How To Monitor Cell Phone Usage If You Get Laid Off

There is so much going on all at once in the life of someone who gets laid off from a job. But when I lost my newspaper job at the end of March, I thought I was handling the barrage of paperwork, the search for new employment and the mountain of free time, fairly well.

But, I did not consider how much more I was using my cell phone, and when I get my bill from Sprint in the next week, or so, it's going to be about $200, roughly double what I normally pay for a family plan where my mom and I share 550 anytime minutes each month. A plan where we have exceeded our anytime minutes only once in the last year.

I simply didn't realize my anytime minute usage was getting out of hand until a week ago when I called the automated account service number and checked the usage balance. Money is increasingly tight, and that phone call left a pit in my stomach.

And I didn't feel much better after talking with what was, thankfully, a polite Sprint customer service representative who explained the company was not going to work with me - I was asking them to cut me some slack on the amount of minutes they were going to charge me for because I had just lost my job. It was worth a try, and I wonder if any cell phone companies have, or are developing plans, to retain customers who have lost their jobs?

So, to those recently laid off and who know they will need to make more phone calls during the day, especially people like me without a land line, be aware of your cell phone usage during the day.

A few things I think I could have done to prevent so many overage minutes during the first month I was laid off (By the way, the Sprint representative offered to give a $100 credit towards anything on my account if I signed up for two more years. That was slick on her part, but I declined.):

1) All the people calling me to commiserate (and in some cases congratulate) with me about losing my job, could have been told politely that I would talk with them about getting laid off, but that I would need to do so after 7 p.m. when my unlimited "night and weekend" cell minutes were available.

2) I didn't know it at the time, but Sprint has a service where you can purchase a bank of extra cell phone minutes during a pay cycle, but you have to do so before you go over your plan's allotment. So, had I known, I would have called up and paid a nominal fee for a bank of minutes instead of getting hung out to dry at a rate of $.45/minute.

3) I could have simply done more emailing and less talking on the phone.