By David
As you shop for cell phones, you will likely encounter many companies offering family plans that look like they would be easy on the budget for a family, but not so much for an individual. Often times, it is hard to figure out what is available to individuals by just browsing the main pages of a carrier. While it may take a little extra digging, you can usually find a great individual plan that meets your needs once you understand how these plans work.
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Here are a few things you should know about cell phone plans:
Basic Plans
The first type of individual plan that you can look for is the basic plan. These plans are quite simple and have a fixed rate for a number of minutes every month with texting and data being setup by default on a “pay per” or pay-as-you-go system. Typically, these types of plans are best for those individuals who would like to have a phone just for emergencies but do not really use it, or for those that only use their phones for calling and almost never for texting or data.
Bundled Plans
The other major type of individual plan is the bundled plan. These cellular plans are comprised of several different features and typically provide a better value for each included feature, but include enough features that it makes them more expensive than basic plans. For instance, where a basic plan may only include 500 minutes a month, a bundled plan would have the same 500 minutes as well as 500 domestic messages (text messages) and 500 MB of data use all wrapped up into one plan. These are great options if you intend to use all that is being included, but if you have no need for the extra features, you will find that they typically cost more money than they are worth. Even worse is the recent trend to only have bundles with unlimited minutes and texts, allowing you to choose only the amount of data included with the plan. These types of bundles are trying to force potential customers to pay for a level of service that they just do not need. While it is certainly nice to not need to consider your minute or text limit, is the extra peace of mind really worth $10 to $20 a month?
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Services and Features
While not actually an individual plan all on their own, services and features are little extras that can be added onto other plans to help bridge the gap between what you actually need and what bundles are offering. These are best combined with a basic plan to add an additional feature (like a number of texts or an amount of data) to a basic plan for a fixed rate each month instead of on a “pay per” plan. These are great for those individuals who find that they talk a little and text a lot, but never use their phones for data, and other similar situations.
Now that you know what kind of plans are available out there for individuals, you can find or build the perfect plan for your situation.
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