Truth-In-Billing Policy

The Commission has adopted Truth-in-Billing rules to improve consumers' understanding of their telephone bills and to help consumers detect and prevent unauthorized charges (cramming). Among other things, section 64.2401 of the rules require that a telephone company's bill must: (1) providea brief, clear, non-misleading, plain language description of the service or services rendered to accompany each charge; (2) identify the service provider associated with each charge; (3) clearly and conspicuously identify any change in service provider; (4) contain full and non-misleading descriptions of charges; (5) identify those charges for which failure to pay will not result in disconnection of the customer's basic local service; (6) provide a toll-free number for customers to call in order to lodge a complaint or obtain information; (7) place charges from third parties that are not telephone companies in a distinct section of the bill, separate from telephone company charges; and (8) provide a separate subtotal for third-party charges in the separate bill section and on the payment page. Telephone companies also must notify consumers, on their websites and at the point of sale, of any options they offer to block charges from third parties that are not telephone companies.