Surprise! Cellphone Overcharges No More

Ever get your cellphone bill in the mail only to find tons of surcharges? Going over text message limits, exceeding the data plan, talking over your allotted minutes-the list goes on. We've all seen those extra charges before and experienced heart failure upon seeing page after page counting that extra phone call you made last week or the five texts you sent the other night.

Well, on Monday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) managed to make wireless carriers agree to give customers an alert when they are approaching their plan limits. After two years, the FCC proposal to end bill shock has been answered by the majority of wireless carriers. The FCC has measured that approximately 30 million Americans have faced bill shock before. Another FCC study showed that 88 percent of these people did not receive notifications when they went over their plan.

With this new regulation, customers will receive an initial alert warning that they are approaching their plan limits. They then receive a second alert from their carriers when they've reached the limit. The FCC says this is a huge victory for both them and more than 200 million wireless customers nationwide. The agreement will ensure that mobile owners get a fair experience with carriers and help everyone overcome the problem of unnecessary bill shock.

Additionally, consumers will be able to post reports on the FCC website in order to keep carriers in check. The actual notifications will begin going into effect on October 17^th of next year, and all the services will be in place by April 17 of the following year. The regulator is working on similar agreements with wireless carriers to provide alerts for international roaming charges.