When looking for an affordable deal on your cell phone bills, it is a good idea to consider family plans. A typical family cell phone plan will allow a subscriber to combine more than one lines in a single bill. In fact, one can combine up to five lines on a bill, with a rate plan shared by all the consumers in the plan. The plan comprises of a handset and a number allocated to each member in the plan. These plans typically include two lines, although a customer may request for additional lines by paying $5-$10 extra for each connection.
A family plan is an excellent way to reduce your monthly cell phone bills, and it has been observed that subscribers can easily save about 25% of their individual bills. However, before you subscribe to this plan, given below are a number of aspects you should take into consideration.
How to Get a Good Deal On Your Family Cell Phone Plan
Before you sign a contract with your network provider, it is good to know that you can have different phones for each line. For example, when a subscriber opts for two lines, he or she may buy an Android and a Blackberry, or other models depending on those being provided by the carrier. Some other tips to get a good deal and save money when choosing a family plan are given below.
- Determine the number of lines at the very beginning, before you sign the contract. Getting all the lines at this stage will help you save money in the long run. For instance, if you begin your contract with two lines and then decide to get a third one after a few months, your provider will not consider you as a new customer. This will lead to a loss of benefits, and you may end up paying about 25-30% higher than you would if you had taken the three lines together.
- Approval of the family plan is based on the credit score of the primary subsciber. So even if other members in the plan have a lower credit score, they can always get a phone. This would not be so if they were to apply individually.
- When members of a family plan call each other, airtime is spent two at a time. With some carriers, this may even happen when you use the free airtime for calls between plan members. It is best to read carefully through the fine print to know about the terms of the contact and airtime usage.
- You do not necessarily have to include your family members in the plan. This will work even for a business, or for anyone as long as an individual is responsible for the payment of bills.
If you wish to keep your existing provider even after your contract has expired, here is a tip to help you save money and still get a wonderful deal. Enroll for an entirely new contract with another member as the primary subscriber. Your provider will treat you as a new subscriber, and you can enjoy all the benefits. However, you will be assigned different phone numbers and a different pricing altogether, although you may still use your handsets.
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Robert is a technology blogger who loves to write on latest in technology. He recently reviewed assurance wireless service offering plans in US and found this website http://www.phoneservices.us/free-cell-phone-providers/assurance-wireless to be very usefull.