How to Get the Best Deal on Cellular Telephone Service

If you are in a contract with a carrier, it is difficult to find a deal with another carrier that will out-weigh the penalties of prematurely terminating your contract. You would be better off contacting your service provider and having a customer service representative walk you through your usage to find the cheapest plan that will suit your needs.

• Step 2

  Study your usage.

  Most providers provide are online area that will allow you to study how you use your phone. It is important for you to understand what you are spending for text messages, mms message, minutes, roaming, and downloads of things like ringtones and software applications. You will need this information when contacting other providers.

• Step 3

  Contact your current provider and ask for a better deal.

  If your contract is up, your carrier may be willing to work with you to come up with a better deal. Use the information you gathered in the step above and ask for a plan tailored around your usage. Take lots of notes. You want to make sure you can adequately compare plans when you take the next step.

• Step 4

  Contact other carriers.

  Now is the time to tell your carrier that you are going to be shopping around and will get back to them. This might be enough to get you an even better deal. Either way, call your second and third choices to see if they can beat the deal your carrier had offered. Use the notes you took to negotiate with each of them.

• Step 5

  Once you have found what you think is the best deal, call your carrier back and ask them what you need to do to cancel your service. Typically, you will be transferred to a customer service representative who will be empowered to try to keep you around. Work this person. Use your notes to tell them what you are getting from the other carriers and see if they can beat it.