Saving Money on Your Cell Phone Bill

Cell phone charges are a large part of most families' personal finance budgets. We found by selecting a plan that met our unique needs we could save substantially on our monthly cell phone bills without resorting to frequent switching of carriers.

Maximize Your Family Plan

While we began our cell phone contract with a two-phone family plan, we found that adding two more cell phones to our five-phone maximum plan actually saved us money.

Initially, my two teenage daughters shared a cell phone. We had a land-line to reach anyone at home; however, calls to the land-line ate up our monthly minute allotment. By adding an additional cell phone and using that phone instead of a land-line, we not only eliminated the minutes charged to our plan but the cost of the additional cell phone was only an additional $13.00 per month (including taxes) rather than the $25 charge (plus taxes) for the land-line, reducing our monthly costs by about $17.00.

By adding a fourth cell phone to our plan and giving it to my mother, I eliminated all minute charges previously incurred when I contacted her on her land line or her separate plan cell phone, positively impacting our household spending.

Compare Text Plans to Additional Minutes

When my daughter became a Resident Assistant at her college, the girls in her dorm needed to contact her. We discovered that adding a $30 per month unlimited text plan was less expensive than moving up to a larger minute plan.

Since the text plan is unlimited, anyone on our plan can use the text feature and save our minute bank for necessary calls.

Use a Plan with Unlimited Rollover

Because we have four users on one plan, it is difficult to estimate monthly usage. By participating in a plan with unlimited rollover, we are provided with some protection from large (45 cents per minute) overage charges.

Do Not Pay for Minutes You Don't Need

By utilizing plan features that include free nights and weekend calling, free calling to any family plan phone, and unlimited text messaging, we are able to share a mere 550 minutes between four family members. This is the lowest cost plan offered by our carrier, AT & T.

Eliminate Unnecessary Services

We do not need to use our services to access the internet, so we have data services blocked on all our cell phones. Before my daughter became a Resident Assistant, we actually had text messaging blocked as well. Without a monthly unlimited plan, errant data and text charges can add significantly to a monthly cell phone bill.

Check for Qualifying Discounts

By chance, I discovered that my employer has an agreement with A T & T to provide a 15% discount to employees. The discount is only applied to the primary cell phone, but it still amounts to a reduction of $7.50 to our monthly bill and to our household spending.

These steady, monthly savings add up to nearly $300 annually shaved from our household spending budget.

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