Consumer Cellular is not our friend.

[KennyG1125]

My wife and I switched to Consumer Cellular as my wife seen an AARP commercial that said CC was senior citizen friendly and offered lower rates. After about 5 months of their service I switched back to my old account on Tracfone as it was half the price of CC. We decided to move my wife's phone off CC when they enacted a mandatory $5 fee for those who were not set up for Auto pay. After switching in the middle of a billing cycle, we ended up with $35.00 in past due. This is over 2 months of charges for disconnecting. Consumer Cellular has hidden fees and seem to keep raising prices after you are with them for a few months. If you are on auto pay, you might not notice the raises.

We strongly suggest you  do NOT use Consumer Cellular.

[WebWiseWoman]

Thank you so much for this post! I was also almost sucked into CC, BUT since I've been on FI for years, waited... then found my monthly charges fluctuate within pennies each month; I'll never leave FI service; I wish there was a relationship with AARP...

#StaySafe

[AARPThelmaG]

Hi @KennyG1125! We are sorry to hear about you and your wife's experience with Consumer Cellular. Consumer Cellular bills in arrears for monthly services and usage, meaning the customer is not billed for the services and usage until after the billing cycle closes. Consumer Cellular is not a prepaid cellular service provider and do not have contracts; service is month to month. When an account is closed, there is always a final bill for service through the cancellation date. For customers who are not enrolled in both the AutoPay and email billing will have a $5.00 convenience fee added to their invoice. Again, we apologize for your experience and

thank you for your valued membership with AARP.  

[ef3487]

I have been a Consumer Cellular customer for years and have been generally happy with them. However, I'm seriously considering changing carriers. First, they added an additional $5 for the second line charge. Then, the extra $5 if you didn't use AutoPay. Now, this is the second month in a row that my bill has gone up because they increased the Operational Compliance Fee - which is THEIR make-believe charge. My husband and I barely use minutes or text, he has a flip phone so no web use to speak of, I only use WiFi data, and we pretty much have the least expensive p!an.

[MariamaA859467]

Hi there, here to help! We certainly understand your concern regarding the additional charges you have been receiving from Consumer Cellular. We would be glad to work with the Escalation team at Consumer Cellular to have this investigated for you. If you are still having difficulties with Consumer Cellular, please either give us a call at 1-888-OUR-AARP (1-888-687-2277) to request an Escalation or send me a private message in the AARP Online Community by clicking this link and entering my username, “AARPMariamaA” into the “Send to” box https://community.aarp.org/t5/notes/composepage . Please provide the following details in your message:

• Full name
• AARP Membership # (or home address)
• Phone # and email address to contact you
• Description of your issue

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate you informing us of your concern. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

[j872506s]

A $5 “convenience” is not very convenient for customers. Offering a $5 discount to people who do autopay would be much more “convenient” than charging someone extra. I have a serious problem with companies charging you to pay them money.