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Deciphering Plans

Now you're ready to tackle the heart of the buying decision: estimating your cell phone budget and making sense of the plans. Your options include national, regional, family, and prepaid plans. With a regional plan, you'll get more monthly minutes than you will with a similarly priced national plan. For example, the same $50 buys you 600 "anytime" minutes per month with AT&T's GSM America National plan, or 800 monthly minutes with its GSM America Local plan.

If you seldom leave your area, pick a regional plan; it offers more minutes for the money. If you travel even a few times a year, go with a national plan because roaming charges with local plans add up quickly at 49 to 79 cents a minute, depending on the carrier and the plan.

As for the monthly minutes, how big a bucket do you need? Start scanning the plans, and you'll see skimpy offers starting at 45 minutes and huge plans that offer thousands of minutes. U.S. cell phone users now average 615 minutes a month, says Roger Entner, director of wireless at research firm Yankee Group. Many users will stay under the 600-minute limit, but "signing up for a 600-minute plan is the safe play," Entner says. The cost of a 600-minute plan from one of the major carriers ranges between $40 and $60 monthly (see the chart).

After you sign up for the plan and have used it for a couple of weeks, check the number of minutes you've actually used and adjust your monthly allotment as necessary. Most carriers let you change this part of the plan during the first few weeks without extending your contract. If you go beyond the allotted minutes, each extra minute typically costs 40 to 45 cents.

Most companies do not allow you to roll over your unused minutes to the next month. But Cingular is an exception: The company transfers any unused minutes to the following cycle. The minutes expire after 12 months, however; and night, weekend, and in-network, mobile-to-mobile minutes don't roll over.

If your minutes vary from month to month, consider Sprint's Fair and Flexible plan. The amount you pay for this plan reflects the actual number of minutes you used that month, and the plan adjusts without penalties. For example, use between 0 and 300 minutes and pay $35; use between 301 and 325 minutes, and pay $38, and so forth. Sprint's Web site makes it easy to see what you'll have to pay for each increment of minutes.

If you call the same person or a group of people on the same network, save money by getting a plan with unlimited in-network calling and/or a family plan. For example, Verizon's America's Choice Family Share plan lets you call anyone on Verizon Wireless's network without limit for $40 or more a month (depending on your area) for the first phone and $20 for the second handset; you also get 500 extra minutes to call any number. Such deals are so cost-effective that you may stop using your landline to call friends and relatives. In fact, according to a Yankee Group report, cell phone users on average place 43 percent of their long-distance calls on a mobile phone.

If you prefer to be contract-free, or if you're a parent and want to keep your kids' cell phone usage in check, choose a prepaid service. Prepaid phones work like gift cards, providing a certain allotment of minutes. For example, T-Mobile's EasySpeak starter kit comes with a basic cell phone, a charger, and 60 voice minutes for $50. Minute refills come in $10 to $100 increments: $10 for 30 minutes; $25 for 100 minutes, and so on. You buy refills via the phone or at T-Mobile stores and chains such as 7-Eleven and Target. One catch with prepaid services: The minutes expire after 90 days (or after 30 days for the $10 or cheaper refills) unless you refill before expiration, in which case the minutes roll over. (Go to "Dialed In" for more on prepaid plans.)

In addition to browsing the carriers' sites, compare rates and phones at TeleBright or at MyRatePlan.com. At each site, you simply enter your location and choose the plan or phone features that you desire. The site returns a list of the options that are available in your area.