Cell Phone Spending Suggestions To Save You Money

Is your cell phone spending over the top? Are you using your cell phone to the point where you cringe when your bill arrives? The privilege of owning a cell phone is not a cheap endeavor by any means. Cell phone providers offer plenty of extra services such as texting, video messaging, video games and downloadable ring tones that are oh so tempting but albeit, not free.

What then do you do if you are spending far too much money using your cell phone on a regular basis? Getting rid of your cell phone and going back to just using a land line is not an option for most people as it is so easy to become addicted to the versatility and ease of convenience that a cell phone provides. There are things you can do though to ease the pain of cell phone spending (or overspending!). Read on for some ideas.

Texting

If you are fond of sending text messages then be aware that in some instances you will pay 10 cents for every text (and even more if you are texting someone in another country). You may even get charged for the messages that others send you!

If you do not want to give up texting because it is your lifeline, then look for a carrier who can offer you a special plan for text messaging. To use an example, Sprint/Nextel can offer you 100 text messages for the low price of five dollars a month. Or you can get 500 text messages for eight dollars a month. Or if you are a texting fanatic then you can sign up for the plan that offers unlimited texting for 15 dollars a month.

Choose a Family Friendly Provider

Choose the provider that is most popular amongst those you call most frequently. This is because many cell phone carriers are willing to offer unlimited in-network minutes to their subscribers- if they are talking to other subscribers. This means you can talk free for as long as you want to and you won’t pay anymore!

Prepaid Plans

If you tend to be more conservative with your cell phone and make as few calls as possible to keep your spending to a minimum then look to a prepaid plan to give you what you need. Most rate plans begin at around $39.99 a month. That is a great deal of money to pay if you will only be making two or three calls a month.

On the other hand, if you choose a prepaid plan then you spend a specified amount of money in order to pay for the minutes that you expect to need. To use an example of this, Virgin Mobile’s Minute2Minute prepaid plan charges 25 cents a minute but that is only for the first 10 minutes that you speak in a day. After that time has passed, you get charged 10 cents a minute.

The only downside to this is that if you don’t use up your minutes you lose them and the money you spent on them goes to waste. In most cases you have in the area of one to three months for a prepaid plan and then you must purchase more time. Virgin Mobile, as described above, is a classic example of this. Every three months you must load at least $20 on your plan in order to keep your phone in service.

Cell phone spending does not have to turn into spending a fortune if you can be mindful of how you use your phone and when. Don’t just be cell phone friendly but be cell phone savvy as well!