Access for Smartphone 4G LTE w/ Visual VM

That is just the way Mobile Share plans work, one charge for data and then each line has a line or access fee for unlimited talk and text. Something is definitely wrong with your bill, though. The 10GB Mobile Share Advantage plan is $80, not $145. Also, your lines must still be on 2 year contracts. The $40 access fee will drop to $20 when the contract expires.

I think he means the bill was supposed to be $145.  

No, when I view the plans, it says my plan is $145 a month.  Heck, even the least expensive plan with 1 GB of data is more than the $80 someone said my 10 GB plan should be!  Also, when I view my plan, it says "All plans include unlimited talk & text. Prices include device access charges. Excludes taxes, fees, and additional charges," but I'm still being charged $40 a month per device for this access fee, although right below that $40 charge it shows a credit of $25, so I'm really only paying $15 a month.  Still, my bill is $252 a month, although about $50 of that is payments on my daughter's cell phone that isn't paid off yet and about $20 in some subscription thing she's signed up for that I'm about to delete.  I'm just trying to figure out how I can reduce my monthly bill, because this is getting ridiculous.

How many lines do you have? You are on the older Mobile Share Value plan which is $100 for 10GB plus the $15 fee for each line. Three lines would be $145 for service. If you are being charged $145 plus another $15 for each line, that is wrong but I suspect you are just reading your bill wrong. Subtract the phone payment and subscription thing from your bill and you are around $180 for service. If you have 4 lines, that would be $160 for service plus taxes and fees which would be around $180.

There is no billing charge for visual voicemail, but there is a kind of cost for Visual Voicemail if you manage your data usage, because you have to turn data ON to get Visual Voicemail messages. This can be a serious problem if you need to receive massages immediately at anytime for job applications or if you have a family member in the hospital. 
 
One alternative is to put a Google Voice number as your first contact number on job applications, and then set up your phone or iPad to accept Google Voice notifications. This works great to get your notifications anytime you are on any internet without the need to have your data ON.

@MarkLeavenworth wrote:

There is no billing charge for visual voicemail, but there is a kind of cost for Visual Voicemail if you manage your data usage, because you have to turn data ON to get Visual Voicemail messages. 

Incorrect. Keep in mind that 99.99% of the people do NOT have to turn data "on".  Because most people don't turn their data off.

Turning data off is not "managing" your data, it's more like refusing to manage your data.

Turning the few apps that use data that you don't want off to not use cellular data is "managing", just hiding in the closet isn't managing anything.

This can be a serious problem if you need to receive massages immediately at anytime for job applications or if you have a family member in the hospital. 

Yes, that's why you shouldn't do it that way, it's not the norm. It's irresponsible if you're expecting information from a hospital or job. It's a smartphone, let it be smarter than you.

This post you're responding to is over a year old and what they are asking about is the line access charge, which is worded poorly and kinda looks like it's a $40 charge for VVM, but it's not. This post was provided with a solution over a year ago.

I think I understand Access for Smartphone 4G LTE w/ VVM. It is like being charged twice for the same service. Think of it as renting a car for  for say $25 a day. Then being told you have to pay an additional $10 a day to drive it, even if you don't start it every day. Just one more corporate got ya,

I think I understand Access for Smartphone 4G LTE w/ VVM.

@Vorlock No, you pretty clearly don’t understand it.