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Using Your Cell Phone:
How to get the best deal.
-
Figure
out how much you use a cell phone. If you’re trying to decide whether you
should give up your landline service and go exclusively cellular, you need
to analyze how much you use your landline phone as well. Then, tack on 20
percent more minutes so you don’t cut yourself short.
-
Think
about where you call. Distance matters – you may pay as much for a call 8
miles away as you do for a call that’s 3,000 miles away. Plus, some
carriers tack on roaming charges on top of long-distance, depending on where
you’re calling from.
-
Make
sure your plan includes analog and digital service. Eventually, everything
will be digital, but for now, if you exclude analog, you’ll miss out on a
fair bit of area coverage.
-
Make
sure the plan rounds your time to the nearest second, not the nearest
minute. If your call lasts 4:01, you’ll pay for 59 seconds you didn’t
use.
-
If your
carrier has special night or weekend rates, get their exact definition for
“night.” For some carriers, it’s 8pm to 8am. For others, it’s 10pm
to 6am.
-
If
several people in your family have cell phones, consider family plans or
joint minute plans, sometimes called “shared minute” plans. They could
be cheaper.
-
Prepaid
plans aren’t always the best choice. In the same vein, try to avoid
signing long-term contracts, like for a year or more. Things change and if
you’re stuck in a contract, you could end up paying for service you no
longer want, need, or can afford.
-
If a new
plan comes up, you should ask your carrier to switch you. There may be no
fee or penalty involved.
-
Think
about how you use the internet before you sign on. Many cell phone companies
can add internet service to your cell phone for a small extra fee a month.
But if you’re online for 60 minutes a day, you’ll burn up thousands of
extra minutes a month. You may want to choose a separate DSL service for
your online life. But make sure you know ahead of time.
If you want to compare phone prices, try these sites:
If you're looking to lower your phone bill or change
the services you buy, consider these sites as starting points.
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