I found out about Billshrink, an independent recommendation service, via an article about T-Mobile inviting current and potential customers to use Billshrink to compare cell phone plans. Billshrink currently does recommendations for cell phone plans, credit cards, and gas stations along your daily commute route (if you drive to work).
I just tried the Gas Advisor and it looks useful. However, the list of recommended gas stations were all stations along a route I actually don't use to drive to work, because of the traffic. Still, it's got potential.
Governor Silver, nice blog. I wanted to respond that The Wall Street Journal quotes Billshrink CEO Peter Pham as remarking, “We’re unbiased. We’re an independent company. It’s great to see one of the national carriers recognize that we’re doing something different in the marketplace.” Yet in the same article, the Journal sums up how Billshrink makes its cash here: "T-Mobile will pay BillShrink to use its comparison tool in its retail stores, and the carrier pays a referral fee for activations through the site (an arrangement BillShrink maintains with other carriers as well)." Isn't it remarkable that Billshrink can remain "unbiased" and "independent" in its plan recommendations when it makes its money from the cell providers? For that matter, is it really a surprise that T-Mobile and the other carriers have a soft spot for Billshrink, a company that brings them more business? As you've noticed, I'm biased here. I'm the first to proudly admit that I work for Validas, a company that uses exclusive technology to lower your cell bill by an average of 28 percent through our website, http://www.fixmycellbill.com. Yeah, we cost five bucks per cell audit (although we'll analyze your bill for free to let you know how much we could save you). But the difference is that we fight for you rather than work with the cell companies. That's why you pay us.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to everyone reading on optimizing your wireless rates.
Dylan
Thanks for the kind remark. I forgot to note that Billshrink actually recommended I stay with my current plan, which is not with T-Mobile, actually.
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