Cell Phone Savings

Here are some tips to save money on your cell phone bill:

Pre-Paid Plans. If you don't talk a lot, consider switching to a pre-paid cell phone plan.

I recently switched to a T-Mobile pre-paid plan. I pay 10 cents a minute and my minutes never expire (as long as I refill every year.) The nice thing is that I don't have to pay a bunch of taxes and fees. With my old phone, my plan was $39.99 a month, but my total bill with taxes was over $55!

Doing the math, I save money with my new plan as long as I don't talk more than 550 minutes a month. Plus, I don't have to sign a heinous contract.

Here are some companies that offer decent pre-paid plans: T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Net10.

Use Skype to Reduce Cellphone Charges. Like many people nowadays, I don't have a landline. But talking on a cellphone can get expensive. To save my minutes, I use Skype when I'm at my computer.

Skype turns your computer into a phone. You can call other Skype users for free, and other phones for very cheap. All you need is an internet connection and a headset.

Traditional Plans. Here are some pretty obvious tips for saving on traditional cell phones:

• If you send a lot of text messages, make sure your plan includes them. This is the biggest way people get burned.

• Don't buy ring tones, joke of the day, or other add-ons.

• Get the cheapest plan, and save your long conversations for nights and weekends.

Teenagers! If you decide to let your teenager have a cellphone, don't get burned. Teenagers like to text a lot, and it could cost you several hundred dollars a month. Give your teen a pre-paid phone with a fixed monthly limit.

Don't Get Scammed. If you take an online quiz, never give them your cell phone number! You could be signing up for an expensive monthly subscription.