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slash enhance. I know I'm supposed to say happy new year but in the tradition of trading places I will say Mary New Year and welcome to the 24 edition of the Clark Howard show.

You know, our mission is to serve you with information and guidance and that empowers you so you can make better

financial decisions throughout 24 and we're back and ready to talk about how you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.

Up first, you want to talk about what's becoming a really ugly rip off again. Your cell phone bill,

rates are rising. New data shows they're going up at twice the rate of inflation in the U.S. economy. This is after they went

down year after year after year. I've got a lot of ideas to help you save. I'm also

going to tell you what to expect this year if you're worried about paying tax bills

on money you've received through Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or Big Bad Zell.

I'm going to tell you what you need to know coming up later in this podcast.

So, cell phone bills are on the March up and anybody who studied economics in college could

absolutely say a course they've gone up because we've gone from four national cell phone

providers to three and so the three that remain have pushed rates higher and higher. Verizon has been most public

about it but I'd say the sneakiest with the price increases has been T-Mobile that in my opinion is violated the

agreement they reached with the feds under antitrust grounds to be able to extinguish the Sprint brand by absorbing it into T-Mobile.

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