Cellular phones are different from your land-line home phone in that you値l need to determine in advance how many minutes you値l use in any given month. Deciding how many minutes you値l need and making sure you don稚 go over your allotted minutes is one of the trickiest parts of using a cellular phone.
The most common arrangement for cellular phones is a block minute plan. With a block minute plan, you値l pay a flat fee to purchase as set number of minutes each month. The disadvantage of this plan is that if you purchase 200 minutes per month, you値l be billed the same amount whether you actually talked for 199 minutes or 60 minutes.
Something that many new cellular phone users don稚 realize is that you値l also be charged to receive calls. If you池e worried about going over your allotted minutes, it痴 best not to give out your phone number to any more people than absolutely necessary.
Like a prepaid calling card, all calls made on a block minute plan are rounded up to the nearest minute. If you call a friend and listen to a 30-second answering machine message, you値l be billed for one full minute. You値l also be charged for one full minute if there痴 a busy signal or no answer, although some block minute plans will only bill you if you let the phone ring more than three times.
With a block minute plan, going over your allotted minutes can quickly get expensive. You値l be charge a penalty rate for every additional minute you use. If you池e not careful, this can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars a month in unnecessary charges. The best defense is to buy more minutes than you think you値l actually need and reduce your plan at a later date if necessary.
About the Author
Timothy Gorman is a successful webmaster and publisher of Cellular-Phone-Solutions.com. He provides cellular phone plans, service and free cellular phones on his website that you can research in your pajamas.
