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Cell phone plans can be complicated, expensive,
or both. Here are some tips to help you choose
the right plan:
- Every plan has a “home calling area,” and
the smaller the area, the lower your monthly
fee should be. Pick a plan that covers your
home, workplace, and travel in between because
using your phone outside your home calling
area may incur surcharges for “roaming.”
- In many plans, calling a phone number that
is outside your home calling area will generate
“long distance” charges. Thus, it may pay
to have a home calling area that includes
those whom you will be calling (when calling
another cellular phone, its “location” for
billing purposes is the place that is registered
as its “home,” rather than the actual place
where it is when you call).
- If you don't have a lot of need for daytime
usage Monday through Friday, you can save
a lot by selecting a plan that includes a
minimal number of minutes during these peak-usage
hours. Night and weekend usage usually is
available at deep discounts or even for free.
- Pay close attention to how your usage will
be measured: to the second,
rounded up to
the next minute, or in even
larger increments.
- Some plans exempt certain categories of calls
from your usage (e.g., incoming
calls from
cell phones belonging to other
customers
of the same cellular company).
- If you use your phone near the boundary of
your home calling area, the
determinant of
whether or not you are “roaming”
probably
will be the location of the
tower that picks
up your signal, rather than
where you are.
- Many plans offer more favorable terms if
you sign a contract for a lengthy
term of
service. The downside is that
canceling such
a plan can incur hefty charges.
When starting
with a new service provider,
it may be safer
to start with the shortest
contract term
available, even if it costs
more. That way,
if you are dissatisfied with
the quality
of service, it's less costly
if you decide
to cancel.
- Look to have voicemail included in your plan,
because you cannot be sure
that incoming
calls will come through even
if your phone
is on and you are in the midst
of your home
calling area. Most plans offer
voicemail
at additional cost, but many
cellular companies
nonetheless will give it for
free if you
demand it.
Finally, pay close attention to other charges
that you may incur. For example, instant
messaging, photo sharing, music downloading,
and Internet access are not normally covered
in the basic monthly fee, and can be very
expensive to use. |
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