Understanding Cell Phone Minutes

Understanding how your cellular minutes work is one of the most confusing and least understood aspects of any wireless communications plan. It's not surprising that this lack of understanding is what leads to shockingly high phone bill surprises. So if you want to prevent getting one it's important to have a basic understanding of how they work.

You basic cell phone plans come with a monthly allotment of anytime minutes, and usually free or night and/or weekend minutes. When you make a call the thing to understand is the phone company is going to use the most expensive minutes first. For example let's say your plan has 200 minutes per month. During the first week of the month all of your calls are made during the day using what are known as peak minutes. You make 120 minutes worth of calls. For the remainder of the month you make 200 minutes worth of calls but they are all at night during the time when your carrier offers free calling. You've used 320 minutes worth of calling time for the month. However to your wireless provider you used 200 of your anytime minutes, and they gave you 120 minutes of free night time calling. Many people make the assumption they only used 120 minutes of calling time and have 80 minutes left unused, which is incorrect. This incorrect assumption can compound itself if the customers has a rollover plan and assumes 80 minutes are