Sometimes paying your cell phone bill can hurt. And the worst part is, most of the time you may not even realize why it's higher than you were originally quoted.

My goal is to help bring your bill down as much as possible. Here are some factors that may come into play:

1. Overage

This is the achilles heel of the cell phone bill. If your bill is double the normal amount, it most likely means you went over on something; typically it's minutes, text messages, or internet use. When you go over your monthly allotment, these charges will add up very quickly. Most rate plans will charge between 30 and 45 cents per minute.

Most bills will show upfront what your overage charges are -- just make sure you dig deeper into the fine details of the bill to find out what you went over on.

Way to lower your bill: choose a higher minute plan or unlimited text/internet. You think adding to your plan will bring your bill up, but keep in mind that your per-minute overage is probably a lot higher than what it costs to get higher allotments of minutes.

If you don't want to pay for a higher rate plan, simply monitor your minute or data usage throughout the month; if you are trending higher than what you get every month, then stop using your phone. It's that simple.

2. Third Party Subscriptions

These guys are like the unwelcome uncle who never leaves your house. They just don't go away, no matter how many class action lawsuits are thrown at them.

Third party subscriptions can range from a "free ringtone of the month" club to "horoscope of the day". Generally you subscribe through sending a text to them first or typing in your phone number into their website. But I've seen way too many mysteriously appear without either.

Most cost around $9.99/month, and in most cases are not required to inform the customer that they have subscribed (whether purposefully or on accident). So the only way to tell for sure is to look at the "direct bill" portion of your bill.

AT&T recently settled a class action suit about this very same situation. They agreed to notify the customer via SMS every time a subscription was being added to the account. If the customer does not reply to the notification, no subscription would be charged. We hope the other mobile providers adopt this practice as well!

3. One-time fees

Lastly, there are the fees you will see only one time on the bill. These may include activation fees, upgrade fees, or non-payment fees. Most companies charge a hefty restoral fee in order to get service turned back on, once the account has been suspended due to a past due bill that never got paid.

Only in rare circumstances will these fees be waived or credited. If you are employed by a specific company, ask the rep if employees receive a discount or waived fees. Otherwise, you can always attempt persuading customer service to credit your account. They may be more flexible with you on it if you're a longtime customer in good standing and have always paid your bills on time.

Strategy

If you do a lot of talking during the early evening, one strategy to add minutes without paying a lot extra is to pay a few dollars for early night and weekend minutes. T-Mobile offers a Hotspot @ Home service which allows you to make calls via your home's WiFi connection, thus saving a lot of your minutes.

Also, ALWAYS ask if your company gets a discount; if you are a student, ask if that university gets a discount. If you are retired, ask if the company you retired from gets one. Heck, if you're self-employed, put the account under your business's name to qualify for a business discount!

And if the bill is so high that you can't pay it all at once, make sure you call customer service to make payment arrangements with them. If you're a customer in good standing, they typically offer a one-time courtesy arrangement so you don't have your service turned off because you can't afford it.

Just a few thoughts. I invite you to post a comment and add your thoughts on how to save money on your monthly bill.