|Insider Tips on How to Maximize Your Dollar

Tip #1:  I’m sure we all know by now that you do NOT want to exceed your amount of allowable minutes in your cell phone plan, as the per-minute charges are pretty astronomical and add up quickly!

If you’re ever curious about how many minutes you’ve used in your billing period, all you have to do is dial: #MIN# (or: #646#) and push the Send button; after a few seconds you’ll get a report of how many minutes you’ve used so far in the current billing period, as well as the date of when your billing period closes. [I’m with T-Mobile, so this information may not be exactly correct for other cell phone providers, although I’m sure they all have this service available. You may need to call Customer Service for your provider to get their exact instructions.]

If you’re running low on allowable plan minutes, call Customer Service (611) and speak to them about it.  There have been a few times when I’ve had special circumstances (family emergency, out of town trip, etc.) that resulted in a spike of my normal cell phone usage and I was given an additional 150 minutes so that I wouldn’t have to pay the per-minute charges for going beyond the 1,000 minutes a month in my plan.  I have since found out (because I was nosy and asked) that they can grant you these exceptions up to 3 times in a calendar year, so by all means, take advantage of it!

Tip #2:  For those of us with “old fashioned” cell phones that aren’t able to access the internet, here’s another money-saving tip: instead of calling directory assistance (411) when you need the phone number of a business—which costs upwards of $1.50 for each call—simply type the name of the business and the city it’s located in in a text message and send that message to Google (466453), after a few seconds you’ll get a text message back with that businesses address and phone number.  Most text messages cost approximately 15₵ if you don’t have it included in your plan.  (I pay an extra $5.00 a month for unlimited texting and have saved a bundle.)  If you don’t know how to send a text message, ask your kids, grandkids or any kid in the neighborhood for that matter–they’d probably be very happy to show you how!