About "Free" Cell Phone Long Distance
Most cell phone plans now include free long distance from the home calling area to the
rest of the United States. As a result, more people than ever are exclusively using
their cell phones to make long distance calls.
What if doing that was actually wasting money?
Okay, now you probably think we're crazy: How can free long distance be more
expensive than paying for long distance? Believe it or not, this can occur in two scenarios:
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Scenario 1: Your long distance calls cause you to exceed your plan minutes,
resulting in overage charges.
Let's say you have a $39.99 plan with 500 anytime minutes and a $0.40 charge for additional
minutes. Let's say you talk 560 minutes, of which 100 are for long distance calls that
you would have made from your home phone except for the fact that they are 'free' with
your cell service:
| |
Cell Phone
Only |
Cell Phone +
Home LD |
| Cell Calling Plan |
$39.99 |
$39.99 |
| Overage @ $0.40 |
$24.00 |
---- |
| Home LD |
---- |
$2.75 |
| Total |
$63.75 |
$42.74 |
Your free long distance cost you $21.24, 49.7% more than you needed to spend!
Can I Benefit? Check your cell phone bill. If you don't exceed your plan minutes,
you are okay (although check Scenario 2). If you are paying for extra minutes, compare
the number of extra minutes with the total minutes you used for long distance calls that
you could have made from your home phone. If the long distance minutes are higher than
the extra minutes, you are probably wasting money.
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Scenario 2: You don't exceed your plan minutes, but your long distance calling
causes you to buy a more expensive rate plan than you really need.
Let's say you have a $59.99 plan with 800 anytime minutes, and you use 775 minutes, of
which 500 are for long distance calls that you would have made from your home phone
except for the fact that they are 'free' with your cell service. Let's assume that
there is a $39.99 plan with 400 minutes:
| |
Cell Phone
Only |
Cell Phone +
Home LD |
| Cell Calling Plan |
$59.99 |
$39.99 |
| Overage @ $0.40 |
---- |
---- |
| Home LD |
---- |
$13.75 |
| Total |
$59.99 |
$53.74 |
Your free long distance cost you $6.25, 11.6% more than you needed to spend!
Can I Benefit? This situation is less likely to occur than Scenario 1, and
usually won't be as big of a cost even where it does. It is also kind of hard to
calculate. Look at your cell phone bill. If you exceed your plan minutes, check
Scenario 1. If you don't, check how many minutes you used for long distance calls
that you could have made from your home phone. If you take that number and subtract
it from the total anytime minutes you actually used, and the result is less than the
minutes available in a lower-priced rate plan, you might be wasting money.
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Note: In evaluating your own situation, ignore long distance calling that is done
with free night & weekend minutes. The scenarios assume that alternate cell plans only
differ in the monthly cost and the anytime minutes. If they are not (e.g., the lower
priced plan doesn't have free nights & weekends), then your benefit may be significantly
less. Long distance is calculated at 2.75¢ per minute using ECG long distance,
which MyRatePlan recommends as an excellent no-fee alternative to higher priced services.
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