How Can You Save Money on Cell Phone Plans?

Most people already have a cell phone, or are planning on buying one soon. Most people also want to save money while still getting the best cell phone plans they can. Most cell phone plans are based on your usage, so figuring out how you'll use your phone is one way to save a little every month. It can take some work on your part to save money on a cell phone plan, but in the end, it'll be worth it. Here are a few tips for people who'd like to find a less expensive plan without giving up useful features.
Compare Providers and Plans
When you decide what cell phone you want, one of the first things you'll have to do is choose a provider. There are quite a few available, including US Cellular, Vreizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Nextel and Alltel. You'll want to compare and review the plans and phones available from each carrier to help save money. Consider these things when you make your package and provider comparisons:
1.Rollover minutes are minutes that you don't use in one month, but which can be carried over into the following month. These normally last a year, and can keep you from wasting money on unused minutes. Find out if a plan you're considering allows you to keep rollover minutes.
2. Text messaging is getting a lot more popular. This means that the exact text messaging features offered by your provider are important. Find out if you pay a set amount per text message you send, have a flat fee for a certain number of messages, or unlimited text messaging. A good text message plan is vital if you use this form of communication often.
3. Evening and weekend minutes can allow you to save a reasonably large amount of money. Many plans offer free minutes on nights and weekends. If you spend most of your time on the phone during this period, be sure your plan offers free evening and weekend minutes.
4. Unlimited mobile to mobile services will let you talk to anyone else who's in the same network. Usually there's a small flat fee associated with this feature, but if people you talk to regularly are in the same network, you could save some money but using it.
Get Rid of Unneeded Extras
One more way to save money on your cellular plan is to get rid of extras you don't need. Here are just a few things that might be included in your plan that aren't often used.
· Roadside assistance seems like a great idea, but many people go overboard. There's no point in having roadside assistance on your cell phone plan if you also carry AAA coverage, or have other plans that will help you if your car breaks down.
· Insurance on your cell phone can be an unnecessary expense. If you have a fancy, expensive cell phone, you may need the coverage in case it's damaged or lost. However, if you're just using a basic phone and haven't had problems in the past, you'll quickly pay more than the cost of your phone to insure it.
Try Using Prepaid Cellular Phone Plans
Prepaid cellular phone plans are great if you don't use a lot of minutes, or aren't sure when you'll be using your minutes. If you're using a prepaid plan, you'll never have to deal with a contract or a monthly charge. You pay as you go, refilling your phone whenever it runs out of money. Many major cell phone providers have started offering this kind of service to people who don't need or want a regular cell phone plan.
People who have bad credit, or can't afford a high payment up front can also stand to benefit from using prepaid cellular phone plans. You'll be in control of your usage and costs, making it impossible to accidentally run up a high bill. Your phone will warn you when you're about to run out of money. You can then refill it, either by buying a card with minutes, or by calling into a special number.
Family Cell Phone Plans Can Help Save Money
If your whole family uses a cell phone, buying a family plan can reduce your rates. There are a number of different mobile phone plans offered by major companies that are designed specifically for families. It's almost always cheaper to use a family plan than to buy a separate plan for everyone. You may even be able to get a discount on the family plan's already low rate, allowing you to save even more. Many plans allow you to call everyone in your family for free, making it easy to contact parents or children if required.
There are many different ways to save on your cell phone plan. Start by comparing plans and companies to help reduce your rates, then pare down any extras you don't use. If you're not a routine cell phone user, consider switching to a prepaid plan to save some more money, and remember that family plans can help if you need to get phones for a number of different people in your household. Just use these tips, and you'll have an easy time saving money on cell phone plans.







Daryl Plaza is a regular contributor to CellPhoneEasyCall.com a website designed to inform consumers on all aspects of cell phones, cell phone accessories and Cell Phone Plans so they can make an informed decision on the right cellular phone and where to buy them online.

Family Cell Phone Plans - Comparison Shopping To Help You Choose The Best Plan

With the myriad of cell phone plans that are available through the various carriers today, it can be a bit of a challenge to muddle through it all, trying to find the best package for your family. Each has their own special set of perks that are offered, in order to entice potential customers to purchase a contract and commit themselves to a particular amount of time with the company. Although you'd be hard-pressed to find a carrier that locks you in for more than two years - those days are gone - you're still committing your patronage for a designated amount of time, and - that being the case - will have a bit of research to do before settling on a specific package. Where do you begin?

Work the Room

One of the best ways to gather information on any product is to solicit the opinions of others who have used it at one time or another. Since cell phones are such a hot commodity today, and everyone who uses one must purchase some type of cell phone plan in order to use it, then there's a lot of information that's available to you in virtually any place where you'll be exposed to others - in other words, everywhere.

Extended Family - Since family members often chat with each other at some point during the day via cell phone, check with other family members who are outside your home to see which plan they use and how well it works for them. Depending upon their circumstances, of course, the plan that they have might not be tailored to the needs of your family, but it's a good starting point.

Friends - Although many folks have a very limited number of extended family members in their immediate area, most have a wide variety of friends from which to gather information. It's in your best interests, therefore, to find out what works best for them. If their families' needs are similar to yours, you can get a gold mine of information that might help you to select the best family cell phone plan from among the many that are offered in your particular area.

Neighbors - If you're the type that doesn't barricade yourself from the neighbors with tall hedges that serve to discourage communication, then you're probably in the position to check with those who are living around you about which local carriers offer good family plans. Since most people today carry this type of device, then the chances are good that you'll come up with something worthwhile.

Co-Workers - One of the main reasons that adults invest in cell phones today is to keep in touch with family members during the time when they're at work or are traveling on work-related business. Therefore, finding a great family cell phone plan is a real priority for them, and you can cash in on the research that they've already done. Keep in mind that their particular carrier may not be available in your area, but chances are good that they are, since most people don't have an overly long commute to and from work each day.

Clubs/Organizations/Extracurricular Activities - Whether you work out at the gym twice each week, attend an art class or belong to a bridge club, you have the potential to meet a large number of people who use cellular phones and can speak to you about their options packages. Keep in mind that learning about what they use is only half of the research - getting information about what plans didn't work for them is the other half. Sometimes, carriers make a product look great but, when put to practical use, it's found to be failing.

Online Community - Lots of information can be found online regarding cell phone service plans, and one of the best ways to find information about specific carriers and their plans is to search for cell phone reviews. These are easily found - by simply typing "cell phone review" into the keyword area of your favorite search engine - and offer the added benefit of being up-to-date and usually fairly specific regarding the assets and liabilities of the packages' particulars.

Compiling the Data

It's important to keep in mind that there are lots of different types of plans that are available, so there's a lot more research to do be done than may be immediately apparent. For instance, the term "cell phone plan" is very generic, since there are various types of service; so when it's time to compare cell phone plans, you'll have to consider each type of service that's offered through each carrier. Among the many things that you'll have to examine are prepaid cell phone plans, "no contract" cell phone plans, "pay as you go" mobile phones and internet phone service. Once you've narrowed it down to the specific type of cell phone service that you prefer, then you'll have to take the particular features into consideration. These may include long distance plans, multiple phone options, "free minutes" packages and mobile-to-mobile options, to name a few.

In order to weave your way through all of the information that you've collected, it's best to list the cellular phone carriers that you've examined, listing each option and its specifics. Once this list has been compiled, then it's time to decide what type of cell phone coverage is necessary in order to meet your particular needs. Through the good old-fashioned process of elimination, most of your work will be done before you make the attempt to contact any of the cellular phone companies. When you get to that point, you might also be surprised by a few specials that are being offered at the time, which will end up saving you even more on your monthly cell phone bill.

Taking the Shortest Route

Since finding a solid cell phone plan for your family can require a good deal of time and effort, you may wish to consider taking a bit of a shortcut when it comes to information gathering. Rather than approaching everyone on an individual basis, for instance, you might think of having a get-together - maybe even a "cell phone party"! - so that you can bring most of your contacts directly to you, rather than seeking each of them out at different times and places. Doing effective research is time-consuming enough, so take the shortest route to your investigative destination and get a good deal of it over with at once.

About the Author

Samantha Goode is a freelance technology writer who loves to provide tips to consumers shopping for pay as you go mobile phones [http://www.a1-cell-phones.com/cell-phone-reviews.html], cell phone family plans [http://www.a1-cell-phones.com/index.html] and cell phone packages [http://www.a1-cell-phones.com/prepaid-cell-phones.html].