Is there some sort of calculator that I can use to find out charges for AT&T and compare them by state? Or just a source for those fees you listed?

Also, I wonder if you can do this on a per line basis. I'm in college right now in another state. I'd love to save my dad some money on his plan.

Any idea if this applies to other carriers, like Sprint?

I switched addresses from NYC to my mom's in CT and just did ebills, I saved $5 a month in taxes and fees, so its totally worth it.

One more reason not to do business in NYC! State/city is going the way of California--a failed wacked-out liberal experiment.

@danno50:

Thanks for the insight! Tell me more about the evils of the liberals and how they want to force you to gay-marry your best friend and mandate abortions, all the while taxing you and taking away your guns. Truck Nutz are a right!

Oh sorry... I'll let you finish your pork rinds...

Ha! yes! We do this with our AT&T bill, because DC charges a LUXURY tax (!) for cell phones. We have the address at our parents' house in FL. Doesn't matter, since we get e-bills anyways. Saves us like $12-$17 for just doing that.

How can you charge a Luxury tax for something that everyone has?

@Secret Agent Man: Wouldn't you feel bad if Danno just preferred successful wacked-out liberal experiments. I know those are MY favorite.

@kewlfocus: Especially if you use a cell phone instead of a land line. I don't think it should count as a luxury when it's someone's sole point of contact.

@kewlfocus:

How can you charge a Luxury tax for something that everyone has?

@aguacarbonica: me too! I'm in Maryland and that's GOTTA be cheaper than California. Anybody know where you can change the AT&T settings?

Hmm, I pay like $2 a month in taxes/fees on my T-mobile line in Idaho. I think we have the second cheapest tax rate in the US on cellular phones.

@mbz32190: It would.

I don't know if they'll have an area to set it up on the website but the principle would be the same.

Isnt this basically illegal?

@mbz32190: Not really. Sprint bills with a code that is generated along with your area code. You are sort of locked into your area code's taxes. They do not, to my knowledge, have a "Usage" form of billing.

You can avoid village and some state taxes by adjusting your billing delivery address and moving your account to e-billing, ensuring paper delivery is halted (or use a trusted friend or family member's address).

Nevada is the cheapest in the country. Use a Verizon store address.

@schiff: My thoughts exactly.

Tax fraud is not something to undertake lightly. You are intentionally lying to avoid having to pay the correct tax.

@schiff: I don't know if it's illegal but it sure is unethical. You can't pick and choose which city you pay taxes in. If you don't like the taxes, move out of that city. It's one thing if you legitimately spend 95% of your time in another city, but to just pick a random one because of lower taxes seems immoral.

@schiff:

I'm not sure if it's illegal. But it is possible for Verizon to monitor your usage. And they may send you a nastygram telling you that you violated their terms of service. Then they drop your account, you lose your number, etc.

I've heard of stories like this a long time ago (late 1990's) when ATT Wireless first offered their One Rate calling plan. It was a great value but if you lived in a roaming area, you couldn't sign up. So people would get around this by opening a PO box in a qualifying ATT home network area and use that as their billing address.

But ATT caught on when they noticed a bunch of people roaming on partner networks 99% of the time. Their accounts got canceled.

But in this day and age, things might be different. They might be more lax about the issue. Not sure.

I will 2nd Nevada. I don't know if it's the absolute cheapest, but my bill is usually only a couple bucks in taxes/fees. Bill is usually 59.99 before fees then $62.xx after.

@Secret Agent Man: In light of the fact that he's calling NYC/Cali failed whacked-out liberal experiments on the basis of high regulations impacting business, I would guess that he is of the school that government regulation and taxes stifle business. Not quite a gun toting bible thumper.

@schiff: Not nearly as unethical as ETFs, actual cost vs price of text messaging, overages, etc.

@chuckv: "gun toting bible thumper" wow that's I dunno - discriminatory. What if I said at least hes not a raging homo reefer smoking abortion mandating higher than the Flying Spaghetti monster taxation social communistic program loving liberal? Im sure on the inter-tubes it would get quite the lulz.

@kewlfocus: You should totally take this up with your congressperson!...oh. DC. Sorry.

Is this saying that for $7.50, a Manhattanite would trade his nifty area code number for one from Jersey, of all places?
Have planets collided?

@Trai_Dep:
Doing this doesn't affect your phone number in any way shape or form.

@jhuang: AT&T bills you based on taxes in your area code. To get charged maryland taxes, you have to get a maryland phone number.

@Trai_Dep: Not at all. You don't change your phone number, just the address the physical bill gets sent to. If you don't get a paper bill, your address can be anywhere you want it to be ;)

@WeAre138: No one is required to purchase a cell phone. We are all required to pay taxes.

@sn1per420:

Yeah, really. For me, it'd be a luxury because I can't afford one.

I changed my address to a Las Vegas address a while back (living in Seattle) and saved on the taxes/surcharges every month. I've since had my address updated since ordering a new phone, though. The Sprint site actually verified the authenticity of my address, so I just got the address of a random Subway or something and put that in.

Changed my account to my brother in NH and now there's no sales tax.

@HogwartsAlum: Dump the landline, then go mobile. As we see in the post below this one landline bills are open for anyone to throw charges onto. Not fun.

@snowmoon: Not absolutely required, no, but it falls under "essential". Or it does if you're landline-free.

@danno50: wait, you mean California the failed state that has the fifth (or something like it) largest economy in the world? the one that usually sets national precedent on the environment? the one with great laws like public smoking bans, or the state that leads the country in stem cell research? I dont know if Id go so far as to call it a "failed experiment" compared to most of our other states (who arent failed either, but they aint no California)

Just changed my Sprint bill from California to Nevada, we'll see how it goes. Currently paying a little over $4/month in state and city taxes.

So when you change the address, does it change your phone number? I just moved from VA to NV & want to keep my VA number. The bill is being sent to an address in VA right now. I'd switch it to an NV address if I can keep my VA number.

@redkamel:

Well, given that the state is about a month away from not being able to pay its bills, and that even with deferring the payment of owed tax refunds, it ain't doing so great at the moment.

As for the fifth largest economy in the world, well, Nigeria has a larger economy than New Zealand. Where would you prefer to live?

@JustThatGuy3: The country that doesn't get all up in your rear about the tiniest speck of dirt on your person at Customs? (and this is not an exaggeration- and heaven help you if they actually think you're a "suspicious person")

@JustThatGuy3: And also- so what happens to California then? Sell it to Mexico?

I sent this to Consumerist a year ago and got no reply. I even included screen captures of my bills. I changed mine from Jackson, Mississippi to Las Vegas, Nevada and saw a decrease in fees of $9.50 a month. I even used a Verizon store's address in Nevada. It doesn't change your area code or cause you to be roaming. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough savings to stop me from leaving them. I had their unlimited everything and it costs $140 a month. I saved $40 a month going back to Cellular South where it's only $100 a month for unlimited everything.

@jamar0303:

Way to miss the point. Since you clearly didn't get it, I'll be more explicit: simply having a large economy doesn't mean you have a good economy. That being said, I like most of what Cali does...

@allstarecho: Your info may have been duplicate of a prior post as I remember a
"save money by changing billing zip code deal" story a while back...

Thanks though...

For Verizon users, you don't have to even go to the store or call up a CSR. Just log into your account online, select my profile > phone usage address.

Some carriers actually account for this in some markets. I used to work for a carrier and they had different plans or features for people in different markets. I worked in Michigan and taxes and surcharges here are about 10-11%. In Chicago, they used to be about 30%. So, this carrier allowed people in Chicago to have cheaper plans and earlier off-peak times (unlimited Nights after 5 pm) to offset the cost of the taxes. I'm not sure if they still do this, but I know that it was a regular practice in the industry a few years ago. I would just check to make sure that you don't have to change your plan if you change your billing address.

@jamar0303: Might as well, 51% of the population from Mexico has already moved into California.

This happened to me in reverse with AT&T several years ago (7) - they 'assigned' my phone to New York, despite it having a central jersey number (732) and using it mostly in PA. I had all sorts of tower-land-rental fee/tax that they wouldn't remove, since they said they couldn't change my 'primary area' without changing the #.

I have no idea if that was a scam or not (in retrospect, the AT&T store I got the phone from was very scammy and resulted in lots of frustration) but I wouldn't be surprised if AT&T had a policy of signing up all tri-state area people for NYC 'primary area' to cover overhead.

@kewlfocus: Good to know - thanks. When I moved from PA to DC I didn't switch my cellphone, since I had a suspicion taxes would be higher. Verizon rep on the phone went through the numbers with me and they were. So while I live in DC, my phone lives in Philly.....

@jamar0303:

I would, but my landline is 100% reliable. I haven't seen a cell phone company yet that is.

Now that I typed that, watch the phone line go down.

@HogwartsAlum: For most of my life my mobile has always been my primary phone. The only reason not to toss the landline was because of DSL (before there was easy-to-purchase "naked" DSL- and the phone line went down like a... while my mobile never did). The "third-party billing" issue didn't sit too well with me.
(for reference- I lived in Nashville, TN, or rather a suburb of it)
Now that I've moved to China my primary phone is still my mobile. Even though my landline is only the Chinese equivalent of US$.02 per call I prefer my mobile (mainly because it sounds better than the landline).

I think I'm a bit outside what would be considered "average" on this issue, though).