Cheapest Cell Phone Plans

It could be a challenge to sort it all out! We can help you find the best cell phone plan possible.

Average Cell Phone Needs

The average cell phone user needs about 500 anytime minutes. Bump it up accordingly if you have additional family members to add onto a plan. And keep in mind, it's generally easier to go up in minutes than down once you sign a contract.

So start out as low as you think you can go, but don't skimp or you may find yourself paying overage charges that first month! From there, make the necessary adjustments to your plan. Keep an eye on your usage as you go so that you can make sure you don’t unknowingly go over mid-month and find yourself with a hefty bill later!

The Cheapest Cell Phone Plans Around

For the average user, the best value will come from a contract -- not a prepaid plan -- especially since you can usually get unlimited night and weekend minutes and sometimes mobile-to-mobile minutes. Please remember that these prices are subject to change but reflect the offers at the time this article was written.

• MyCricket.com advertises plans as low as $30.00/month. That plan from Cricket gets you unlimited local calling and unlimited texts to the United States and Mexico. If you don't plan to call long distance, this could be the ideal plan for you. Talk as much as you'd like as long as it's within your area. By going up to their $40/month plan, you will add on the ability to call anywhere in the United States except for Alaska. You'll also have free text and picture messaging.

• Sprint has a few relatively inexpensive options. For example, if you never call out but you always receive calls, you might consider their Free Incoming Plans. For $49.99, you'll get 300 anytime minutes, which sounds expensive, but you get unlimited incoming calls. Sprint-Nextel's Basic Plan offers you 200 anytime minutes for $29.99/month. You can start your Night and Weekend minutes earlier for an additional $5.00-$10.00/month.

• Verizon's Basic Plan is only $39.99 for 450 Anytime minutes per month. That doesn't include any texting or other data sent/received though. Verizon's best values are their 900 and 1350 minute packages, which are $59.99 and $79.99, respectively.

Be Like Your Friends

No matter what your stance on conformity, you may want to check out the networks your friends and family are on. It's common for a cell phone company to give free mobile-to-mobile minutes to customers in the same network. You'll need fewer anytime minutes then, and pay less overall. This could be your best strategy for finding the cheapest cell phone plans.

From Cheap to Free

By shopping around during certain times of the year, you may find some freebies. Keep an eye out for things like, "Free activation" or "No activation fees." Often, when you sign up for a plan, you'll pay roughly $40, just to start up a single line. That's a one-time fee, but if you're getting a $40.00/month plan, that's like paying for an additional month of service. Who wants to do that?

Other freebies to look for include: Free trials on text messages or media packages, or even getting the second line free for a limited number of months.

Freebies can take a plan that's a good deal down to the cheapest cell phone plan that will fit your needs.

When Prepaid Is Best

For the average user, a prepaid phone can quickly become more expensive than its contract counterpart. For those who rarely use their cell phone, though, it can be a wise alternative to paying a monthly fee and then barely using any of the minutes.

To find your cheapest cell phone plans within the prepaid guidelines, you'll first need to decide how many minutes you use. If you use very few minutes, you may want to go with a plan like AT&T's Pay As You Go where you pay $.25/minute but no daily access fee.

Another option for those who use almost no minutes per month is Tracfone's 50 minutes for $9.99. If you don’t use all 50 in one month, you'll lose them, though.

To decide if prepaid is right for you, find out how many minutes you generally use in a month. Multiply that by the cost per minute.

Then pick up a brochure or check online for contracts that may fit your minute/text/media needs. Divide the monthly cost by the number of minutes you'll be using to determine the cost per minute there (sometimes the work's already been done for you).

Family Plans for Value

If you have multiple people in your family who will be using cell phones, the cheapest option is to put everyone on the same family cell phone plan. Generally, you'll have a lower activation fee -- sometimes up to one-third of the price for the first phone on the plan -- which gives you automatic savings up front. You will pay less per month for the second phone number too.

For example, a Cingular/AT&T family plan (two phones) with 1400 minutes is $89.99. Then you can add up to five lines for $9.99/each. All two to seven phones will share the same minutes. By comparison, two separate plans with 450 minutes each would cost nearly $80.00 ($39.99/phone).

Add a third separate line and you'll be up to almost $120.00 for 1350 minutes. It's $99.98 for three lines -- a savings of almost $20.00 for a fifty-minute difference. Plus nights and weekends are unlimited.

The Best Plan of All

The best thing you can do is break down a plan into the cost per minute. That will give you a basis. Then factor in what's included with the plan, like how many minutes will fall into the night and weekend or mobile-to-mobile categories. This will allow you to more accurately determine the best deals out there for your special needs.