Unlike “regular” cell phones plans, in which you just get billed for how many minutes you use, cell-phone agreements generally require you to determine in advance how much you will use your phone.
Prepaid accounts allow you to pay in advance for a fixed number of minutes. These plans afford you a great
deal of flexibility because you can usually use the minutes whenever you want. Their major disadvantage is
that the per-minute rate is higher than the alternatives.
The most common cell phones service plans today involve the purchase of a “block” of minutes per month. What this means is that you will pay a flat fee for a set number of minutes. Putting aside extra charges like taxes for a minute, you can spend your entire block of minutes talking on your phone in a given month without paying more than your flat rate. You can use the following formula to decide how many minutes to block off for your plan:
1. Estimate the length of time you spend on an average phone call.
2. Multiply that by the number of calls you make and receive in one month.
3. Add another 50 minutes.