All phone companies make mistakes in their billing. But the fact is many of them will only give you 90 days or less to catch their billing errors or they keep your money forever. Which means if you've been overpaying for years, you will still only receive 90 days' worth of overcharge refunds-and that's if you've taken the time to look for errors, line by line, every month. Illegal you say? Highway robbery? According to the state utility commissions, which regulate phone companies, this practice is not illegal, as long as it's stated in those, "additional terms and conditions" no one ever reads and can only be found online. You may be able to recover a refund of 12 months or more and save yourself some time by utilizing an expense reduction company. Their fee is typically 50% of the refund or credit recovered.

Here are 19 steps you can take to protect yourself from those unnecessary costs:

1. Read every line of your bill and know what it is for. Call your phone company and have a representative explain every line item you don't understand (i.e.: FAC charges, UCL, subscriber line charge, PIC C etc.) This may take some time. Most people never ask, so you may get vague answers simply because the rep doesn't know.

2. Ask for a manager. Customer service reps are under pressure to upsell you and any disconnect counts against their numbers. Make sure to get the person's name and direct number upfront, or if there is no direct number, ask in what state the call center is. Otherwise, the rep may hang up on once realizing you're burning up valuable time-and you'll have to start over.

3. Ask for phone numbers for every line you have, call the lines to make sure they are still all in use and cancel those that are not.

4. Ask yourself, do you really need caller ID, voice mail or call transfer on your fax line?

5. Look at what services you can do without.

6. Check whether the rates and terms on your bill match your contract.

7. Compare multiple phone bills side by side to make sure you are not double billed for the same item such as PIC C (Primary Interexchange Carrier Charge) or long distance.

8. Examine those "free" 800 numbers: Have they suddenly become $20 per month each?

9. Pay attention to taxes. Ask for the percent for each item taxed to make sure they're correct.

10. If you find a service you don't recognize, ask who authorized it, and if you can get a refund if it was unauthorized.

11. Never accept a "no" from someone who can't say "yes".

12. Stick to your guns. Customer service reps are well-versed at deflecting hard questions. You may need to call in a few times and ask leading questions in order to get a straight answer. Make sure they do not know this is the real reason for the call.

13. If you're not getting satisfying answers from the phone company, call your utilities commission and lodge a complaint complete with a list of all contact dates, times, names of customer service agents, phone numbers and your account number. Make your complaint and suggested resolution as clear as possible.

14. If you see long distance calls you know were not made by your company, check the phone closet to make sure a neighbor isn't inadvertently using your lines.

15. Make sure the number of lines matches the number of PIC C charges. Just because you disconnect a line doesn't mean they stopped charging the PIC C.

16. Requesting a line to be disconnected doesn't always disconnect the line. Ask for the order number, the person's name, phone number and location to protect yourself in a dispute.

17. Check your contracts. Some line items are contracted while others are not. For example, lines may be contracted but services such as long distance packages are not. This can make a huge difference in early termination penalties.

18. Have you been "slammed" by an unauthorized long-distance carrier? This is great news. Unless the carrier can prove you signed up for its service, you don't have to pay a penny.

19. Has your bill been "crammed" with extra charges by companies you don't recognize, for services such as voice mail or internet service? Call the company immediately to have it stopped. Don't be surprised if stopping your service is an automated process.

If these steps sound a bit daunting, it's because they can be. If you're not ready to add yet another job duty to your already overbooked schedule, let an expert handle it for you. They may be able to recover 12 months of charges and save you some time.

For 20 years Nathan Watkins and his Seattle Line Communications Inc. have helped hundreds of companies, of all sizes, obtain refunds and reduce monthly expenses in an area few companies understand, or pay much attention to... the phone bill. Nathan welcomes questions at: Help@Seattleline.com, or visit http://www.SeattleLine.com for more information.

Seattle Line Communications, Inc 206.236.2626