KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators heard from a Tacoma man who discovered, after his mother passed away, that she had been leasing a phone for decades, and such a charge could be simmering on your phone bill too.

"I can remember the phone, it was just a green rotary phone," said Dick Tallman.

Tallman remembers the rotary phone his parents used years ago in their Tacoma home. Tallman hadn't thought of that old phone for years, until his mother passed away.

While going through her bills, Tallman found one from QLT Consumer Lease Services for nearly $15. A charge she apparently paid four times a year for "leased equipment" -- a traditional rotary telephone.

"They charged my folks, since 1984, $60 a year to lease that telephone. You can go to the store and buy one for $12. Why would I pay $60 a year to lease a phone?"

Tallman was outraged that his mother and father, who died years earlier, had, over the years, paid more than $1,500 to lease a phone Tallman says they hadn't even used for decades. His mother was still being charged until the day she died.

"After the 80s I can't remember ever seeing it because everybody was switching to a wireless phone and stuff," said Tallman.

Alec Fiskin of Seattle says his father also leased a phone for many years. His cost more than $20 a quarter through AT&T Consumer Lease Services.

When Fiskin took over his now-deceased dad's bills seven years ago, he just kept paying to lease the phone, but wishes he'd looked into what the charges were actually for.

"If I had read this stuff carefully in 2003, I would have canceled it and no one would have objected or had been harmed by that. Didn't have the phone anyway," said Fiskin.

Fiskin says he, too, hadn't seen the phone his dad had been leasing for decades.

"I never could find the phone. As far as I know. It had long since disappeared from the house," said Fiskin.

Before the breakup of AT&T in 1984, more than 40 million Americans leased their phones from "Ma Bell." Last year, QLT Consumer Lease Services bought what was once AT&T's phone leasing division.

And today, according to QLT's president Kathy Sullivan-Matlesky, 350,000 people still lease their phones. KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators asked what the advantages of leasing a phone today were. Sullivan-Matlesky, based in New Jersey, said if the phone breaks down, QLT will send a new one to the customer's home the next day.

She maintains QLT is a "viable option in the marketplace," and that its customers "love our products and love our service."

But most importantly, she says QLT offers reliable, classic phones many consumers want, with old-fashioned ringers even elderly customers can hear.

But both Tallman and Fiskin believe the long-term costs of leasing far outweigh any convenience, and they urge adult children to double check what their elderly friends and parents might automatically be paying for.

"Over half my life my folks have been paying for a green rotary phone that hasn't existed as far as I know for the past 20 years, so they've been paying and paying, and these people have been happy to take their money," said Tallman.

"In your mind, is there any reason to lease a phone in this day and age?" KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators asked Fiskin.

"Not that I know of, no. I mean, I don't know. Maybe there's some incredible deal somewhere, but phones are cheap," said Fiskin.

Just to give you a comparison, its costs about $7 a month to lease a phone from QLT. You can buy one outright at plenty of places for about $12.

If you or somebody in your family is still leasing a phone, KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators would like to hear from you. You can contact them here.