Selecting A Wireless Cell Phone Plan

Cell Phone Bills | Friday April 1 2011 8:57 am | Comments (0) Tags: Cell, cellular phone plan, child emergency, overages, phone, time
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Selecting a wireless cell phone plan can be a daunting task, carriers offer several different types of plans – but be warned, all the plans are geared to making them more money not helping you save money.  The only thing that you can do is to select a discount cell phone plan that will work for you and your lifestyle – that means finding the right mix of minutes, text messaging and if you have a smartphone – reasonable data levels.

First step in selecting the right plan is to determine what you will use the phone for:

- Primarily personal use with some business
- Primarily business use with some personal
- For my spouse or significant other
- For a child
- Emergency use only

Next will be estimating how much and when you will use the phone:

- Mostly during the day time with some evenings
- Mostly during the evenings with some day time usage
- Evenings and weekends only and no significant day time usage

You still need to answer a few more questions:
- Will you be using SMS / text messaging?
- Do you have a need for using data?
- Will you use GPS?

Of course the type of phone you have purchased will also determine whether you will need to purchasae a data addon or not.

Once you’ve answered some basic questions, the next step is to determine the carrier you wish to use.

Some carriers are national, while others may only cater to specific regions – if you will be travelling around the country then you want to select a carrier that is national.  If you will only use the cell phone in your specific region then you can choose a region specific carrier – if one exists in your area.

Selecting Pre-Paid versus Post-Paid

Pre-Paid simply means that you are not on a monthly phone plan – you buy your minutes/sms/data in advance.  Post-paid or monthly cellular phone plan means that you are billed after the fact by the carrier of your choice – so any overages are charged in the following month.

The advantage with a pre-paid plan is that you know exactly how much you can use; you cannot go over because you are restricted by the service provider.  The disadvantage then is if you need additional time for an emergency – you can’t get it until you top-up your phone.  Many pre-paid plans are expensive in terms of minutes also – for example a single minute on a pre-paid plan might be worth $0.50 compared to a monthly plan where it might be worth $0.10 – a big difference.

Monthly or post-paid plans are more convenient, especially if you know you will be using your phone a lot.  When selecting a monthly plan, always start with the a slighly more expensive plan then work your way down.  The reason for this is so you don’t get a rude awakening the next month when your cell phone bill is much higher than expected – remember, on a post-paid plan the provider bills you after the fact for the plan that you are on and for the actual time/data used and SMS messages sent.

Check out Roberts website where he gets experts to give great information on how to maximize the use of your phone, how to purchase a used cell phone or how to decide which discount cell phone plan to sign up for.
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