| You are shopping for a new cell phone or looking | | | | regular use of such a limited cell phone. |
| to change your existing cellular service to see if | | | | Ok, so now let's say that you have found a cell |
| you can get a more cost effective plan or better | | | | phone you can live with, now comes the part |
| customer service, and with any luck at all, both of | | | | about finding the cheapest cellular plan. You need |
| those. If you change cellular carriers, it almost | | | | to know what your anticipated cell phone usage is |
| goes without saying that you will need to get a | | | | going to be so that you can select the right plan. |
| new cell phone, since it is difficult (and perhaps | | | | Do you make most of your cellular calls at night |
| even not possible) to use the same cell phone | | | | or on weekends? If so, make sure your plan has |
| with a different carrier. | | | | unlimited nights and weekends. What time of night |
| So you start shopping, perhaps at your local retail | | | | do you call? "Night" usually starts at 9pm in the |
| outlets, those places in the center of the mall, and | | | | time zone you are calling from, but for an extra |
| also online. One of the things that you find is that | | | | $5 a month, Sprint will have "night" start at 7pm |
| this plan with this carrier and that plan with that | | | | instead. Based on the calls you make, is that |
| carrier include a free cell phone with the plan, | | | | worth it for the calls you want to make? |
| assuming of course you are willing to sign a one | | | | How many friends do you have? T-Mobile has a |
| year or perhaps even a two year agreement. | | | | plan where you identify five friends, and those |
| You need to be aware of a couple of things right | | | | five friends can be anywhere in the continental |
| now, since this is very likely the kind of | | | | US, and can be a home phone, a business phone, |
| information you are finding, regardless of where | | | | or even a cell phone on another carrier's network. |
| you are shopping. | | | | You can have unlimited calling with those five |
| 1. Those one year or two year agreements are in | | | | friends, 7 days a week. Do you have more than |
| concrete, and typically it takes something roughly | | | | five friends that you call often? If so, this plan |
| equivalent to an act of God to get them | | | | may not work for you, but this is yet another |
| terminated early without being required to pay a | | | | option available to you. |
| hefty early termination fee. Based on that, you | | | | In your cellular service to date, have you needed |
| may want to consider a carrier that will let you | | | | to use the carrier's customer service line very |
| TRY the service for two weeks or 30 days to | | | | often? If customer service is important to you, |
| see if their cellular service is as good as they | | | | then you will want to steer clear of Verizon, since |
| would like you to believe. Sprint has this type of | | | | there are thousands of complaints from |
| agreement, as does Cingular, and if their service | | | | customers dating back more than 10 years that |
| does not cut the mustard, you have two weeks | | | | indicate that their customer service would have to |
| or 30 days to make that determination, and can | | | | IMPROVE to be rated as good as "extremely |
| return the phone and cancel the plan without | | | | poor". |
| obligation (outside of that first month of service) | | | | For the most part, a cheap cell phone with a |
| as long as you do it without their timeframe. | | | | cheap cellular service plan is going to cost you as |
| 2. Be aware of the "free cell phone" that you are | | | | much as the next higher phone or plan, after you |
| getting with this plan, because it is almost certainly | | | | figure in the cost of aspirin and antacid you will |
| the bottom of the heap phone in terms of quality, | | | | need to purchase to deal with the hassles that |
| performance, battery life, signal reception, and | | | | the bottom of the barrel represents. Know your |
| every other aspect. The "free" part sounds nice, | | | | calling habits and choose a plan that is not bottom |
| but you need to look beyond that to find out if it | | | | of the barrel, which will ultimately be your best |
| is really free, and in most cases, it is not free | | | | option. |
| because very few people can actually make | | | | |