Cellular Phone Plans

There are more cellular phone plans available than ever before, with new options coming along all the time. When Cellular Phones first came on the market, users barely had a choice among Cellular Phone Companies, and cellular phone plan options were quite limited. Now you can choose a contract plan or a no contract plan, a monthly plan or a prepaid plan, a plan for you alone, a family plan, or a share plan that lets you share services and airtime among a group of people.

Along with choosing your cellular phone company, picking a cellular phone plan is the most crucial aspect of getting set up with a cellular phone. With most electronics, the first thing you do is choose the features you want, then select from among the brands offering those features. But with a cellular phone, you should always start by picking a cellular phone company that has the cellular phone plan you want. Unless you have a very specific need for a particular cellular phone model, picking the brand and model of phone will probably be the last thing you do. (But if you want to know which models are most popular, you can look at our Top Rated Cell Phones from the users of Letstalk.com.)

The cellular phone plan determines the terms of your cellular phone service. Most cellular phone plans have a standard monthly charge that covers a certain number of airtime minutes. The details of the plan determine what local, long-distance, daytime and nighttime/weekend (or "peak" and "off-peak") minutes are included in your plan and when you incur extra charges-for example, by leaving your service area, making long-distance calls, or going over your monthly limit. With different plans, you can get options that give you more minutes or more flexibility in using your airtime, a larger service area or free long distance.

Before you pick a cellular phone plan is the time to analyze how you will use your cellular phone service-or how you use it now. If you already have a cellular phone, look at your last few monthly bills. Do you always go over your monthly allotment of minutes? Then consider a plan with more minutes. Are you regularly incurring roaming charges? Look for a plan with a larger service area or no roaming charges. If you'll be a new cellular phone user, you'll have to be creative in imagining how you'll use your phone. Read up on Family Plans, Share Plans, and pre-paid plans to see if any of these options are right for you.