How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill
Here are a few things you can do to save money on your cell phone bill.
1) Look over your plan minutes. Are there areas you can be saving money? Are you paying for minutes above and beyond your monthly plan? Are you sending too many text messages? If you are, you may be able to cut costs by upgrading your cell phone plan. If you are a frequent texter, pay extra for unlimited monthly texts.
2) Don’t pay for cell phone insurance. If your phone breaks or becomes damaged, go to eBay and search for a cheap replacement to last until you get your “new every two” phone.
3) If you are signing up for a new phone plan, try to avoid sign-up fees. Tell a customer service rep that you won’t sign up unless they waive the initial fee. I have heard cases of this working before. Give it a shot.
4) Ditch the contract phone and get a no commitment prepaid cell phone. Prepaid cell phones are used only by about 15% of all wireless users, but they typically save money over standard cell phone plans.
5) Talk Less. Sort of kidding on this one, but if you use fewer minutes (especially on a prepaid plan) you will save money.
Some good companies to look at are T-Mobile, AT&T, and Tracfone.
Read more about how to save money with a prepaid phone.
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Verizon Wireless to Expand Prepaid Cell Phone Plans
It’s nothing new that Verizon Wireless is offering prepaid cell phones, because they’ve had them for a while now. But there is a new development on that front in that the company will expand their prepaid options.
There are three plans to choose from.
The Core Plan: You pay $.99 for each day that you use your phone and you have unlimited talk time in your network. Other calls are $.10 a minute. Texts are $.10.
The Plus Plan: You pay $1.99 per day with free night minutes. Text messages are $.10.
The Power Plan: The daily fee is $2.99. Nights and weekends are free. Other calls (excluding your in-network calls) are $.10.
Read a review of Verizon INPulse.
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Where to Find Tracfone Promotional Codes for Free Minutes
Tracfone prepaid cell phones are some of the best deals around, especially if you take advantage of the promotional codes for free talk time that are often released by the company.
It isn’t always clear which codes are legitimate, which ones will work, and when they expire. I have searched online for a good place to find these codes and I’ve found a couple of places that have frequently updated and verified free tracfone airtime codes. In other words, these are codes that have actually worked for people.
If you are looking to save money on your cell phone bill, prepaid options can cut your bills considerably. If you use your cell phone minutes sparingly–around 100 to 200 minutes per month–then prepaid/pay as you go options are great for you. Many people pay for more minutes than they use in a month.
Why not have the option to only pay for the minutes you use?
Here are three places you can find tracfone promotional codes.
This is site run by a guy who has been using Tracfone prepaid cell phones for over five years. He knows so much about the company that he even published an ebook about how to save money with tracfone. He has a very useful and frequently updated chart of tracfone airtime codes.
Find more Tracfone promotion codes brought to you by Go4Prepaid. This is a website where you can get the inside scoop on the prepaid wireless industry and read phone reviews.
Here is another list of promo codes with expiration dates and with reported accounts of when they have worked. It is kept current.
Between these three places, you should be able to find codes that work and will give you some extra talk time.
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Prepaid Cell Phones Offer Big Savings
So why don’t more people use them?
If you’re looking to cut down your cell phone bill, then it may behoove you to consider a prepaid cell phone plan.
One of the reasons prepaid cell phones still have not officially “caught on” with the mainstream is that most cell phone users do not know about the possible savings they can get with prepaid cellular service.
The reason people don’t know the facts about prepaid isn’t because only small companies offer this kind of service, because clearly the major carriers like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Alltel offer prepaid services.
Smaller companies like Virgin Mobile (which uses the Sprint Network) and Tracfone (which operates on AT&T’s network) also offer competitive or better plans.
It’s just that the major carriers provide these services very quietly because their other services are so much more profitable, especially when considering the fact that many people locked into cell phone contracts don’t use all of their minutes each month. This seems to be changing as consumers are looking for creative ways to cut down on expenses. Paying for 500 minutes a month when you only use 200 could be one of the first effective cuts.
Prepaid cell phones are a good idea for people who use low levels of talk time. If you use around 100 minutes per month, you could be paying as little at $15 a month, instead of having to pay for a higher minimum of minutes with a contract cellphone plan. So why aren’t people lining up to prepay for their cell usage?
Again, most people just don’t know they have the option or aren’t familiar enough with the plans they can get. People I know just don’t want to spend the time to learn how prepaid plans work, or they think it sounds like too much work to manage their own minutes each month, or they want the free phone when they resign their wireless contract in two years.
So they continue to pay for minutes they don’t use. It’s really an issue of “not knowing” and being more familiar with the traditional plans we see advertised on tv or on websites.
We buy what is most heavily advertised to us—and prepaid is not it. The big companies push their large contract plans and the smaller companies like Tracfone and Cricket Cell Phones don’t have the same kind of ad budgets. But this is changing as the market gets more competitive and cell phone users get savvier about their options.
If you’ve been to Europe in the past several years, then you know that prepaid wireless isn’t the exception—it’s the rule. The U.S. is catching on—slowly—as many people realize that they are overpaying for the cell phone plans.
Here is a quick list of the benefits of prepaid cell phones.
- Save Money
- Control how many minutes you use (and pay for) each month.
- No termination fee.
- No contract.
- No commitment.
- No credit check.
- Free minutes – As a way for the smaller companies like Tracfone to compete, they often offer special promotions where you can win free talk time with a purchase.
These are some reasons why people don’t go prepaid.
- They don’t know the facts.
- They are caught in the “new every two” cycle, where they get a phone upgrade every two years if they re-sign their contract.
- They are more familiar with the heavily advertised contract plans from companies like T-Mobile and Verizon (which coincidentally also have prepaid plans—but you haven’t heard of them have you?)
- They don’t want to pay a termination fee.
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