Summer for many of us means travel. For those of us toting our cell phones around that can also mean some huge cell phone bills.
Take the time to manage your features, monitor your usage and take some precautions. Here's a number of ways to avoid some costly overages, roaming charges, and surprises on your bill.
Texting too much? Buy a bundle
Texting charges can easily get out of hand, with hundreds or thousands of texts adding up on your bill. Be sure to see if your carrier offers an "unlimited" texting option - may will have this as a feature for a flat fee of just $5 per month.
Watch out for roaming
Roaming is a huge issue and can result in massive, unexpected charges on your bill. this is particularly worrisome when it comes to Canada/USA travel. You may purchase international blocks of time from your home carrier, however, this only gets you a discount from your carrier, you will still get billed per minute by the carrier for which you roam on! Be careful. A solution when travelling to minimize voice calling charges is to use a WI-FI enabled calling service like Skype. Granted, you'll need to have Wi-Fi access (just hit any coffee shop, McDonalds, or a local library) but with Skype you can purchase minutes for just pennies enabling you to call any landline or mobile number while you are on Wi-Fi.
Roaming Texts
When/if roaming don't forget about your text messaging usage. Charges for texts while roaming can be huge and add up very quickly! Consider loading a data based texting app like TextNow, Kick, or others. these apps can run over wifi and will provide you with a special number that you can text from or receive to... this is priceless! IF this isn't an option on your device then consider a data/wifi driven messaging app or simply communicate via email (again over Wi-Fi)
Consider Ditching the data plan for Wi-Fi
Have you ever looked at your patterns of data usage? Data plans from most mobile carriers start at $30 per month and move up to bundles that are typically $50 or $60 per month. Do you really use your data though? By studying where you are when using data perhaps you'll see that you are almost always in a Wi-Fi zone. You may in fact be able to ditch your data plan all together and simply use data only over Wi-Fi - this could be a hassle but may be a massive saving! If you happen to NEED your data and are paying excess data charges then consider upgrading your data plan to a larger block - typically a 1GB p/month data plan will come in around $50 per month or even less.
Traveling? Get a Pre-Paid SIM
Again a huge issue for travel between the US and Canada, consider stopping in at a major carrier (T-mobile or AT&T in the USA or Rogers Wireless, Bell in Canada). You can purchase a pre-paid SIM card giving you a month of data and calling for a pretty decent price. Expect to pay between $30 - $50 to have a local SIM card while on vacation.
Optional Features
Again, make sure you study and know your usage patterns. Perhaps you are calling during peak time and getting hit with usage charges or using up your voice minutes. Most carriers have special options that can get you an earlier start to your "night time" or provide you with long distance discounts - note: in Canada carriers typically do not provide nationwide calling, typically provided in the USA. This means that you can be a mere 50 miles away from someone but paying long distance rates to call them. Also, see if your carrier offers a service like auto txt notification when you are approaching a limit - I really believe every carrier should HAVE to provide this service!
Change Your Plans
If your work or travel patterns change (perhaps you are going on vacation for 2 months) consider dropping your current plan or reducing it to the most basic option while away.. there's no sense paying for a full blown data usage plan if you will be way and have your phone turned off. Keep in mind, you may be on a special plan that is no longer offered and so when you return the same savings may not be available.
Don't fall for the "Free" Phone
We've all seen it.. get a smartphone for $0.. awesome stuff! Well, hold on.. just remember this NOTHING is FREE! In particular, smartphones are never free. the hook is obviously the contract! This is your pledge to stick with the carrier (and this device) typically for a period of 3 years. So, in effect, the only way you can leave the carrier before your 3 year term is to pay a buyout fee, usually at least $200 or more and depending on the agreement, you may have to also payoff your device). An example would be a "free" phone from Virgin Mobile using their Tab system. This method gets you a device for free (sort of) however, you'll be obligated to pay it off over a very lengthy time period. A great way to get around this would be to search for a device that a former customer is selling. It may not be brand new but you won't have any commitment. Ideally, when buying a used phone, try to get one that's unlocked, meaning you can use it on a variety of carriers.
Look At The Family Plan
There's strength in numbers and many carriers offer tremendous deals for group or family plans (and you don't have to be family to share this). A group of coworkers or friends can actually get on a group plan and the savings can be excellent. I've priced some plans and have found that for an individual to have 3 robust full featured smartphone plans (with data) you'll likely pay around $200 per month. A recent deal on a family plan showed me even more features, minutes, and data (Actually TONS more) in a shared family plan for about $140 - that's a sweet saving! Keep in mind though, I need to lock in to a fixed term to enjoy these benefits.
Go Full Time Pre-Paid or Month to Month
If all else fails and you don't want to commit to a carrier, a special plan, or to a specific device then consider buying a used unlocked smartphone and simply run it on a pre-paid SIM and top up your needed data and voice minutes on a monthly basis. There's some decent prices around and you can leave, move, change carriers, get a new phone when ever you like!
Finally, keep in mind that if you are traveling out of the country this summer, you are encouraged to change your device communication settings and disable roaming. Even better, as a fail safe I suggest you place your device in airplane mode or simply remove the SIM card all together if you really want to avoid excess roaming / data charges.
