly for emergencies either. I text my friends once in a while to see what they’re up to and that’s it.
I have a landline which is used roughly 2 to 3 times per week. Although I don’t use it as often as the internet or my cellphone, it comes in handy.
Of course, this is a lifestyle that won’t work for people whose businesses depend on communication via mobile phone.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I have P7200 for my postpaid phone and P6000 for DSL, annualized already. I need the DSL to blog, from which I now have a regular extra income
use of VOIP services calling abroad is really cheaper
June 25th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Here’s a tip, If you really spend a lot with mobile phone calls, try upgrading to a higher plan. For example, when I started being a freelance IT consultant, I’m on the field most of the time with various clients so I use my mobile phone a lot. I used to have Smart Gold’s 1200 plan but at P5.09/min to Smart and P6.62/min to other networks, i ended up having to pay an average of 11000 a month but realizing Smart Infinity’s Plan 5000 has P4.07/min to Smart and P4.58/min to other networks, I decided to upgrade. It may not be much if you look at it on a per-minute perspective, but adding it all up, with the same volume of calls just averaged 6000-7000 a month. now thats a whole lot of savings.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Salve, How come you are paying P2,727.27 for DSL?