Remove Chicago 911 Surcharge on Phone Bill

I don’t always take a close look at all my reoccurring bills, especially when it’s something like a phone bill that really shouldn’t change that much from month to month but I happened to inspect my October 2020 cell phone bill a little more carefully and here’s exactly what I saw under the “Government Taxes and Fees” section:

The phone lines on my family plan that were listed with a suburban address were getting charged the State 911 fee which is only $1.50/month but the two other phone lines that were listed with a Chicago address were getting charged $5.00/month for the City 911 fee.

Upon further investigation I discovered that in January 2018, the City of Chicago increased it’s 911 fee from $3.90/month per line to $5/month per line. I’m guessing the reason different addresses were listed on some lines in my family plan was probably due to the fact that I’ve lived in Chicago and the suburbs over the years because I don’t ever recall making these selections myself. Regardless, after realizing I paid $238 more than I needed to since January 2018 ($3.5/month more x 34 months x 2 Chicago lines = $238), I knew I had to try to fix this disastrous mistake.

T-Mobile is my cell phone provider so I logged into my online account and went to the “Line Settings” under my Profile and clicked on “Usage Address” for the phone lines I wanted to update:

I then updated the usage address by entering my suburban address and saved the changes:

The following month all the phone lines on my November 2020 bill were getting charged the $1.50/month State 911 fee instead of the $5/month Chicago 911 fee:

If you take a look at your phone bill and this mistake also applies to you, your ability to update your usage address will obviously be dependent on whether your provider gives you the option to change it, either online or by speaking with some sort of customer service representative, but it might be worth investigating if you live in the Chicagoland area. You’re probably not going to fund your retirement with the amount you save, but every little bit adds up. The difference on one phone line is $42/year ($3.50 difference x 12 months). If you have five lines like me, that could be $210/year. And for those five lines over a decade that’s a $2,100 savings.