Cutting Your International Internet Costs

by Ysabel de la Rosa

Before I moved to Spain, I knew a lot about the language, something about the food, and nothing about the phones. Having had free local call service all my American days, I was caught totally off guard by local phone rates in Europe. Here are some habits I evolved to trim my monthly internet phone bill.

• Disconnect immediately after receiving e-mail, write your responses, and connect again to send. Send outgoing messages in a batch from the out-box, rather than sending individually.
  
  
• Subscribe to e-mail headline services from local and regional newspapers and specialty journals. This way, you don't have to be on the Internet to scan headlines. If I see something I need to read in a headlines e-mail, I then go online and go straight to the article.
  
  
• Save before you read. Rather than read all the information that interests me while I am online, I save the webpage/site to my "briefcase" and read the article after disconnecting. I then edit the page, taking out all information I don't need and print it out in economy mode, which saves paper and ink.
  
  
• Use your "history" file to recall previously visited webpages from your cache, rather than logging on to revisit them online.
  
  
• Choose low-rate times to do research. The Spanish Internet phone rate, for example, is half-price after 10 p.m. weekdays and all day during weekends.
  
  
• Keep your e-mail screen clean. Close all the displayed messages before you leave your e-mail program. When you log back in, only the in-box will show, and the program won't be using time to display messages you've already read or sent.
  
  
• Keep passwords consistent and simple. I use the same password for all sites and/or pages where I need a password to log in. This way, I don't have to keep records of passwords, and I don't waste time trying to remember which password I use where.
  
  
• Use the most specific links. If you have a home page with your frequently used links, be sure they take you directly to where you want to go. My home page has links to Spanish newspapers. The only section I need to research on a daily basis, however, is the cultural section. I changed my links so that they take me not to the newspaper's home page or front page, but directly to the cultural section.
  
  
• Keep a record of your time online. I use a long-distance telephone log book in which I jot down the time I spend online each day. This helps me know what to expect from my monthly phone bill and helps me plan my online usage. For example, if I spend four hours online at high-rate periods on one day, I'll make a point of cutting back the next day or finish a research project on a weekend or late night, if my schedule allows.
  
  
• When you do online research for a client, you may pass the expense on to them as part of your fee (after discussing this with the client, of course). The log book is essential to be able to do this.
  
  
• Be aware of how the phone company bills you for your Internet time. In Spain, we are billed for two months at one time. I try to set aside money during the month when there is no bill to help remind me that I still have a monthly cost.
  
  
• Find out if you are billed for connections separately from the time you spend online. This can add up fast if your modem is getting a tone, but not succeeding in getting you online. If this is the case where you live, you'll save money by waiting 10 minutes or so to reconnect rather than trying repeatedly to connect in a shorter period of time.
  
  
• Save on electricity, too: If you leave your computer on when you're not working, you can save on electricity expense by turning off the monitor, the printer, and the scanner.

These few tips helped me cut my Internet bill in half!

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