How to Lower Your Cell Phone Bill

February 5, 2010 By Nick Mokey

Use these simple tips to lower your cell phone plan by using fewer minutes, sending fewer texts, and taking advantage of loopholes.

Within the past decade, cell phones have gone from pricy luxuries for the upper class to near necessities for over 80 percent of the population. But buying into 24/7 connectivity is still no bargain. The cheapest plans on many carriers start at a reasonable $40 a month, but additional minutes, text messaging, roaming fees, and overage charges can quickly send bills north of $100 in no time. Looking to reduce the cost of your existing plan? Here are some simple tips to minimize your usage of minutes and paid features so you can scale back to a more affordable plan.

Make use of VoIP Apps on Smartphones

Despite the higher bill, owning a smartphone opens up all new avenues of potential network exploitation, including voice over IP (VoIP). What is VoIP? Basically a fancy name for placing telephone calls through the Internet. With Skype, for instance, you can pay $2.95 a month for unlimited calls to landlines and cell phones within the U.S. Typically, you would have to be at a computer to take advantage of it, but with smartphone apps, you can use the same rate plan from BlackBerrys, Android-based phones, and even iPhones. Other popular options include Google Voice and Fring. See our article on VoIP applications for the iPhone to read more.

Use prepaid SIM cards abroad

Aside from giving a 12-year-old an Amex card in the gift shop at Disney World, making copious calls and scarfing down data while roaming is by far one of the easiest ways to rack up a bill that will have you flirting with Chapter 11 bankruptcy when you return home.

If you really can’t go without your phone while traveling, and you own a GSM phone (T-Mobile and AT&T are the big GSM carriers here in the U.S.), consider buying a prepaid SIM card for as little as $5 abroad. Since much of the world (including most of Europe, Asia, Australia and South America) operates on GSM frequencies, this will effectively switch your carrier to a local one for the duration of your time abroad, potentially saving you hundreds on inflated roaming charges from your domestic carrier. Rick Steves has some great advice on buying SIM cards for use abroad.

Keep in mind, of course, that you’ll need an unlocked cell phone – one that works on multiple carriers – to pull this off. If you received a discount on your phone for signing a two-year contract, you probably have a locked model. But you might be in luck. Google the name of your phone with “unlock” to see if you can find instructions for unlocking it – usually a simple 5-minute operation that involves entering a code.

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Showing 11 comments

fredcon at 10:09am 4th April 2011 Can I shut off my iphone's internet connection while abroad, but maintain the voice phone capability?
Walter at 12:11am 8th November 2010 Ooooops... other link was broken --------> http://www.mycricket.com/cell-phone-plans
Jim McAleer Jr. at 11:16am 22nd October 2010 I have an android phone with verizon wireless and my bill is thru the roof (over a $100 since I got the LG Ally) are their plans I can switch to and still keep my wife and my LG Ally and keep our internet, texting, and calls and reduce our bill? We don't have home computer internet and want to keep it with our phone's. Was told our bill would be an extra $30 a month but they didn't tell us it would be for each phone. This is ridiculus to be charged more for internet than if I got a home internet plan.
Rick at 9:11pm 31st July 2010 I agree with Forestfarie. Prepaid is a great way to go. I switched to Tracfone. Tracfone has given me the safety and security of a wireless phone without the problems of a contract and monthly fees. Phone prices start around $10 and my service averages less than $7 a month when I buy a $20 airtime card, which provides 60 minutes of airtime and three months of service. I couldn't be happier with decision to switch to tracfone.
Forestfarie at 6:51pm 25th February 2010 If you're really serious about keeping your monthly bill donw, then - Dump your contract cell phone! Pick up a prepaid phone at Target or Best Buy. Learn to limit the time you spend on the cell. This will definitely save you some money! With Net10 you only pay 10 cents a minute and 5 cents a text. Keep your minutes between 150 and 250 a month and you will only pay about $15. Really!! Checkout their website.
lebishop at 12:16pm 23rd February 2010 Great point -- prepaid wireless is the best way to save on a wireless bill, on top of avoiding contracts and credit checks. www.PlatinumTel.com is another prepaid provider that offers plans at a great price and unlike some other providers don’t have roaming fees (which can really add up in areas where the network isn’t available.) PlatinumTel’s unlimited monthly talk/text plan is just $50, and for just $10 more includes unlimited web service. For those with lower wireless needs, PlatinumTel offers a pay as you go plan for as little as $5 monthly.
Fix My Cell Bill at 7:08am 18th February 2010 Nick, nice tips for cutting cell bills in light of this challenging economy. As you imply we shouldn't just monitor our wireless costs; we need to actively work to reduce them. As another way to do this, check out the Houston-based company Validas, where I work in consumer advocacy. At Validas, we electronically audit and subsequently reduce the average cell bill by about 22 percent—equating to around $450 annually—through our website, http://www.fixmycellbill.com . From regular people to top corporations to huge entities like the State of California, an incredibly varied group of wireless customers uses Validas to slash their wireless bills. Check out our blog at http://blog.myvalidas.com/ for wireless savings tips and advice.

Watch Validas in the media, recently on Fox News at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1uTCO16_ao .

Good luck to everyone reading at retaking control over your wireless expenses.

Dylan
Consumer Advocacy, FixMyCellBill.com
1. Jim at 10:00am 30th September 2010 You have to pay a fee to obtain the report. Try Billshrink. They give a nice detailed free review of plans.
infanta at 1:20pm 17th February 2010 Totally on target... throw out the cell phone bill and get a pre-paid cell phone. Great options now, including the StraighTalk touch screen smart phone Finesse, by StraighTalk, available at Walmart. Retails for $329, half the cost of an iPhone of Nexus, BUT for $45 a month you can use talk, text and data limitlessly!!! For $30 you can have the same restricted to 100o minutes. Plus, StraighTalk is run on the Verizon network, which charges its customers a lot more for a comparable service while offering the best hands down network service coast to coast. You do the math, then go StraighTalk
1. Lolo45 at 12:32pm 28th February 2011 Hi infanta- I am interested in going the prepaid route and have heard lots of good things about Straight talk. I was wondering if you knew how their coverage was in Canada? I have a lot of family there so I visit often and want to make sure my phone works well there. If so then I think I'm sold because $30 for no contract and 1000 minutes, texts, and 30mb of data sounds like one of the best deals I've heard of so far.
wowmobile at 10:00am 6th February 2010 might want to see how you can eliminate the cell phone bill altogether. no bill, no exorbitant taxes, no over limit charge...because it is all unlimited month to month service including tethering to the internet with no data limits!