The Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection and numerous other state and federal agencies across the country announced major settlements with Sprint and Verizon Wireless on Tuesday.

The two cellular phone companies will have to pay $158 million to resolve allegations that they placed charges for third-party services on consumers’ mobile telephone bills that were not authorized by the consumers, a practice known as “mobile cramming,” according to a Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs news release.

“No consumer should have to pay for something that they never ordered,” said Stephen Levins, OCP executive director. “This settlement is significant, because it corrects an industry practice that facilitated the improper posting of charges to consumers’ phone bills.”

Stephen Levins, executive director of the state Office of Consumer Protection, says the settlement with Verizon and Sprint is significant.

Office of the Governor

Consumers who have been “crammed” often see charges, typically $9.99 per month, for “premium” text message subscription services (also known as “PSMS” subscriptions), such as horoscopes, trivia, and sports scores that consumers have never heard of or requested, the release says.

OCP announced similar settlements with AT&T in October ($105 million) and T-Mobile in December ($90 million), according to the release. All four mobile carriers announced they would cease billing customers for commercial PSMS in the fall of 2013.

The State of Hawaii received $316,739.24 for its participation in the Sprint and Verizon settlements. The national mobile cramming settlements with the four mobile carriers have netted the State of Hawaii a total of $747,371.18.

Consumers can submit claims under the redress programs by visiting: SprintRefundPSMS.com and/or CFPBSettlementVerizon.com. Consumers who have questions about the redress programs can visit the program websites or call (877) 389-8787 (Sprint), and/or (888) 726-7063 (Verizon).