Agnivo Roy

Choosing a mobile phone plan can be difficult due to conflicting and even misleading advertising offered by the companies that are vying for your attention. What every customer wants is an affordable cellphone plan and a reliable yet cheap mobile phone.

If you are not careful you may end up paying much more than you expected and much more than is actually necessary. You may also receive substandard quality of calls and customer service.

Before choosing a mobile phone plan, it’s your duty to investigate what’s on offer and shortlist a few plans.

We’d suggest you to be aware of the following things while choosing a cellphone plan :

1. Take your time. Don’t rush into a plan without knowledge.
2. Match the plan to your calling habits.
3. Find the plan that fits your budget.
4. Compare the plans of the main providers.
5. Find out what your friends and other consumers think about the various providers.
6. Be careful when signing up for “capped” plans.
7. Remember, fancy handsets are not free, nor do they cost $1.

Most cell phone plans split their minutes between peak and off peak times. Off peak minutes are unlimited with many providers today. Many providers also offer free mobile to mobile calls which allow for free calls among members of the same cell phone provider on peak or off peak times. The peak minutes are sold in blocks of various amounts and prices; this is a point to use for comparison among providers and plans.

The start and end time for peak minutes may vary among providers. If you find your predicted usage falls between two plans, it is recommended to choose the plan with the most minutes since paying for overage can be more expensive than paying for the extra minutes.

If you plan to use your cell mostly during the evening and on weekends then you would be a good match for an off peak cell phone plan which may also be called a night and weekend plan.

Another comparison point among providers is free long distance. Most cell providers offer free long distance today. But you will need to verify this with your provider to make sure you did get hit with overages. Also compare roaming policies among providers. The ideal situation is to pay no roaming fees and more and more companies are adopting this policy.

You may wish to buy a family plan if you would like to share minutes with other family members. It can be less costly than have a separate plan for every member of your family. And finally, if you just want a cheap mobile phone for emergencies and don’t plan to talk on it very much then consider a prepaid plan.