Choosing the Best Cell Phone Plans and Providers: Part 1

With the rampant emergence of smart-phones into the consumer market, the pricing on usage plans costs a pretty penny nowadays. To get calling and texting is not enough anymore for most people. The average person requires a data plan to manage their social networks, email, or casual mobile internet browsing in addition to the necessary functions of owning a phone. As if this wasn't enough, cellphone providers riddle their websites with confusing language and hidden fees, that have often led many a person to gape in horror in their first month's bill.

I'm a student currently about to begin my freshman year in college, so to keep expenses down, but buy I phone I won't have to hide in my purse 24/7, I've been hunting down the best deal I can find. Everybody's wish-list and budget differs so to narrow things down, I will be presenting this article from the vantage point of someone searching for the cheapest possible monthly bill, who wants a decent device as well.

The Wish-list:

1. Best Phone (touch screen, camera, wifi enabled, social networking and email capabilities)
2. Best Plan (2-year or no contract, minimum of 1000 text messages per month, available calling minutes, internet)

3. Best Price (below $40 per month)

   
   

Choosing a phone will affect the usage plan you will be able to select. For example, AT&T carries the iPhone line exclusively and has an exclusive plan for that phone. So you couldn't in other words, get an iPhone on a pay-as-you-go plan. If you want a smart-phone on a plan that doesn't break the bank, your best option is to look at family (basically two-person) plans. Most cellphone providers have this option.

Most of modern phones today incorporate a touch-screen interface. This is my personal favorite as it presents a more fluid navigation of a phone's features as opposed to a button interface (which is also fancy-talk for: I just think touch-screens are cooler!). Some touch-screen phones also have slide-out keyboards for larger screen space while texting.

Giving yourself the chance to try out different phones to get the feel of them is also important. You may never know that the keyboard doesn't work well with your fingers, or see how bad a 1.2 megapixel camera really is until you handle a phone in person. Another great option is to look up reviews of phones online. There are plenty of reputable sites that do this, just make sure none of them are endorsed by, or in direct connection with, a cellphone provider carrying the phone as you will get a biased review.

Now that you have found a phone that you think would suit you, you will have to find a service provider that carries that phone. This is usually an easy process if the brand is not specific to a provider such as the iPhone, the Droid, the T-Mobile MyTouch etc. if the name of the phone is Sony-This, Samsung-That, LG-whatchamacallit, then you're more likely to find the phone among multiple providers.

The next step is to consider your needs to determine what kind of plan you want. If we take my wish-list for an example, I need a minimum of 1000 text messages, an available amount of calling minutes (I don't make phone calls terribly often), and available internet (wifi connectivity, e-mail, social-networking capabilities). This set of criteria best fits either a no-contract, family, or pay-as-you-go plan. A no contract plan means that you can cancel your service at any time without any restrictions or fees as opposed to being required to stay with a provider for two years. This option is most often not available for very high-end smart-phones, but you can find nice modern phones with this plan.

A family plan can save a lot of money, and can take advantage of buy-one-get-one-free phones. The general requirement to necessitate a family plan is to have two or more users (with a limit of five persons usually) in on one plan, sharing minutes, texting, etc. This plan is a great way to save money and cash in on slick new phones.

The pay-as-you-go plan fits the bill the best for an individual user on a budget, however you have to shop carefully or you may be swindled. Pay-as-you-go plans can cost from as little as ten dollars a month to thirty or fifty dollars a month, and are available anywhere. For those who will hardly use their phone, there are also plans that allow users to pay ten or twenty cents per call or text (respectively). Here is where you have to do some serious comparisons however, because paying per text/call can run into a big bill before you know it. For example, if each text costs twenty cents, then just 250 round-trip text messages (one outgoing one incoming) costs you one-hundred dollars. So it may be wiser to buy a plan that offers 1000 messages for say fifteen dollars even if you probably wont use every available message.  

So now we've covered the basics. In the next part of this article I'll be comparing the two providers said to be the cheapest, Verizon and T-Mobile, to show you the options you could have based on our wish-list. Part 2