[vlovich123]

Banks have 1-800 numbers which are free and generally most phone plans I’m aware of are unmetered by minute

[afavour]

I’m a lot more concerned about the time wasted being on hold for an hour than the minutes I’m burning…

[bostik]

While that's a real problem in general, I would think that for this particular group of people it might be less of an issue.

We are well paid, and as such majority of HN'ers should qualify for premier banking. One of the advantages in that is that you get access to quality in-house customer service, and may be able to call them directly from the banking app. (A really nice feature.) They tend to have good availability too. The plural of anecdote is not data, but I've never had to wait for longer than five minutes when I do have a problem that requires CS's involvement.

[na85]

I mean if there's actually a real problem with your account, spending an hour on hold might not be wasted time.

[tobr]

It’s still wasted time, and what’s worse, if it’s an urgent problem, that’s a situation where you can’t afford wasting that time.

[wongarsu]

Maybe it's not a good bank if you can't get a hold of them in a reasonable timeframe

[MattGaiser]

The person above is not from the USA. Unlimited everything plans aren't even that common in Canada.

[vlovich123]

I was replying to this:

> I’m not from the US, so it’s possible that your banks are doing this part better than the local ones, but that’s always the worry with the phone for me.

Since the person is asking about what it’s like here I’m providing that perspective. In Canada banks also provide 1800 numbers so it should generally be free. I thought Canada has mostly unlimited plans but I haven’t had a Canadian phone plan in over a decade.

[frosted-flakes]

Pretty much all Canadian phone plans have unlimited Canada-wide calling. For most people, the only limitation is data caps.