What is a billing increment?
As seen in the rate comparison chart, the billing increment is the time customers are billed for fractions of a minute during a call. For example, a billing increment of 18:6 indicates that the customer is charged a minimum of 18 seconds and in 6-second increments thereafter. A smaller billing increment is always better.
Billing increments are the minimum block of time that a long distance company uses in calculating the cost of each long distance call placed by the customer. Typically, long distance service is billed in 6 second (1/10 of a minute) or full, one minute (60 second) increments. For example, the following billing intervals will be used to calculate the cost of the call: Actual Elapsed Time of Call Time Used to Bill Call @ 1 Minute Billing Increments Time Used to Bill Call @ 6 Second Billing Increments Cost Savings 18 seconds 1.0 Minutes .3 Minutes 60% 30 Seconds 1.0 Minutes .5 Minutes 50% 42 Seconds 1.0 Minutes .7 Minutes 30% 60 Seconds 1.0 Minutes 1.0 Minutes 0% 66 Seconds 2.0 Minutes 1.1 Minutes 45% 72 Seconds 2.0 Minutes 1.2 Minutes 40% 90 Seconds 2.0 Minutes 1.5 Minutes 25% 126 Seconds 3.0 Minutes 2.1 Minutes 30% 186 Seconds 4.0 Minutes 3.1 Minutes 22.5% As you can see, there is a significant difference in the time charged per call when comparing the two billing interval methods.
A. Billing increments are the blocks of time that the long distance company uses to bill you. Typically, long distance service is billed in 6 second or 1 minute (60-second) billing increments. If you are being billed in 1 minute increments, for example, and have a call that lasts for 1 minute and 3 seconds, you will be charged for 2 full minutes. If you are being billed in 6 second increments, you would only be charged for 1 minute and 6 seconds if the call actually lasted 1 minute and 3 seconds.
