ComparePlans.us

Shopping for a cell phone plan? Offers for free phones can be enticing, but the real costs are in the monthly rates plans. There are more than 10 national and regional wireless carriers who you can choose from. Rather than visit each website or do comparisons on your own, we aggregate all the plans, details, and fine print in one easy to use service. Click on the logos to the right to see all the rate plans, features, and services from each carrier. 

General aspects of cell phone service and costs are mentioned below:

Contracts: Most cell phone networks require 1 or 2 year contracts. With the average cell phone bill being over $60 per month, you're committing almost $1500 when you sign up. If you terminate a contract early, termination fees are usually around $200 or $300. There is also a $30 to $40 activation fee.

Taxes: There are tons of taxes on phone bills: state, federal, local, 911 service, etc. That add up to 20% to the bill in many areas. All cell phone plan rates are listed without taxes.

Night & Weekend Minutes: Almost every plan over $40/month includes unlimited night and weekend minutes because those are the times when there is least demand on the networks. Every company except Sprint starts their weeknights at 9 PM.

Mobile to Mobile Calling: A big deciding factor should be what network your friends and family are on. To get customer loyalty most of the carriers offer unlimited calling within their network.

Long Distance & Roaming: Most national carriers do not charge extra for long distance or roaming. However some of the regional carriers may still charge extra. If you buy a regional plan, it might be cheaper, but be careful when traveling.

Text Messages: The price of text messages can vary from 5 to 10 cents. Some people never use it, and some people use it all the time. If you send and receive more than a few texts per day it's worth buying a text bundle with 100, 500, or even unlimited messaging.

Overages: Using more minutes than in your plan can be very expensive...as much as 40 cents per minute. Since services are postpaid, you'll get a big surprise in your bill if you don't keep track of how many minutes you use.