How I optimized my communication costs in 3 steps

On average, once a year, I audit my communications costs. It includes the study of current tariff plans, all kinds of auxiliary services and various discounts, if any. If something more interesting is found, then the tariff and the set of services change accordingly. Recently I had another revision and I am ready to share its results with you. I think that some of you may find this experience useful. Let's get started!

How I optimized my communication costs in 3 steps

The starting point

Now I use the services of MTS, both as a mobile operator and as a home Internet provider. Until the last revision, I had such conditions for 3 SIM cards, home Internet and television.

Rate Package
(GB / Min / SMS)
The cost
(rub / month)
SIM card 1 Smart for their 10/600/600 200
SIM card 2 Smart 25/500/500 210
SIM card 3 Smart 25/500/500 210
Internet + TV FIT 100 100 Mbps,
more than 120 channels
600
Amount: 1220

After optimization, costs were reduced by about a third, and conditions only improved. Next, I will tell you how I did it.

Step 1. Connected a converged tariff

Recently, all Big Three operators have started offering converged tariff plans that combine mobile communications and home services with a subscription fee deducted from a mobile number. Firstly, it is convenient, because you do not have to pay in two windows. Secondly, it is almost always cheaper than separately.

In each region, the set of services and the cost of the tariff are different, for example, in Kursk, the tariff “All MTS” for 550 rubles / month includes unlimited Internet (+3 GB for modem mode), 1200 local minutes and 1200 local SMS, as well as home Internet 100 Mbps and 139 TV channels. In Moscow, a similar tariff already costs 950 rubles / month, it contains 500 minutes and SMS, but throughout Russia, and the speed of the home Internet is 300 Mbit / s, since the GPON technology is used (there is no such in Kursk yet). Check the conditions in your region on the operator's website.

How I optimized my communication costs in 3 steps

Choosing “All MTS”, the cost of communication for my SIM card and at home decreased from 800 to 550 rubles / month, that is, by 250 rubles.

Step 2. Made an auto payment at the threshold

I don't like auto payments since the days of working in the Beeline sales office. There I had to observe more than one case when auto payment due to content subscriptions or fraudsters led to the loss of hundreds and sometimes thousands of rubles. But since the “All MTS” tariff offers a 10% discount when auto-payment is enabled at the threshold, I decided to think about how to insure myself and still connect it.

In the end, the insurance turned out like this: I issued a virtual card in the application of my bank, assigned it a limit in the amount of the monthly fee and tied it to auto payment. For these needs, you can use any other card on which you do not store large amounts, I think most have one in their wallet.

  • How I optimized my communication costs in 3 steps

  • How I optimized my communication costs in 3 steps

Thus, it was possible to reduce costs by another 55 rubles / month, not a very large amount, but it is not lying on the road. In addition, payment will now be made automatically and securely.

But there is one caveat, the discount for auto payment is valid only in the regions, for Moscow I did not find information on the MTS website.

Step 3. “Gave” the discount to family members

MTS does not offer separate tariffs with a single package for the whole family, as, for example, Beeline does. However, in May, the operator launched the Discount for Friends campaign. It allows subscribers served on All MTS tariffs to share discounts with other subscribers of package tariffs, and there can be up to 5 such lucky people. Depending on the tariff (it must be mandatory with a monthly fee and not a corporate one), the discount can vary from 10% to 90% – the more expensive the tariff, the higher the percentage discount. Well, it was a sin not to use it, since I have two more SIM cards in my family with tariffs suitable for the conditions.

How I optimized my communication costs in 3 steps

Connection of “Discounts for friends” is carried out using the USSD-command, the initiator is the owner of the SIM card with the tariff “All MTS”. After that, the addressee receives an invitation, which he needs to confirm with an SMS message. If everything is done correctly, the discount is activated. In my case, on Smart tariffs the discount was 10%, that is, in total, it reduced my communication costs by another 42 rubles. Also, the amount is not large, but the tariff is also cheap. I used one more free slot for the number of my father, who has “Our Smart” with a monthly fee of 600 rubles / month. Here the discount turned out to be significant – 40%, that is, instead of 600, he will now pay 360 rubles. This did not affect my expenses in any way, but the result is indicative.

Outcome

Let's see what happened after cost optimization:

Rate Package
(GB / Min / SMS)
The cost
(rub / month)
SIM card 1 All MTS Unlim / 1200/1200 495
SIM card 2 Smart 25/500/500 189
SIM card 3 Smart 25/500/500 189
Internet + TV All MTS 100 Mbps,
more than 120 channels
0
Amount: 873

As a result, we managed to save about 30% or 347 rubles / month in kind. I was pleased with the result, as conditions improved and expenses decreased. But keep in mind that depending on the region, the numbers will differ, as will the total savings.

As a conclusion, I will simply advise you to periodically go to the site of your operator, because from your last visit something more profitable could appear there. And this applies to subscribers of all operators, here MTS served only as an illustrative example from my recent experience.

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