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Mountain Wireless Phone Tips, to Get the
Most From Your Cellular Phone
MONEY SAVING TIP: Get Online Discounts on Phones & Service
Here
TIP #1: "DO THE MATH" ON YOUR PLAN
You don't always save on a "Family Plan".
Consider separate plans for each user to
get more minutes for each. Also, you might
be paying more for "unlimited"
features, like Data and Text, when an "a
la carte" or pay-per-use plan could
save you substantial fees. Sit down with
6 months of your bills (1 year is better)
and look at your charges compared to your
usage. Most carriers offer an analysis of
your usage on their "my account"
pages. Also, there may be better "bundles"
and features available now than when you
first signed up.
TIP #2: HOW TO HEAR YOUR PHONE CONVERSATION
IN A NOISY ROOM
Don't stick your finger in the opposite ear.
Instead, put your finger over the mouthpiece,
or use the phone's "Mute" button.
The noise is coming in through the phone,
not into your other ear. The mouthpiece is
normally a very small hole near the bottom
of the phone and is easy to cover. The "Mute"
button on some phones is not easy to press
"on" and "off" during
a conversation, so your finger may be the
easier method.
TIP #3: "TWO YEARS" DOESN'T ALWAYS
MEAN TWO YEARS
The cellular carriers have convinced us that
every contract must be for 2 years and we
have begrudgingly accepted it. However, even
if you signed a 2-Year agreement, you can
qualify for a new phone after as little as
1 year. Many carriers offer early upgrades
for users with higher-priced plans, sometimes
as little as $49, and some let you sneak
into a new phone after 20 or 22 months of
your 24-month obligation. They might not
tell you this unless you ask, and sometimes
the offer isn't extended to users with a
number of complaints, late payments or other
"problems" with their account.
Mark it on your calendar to start calling
half way through your contract and you just
might be surprised.
TIP #4: IMPORTANT NUMBERS TO PROGRAM INTO
YOUR PHONE
-Add an entry in your phone book, "ICE"
(In Case of Emergency) and a relative's phone
number. In case of an accident, it gives
you a better chance of your being identified
and getting help.
-Add the Local direct number to certain Public
Safety agencies, like *CSP, #77 and the like.
A 911 operator needs to determine the nature
of your call, but a direct call to the right
agency will expedite your request.
-Do NOT add "911" to your speed
dial list. This alone accounts for a huge
number of accidental calls to 911 operators.
Learn about Wireless 911.
-Do these things now...before you need them!
TIP #5: DON'T CHANGE RING TONES WHEN YOU'RE
EXPECTING AN IMPORTANT CALL
Some users change their ring tone as often
as their socks. But it takes a few incoming
calls for you to be able to identify your
own ring tone and you increase the chances
of missing an important call. You might be
casually changing a ring tone while waiting
in the doctor's office when they call you
in, and you accidentally choose the wrong
tone. You would not know that next call is
your phone and that million dollar deal.
A better time to change is after work or
on weekends when you can experiment with
your new ringer.
TIP #6: YOU DON'T NEED TO CHANGE PLANS TO
GET A NEW PHONE
In some cases it's true, but in most it is
not. When you buy a new phone from a carrier,
they would lead you to believe that it is
required, but it's not necessarily so. Customer
Service and store employees are trained to
tell you otherwise, but usually retreat when
you insist. You may need to press the issue.
It is, however, normal to require a 1- or 2-year
renewal of your contract to get a good price
on a certain phone, but you can often avoid
that if you pay a higher price for the phone.
TIP #7: DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE!
Most of us have accepted that fact the cell
phones can be used safely while driving,
but there are exceptions. First, "texting"
while driving is nearly suicidal. Your eyes
are off the road for much too long of a period
while you search for certain letters on the
phone. Almost as dangerous is the manual
entry of phone numbers. You are just not
aware of how much time you are not looking
where you're going or what you're about to
hit. Spend the time to load all your called
numbers into your phone book. Statistically,
entering info on your phone while driving
is worse than driving drunk. Pull over and
stay alive. Never Text and Drive!
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TIP #8: FIVE WAYS TO GET OUT OF YOUR CELLULAR CONTRACT
- When they change the rules. Pay attention to your carrier's Terms of
Service. From time to time they will change
rates and fees that affect every customer.
That is considered a change that "materially
affects" your cellular account and would
result in significant changes or charges
in your account. Example, changing a la cart
Text Messaging fees. You can call and indicate
your disapproval of this change and ask to
terminate your account without an Early Termination
Fee (ETF). They may argue with you and force
you to speak to a superior, but it has been
a fairly reliable way out.
-
Trade your cellular account with another
person. You can do it yourself by contacting the
carrier and asking them to execute a 'change
of responsibility'. You and the tradee need
to be nearby to give your ID or Social Security
Number. Or you can use the services of a
cellular trading web site. It's also a good site to pick up a plan
that fits your usage better and for a shorter
contract that you would get signing up new.
- Smile and walk away. Nicely tell your carrier you can't use
the phone any longer. You can choose to tell
a story or the truth and they will probably
charge you an Early Termination Fee. Expect
to pay all your normal usage changes up to
the last day of service, but go ahead and
ignore the ETF. Yes, they threaten you with
collections and putting the action on your
credit report, but in these litigious times,
they do that with great hesitation. I have
not read in a forum that someone has actually
had this appear on their credit report, but
if it does, you can make a note in your report
that you had a problem with your phone and
had to cancel. If your report is otherwise
clean, it should be ignored...even credit
underwriters have trouble with their phone
at some time.
- Pay the fee. If you feel you're walking on thin ice
by ignoring the Early Termination Fee, go
ahead and pay it. It could be worth the up
to $200 charge to get rid of your old carrier.
However, before you blow them off, ask if
their ETF is "pro-rated". It is
for several carriers, and that means for
every month you stick with them, the fee
is smaller. Waiting another month may save
you several dollars, and knowing that exact
date at least gives you a slight advantage.
It may be less than you think.
- Take Legal Action. If you're serious about not paying the fee,
there are many attorneys who will take on
the case for you. You may see diminishing
returns as just speaking to a lawyer about your case may cost more
than the ETF. But if your objective is more
than just paying the the ETF, some attorneys actually solicit this kind of business.
You might be added to a 'class action' suit
at no charge to you.
TIP #9: ARE YOU 'SPECIAL', OR OVER 65?
Many wireless carriers have "special"
programs for people with certain circumstances.
Some offer unique plans for 65 years and
older, kids phones with calling limits, inexpensive
"lifeline" plans as low as $1 for
people on government-supported income, employees
of certain companies and government agencies,
residents who have no wireline service available,
school students, and more. Many Customer
Service agents don't know about these and
you need to ask to look for them. Some of
these offers are more common among smaller
carriers.
TIP #10: HATE YOUR CARRIER BUT LOVE THEIR
NETWORK?
Many wireless carriers 'rent' their network
to other companies, and those companies,
called "MVNO's" (Mobile Virtual Network Operator),
may be much easier to deal with. An example
is that Qwest Wireless uses both the Sprint network and it's associated roaming partners.
Qwest sells their own phones and provides
their own customer service. They may even
offer plans that could fit your calling patterns
better, or can save you money by "bundling"
your wireless service with other Qwest features.
Virgin Mobile is another Sprint MVNO, and
they do not offer coverage off the Sprint
network. There are several others, mostly
prepaid, and we list the best of them on
our MVNO Page.
TIP #11: NEED MORE MINUTES? JUST ASK!
One of the most common self-inflicted wounds
is running out of minutes before we run out
of month. In many cases the carriers will
be able to spot you a few minutes to help
you get through the tough times. As with
any call to customer Service, you might need
to press the issue. Don't use additional
"force", just use multiple pleas.
You might use the terms, "what can I
do?" instead of "what can you do?" The agent needs to look at your
records to see if you've been naughty or
nice. Don't expect to be given anything if
you're always asking. Quite often the request
for extra minutes for this month goes down a little easier when you
ask for a more expensive plan for next month.
Some carriers will change your plan retroactively, and some will now do it without a contract
extension. Often you can change back if your
circumstances change again.
TIP #12: DON'T CARRY 2 PHONES!
Some of us now have one wireless phone for
Personal use, and another for Work. Use Call
Forwarding from one to the other to keep
from carrying both all day. Even better,
use a form of "Conditional" Call
Forwarding and if you don't answer the first
phone within a few rings it Forwards to the
second, without needing to be programmed
each time you switch phones. And you could
Forward the second phone to your home or
office voice mail, or yet another cell phone's
voice mail. Some prepaid phones can be had
for less than $50 a year just to use their voice mail.
TIP #13: LEARN HOW TO USE YOUR PHONE WHEN
"ROAMING"
You're on vacation and want to check your
voice mail, but it won't work. If you are
roaming outside your network's service area
you may need to call your own number, instead.
Codes like "*VM" may not work while
roaming. If you're out of the country, a
certain dialing sequence is required. GSM
phones may decipher the sequence for you
by adding a "+" before the number,
but most likely, your phone book entries
won't work without adding the proper prefix.
Check your carrier's web site or customer
service for instructions on what to do if
you might travel off their network.
TIP #14: GET A MORE "BUSINESSLIKE"
PHONE NUMBER FOR YOUR CELLULAR PHONE
When you place an ad in the newspaper, Yellow
Pages or your business card, often customers
know that's a cell phone number, making your
business look a little less 'legitimate.'
With "Number Portability" you can
fix that, although it's not free.
Contact your local wireline phone company
and order a real phone line. You can "install"
it wherever you'd like, some phone companies
will assign you a "virtual" phone
number that rings another. You won't have
many choices of a number, but choose one
with an "old" exchange people would
recognize, or one that you recognize as "businesslike". Then,
contact your cellular provider to "port"
your number from wireline to wireless. You
may need to establish a new wireless account,
but the wireless carrier will help you through
that. This action will cancel the wireline
for you. Don't do it yourself, but check
with the wireline later to make sure it terminated
properly. There are more tips for number portability here. Of, course, you could keep the new wireline
number and just forward the number to your
cell phone. This can be done with both actual
and virtual phone numbers.
You may need to pay for a certain amount
of wireline service, installation charges,
and go through the headache choosing a long
distance carrier, but in the end, you'll
look like you're in business at an 'established'
location.
TIP #15: MAKE YOUR PHONE ROAM (or NOT Roam) TO ACCESS
A STRONGER SIGNAL
There are different menu selections in some
phones that will help you change which network
the phone accesses. Some of these selections
are called "Mode" or "Network",
and they can be switched to "Cell Only",
"PCS Only," "Roam Only",
or similar, which may give you a different
network. There is also a "NAM"
or "Line" choice that will allow
you to program a different "Home"
network into the second, or main, "NAM"
(Number Address Module). You would change
the System ID (SID) for your own network
to the roaming network. We have a page with
a List of SID's. Hints on how to perform these changes can
be found by conducting an internet search.
TIP #16: GET A BETTER CARRIER BY SIGNING UP AT WORK
Some of us work in the city, but live far
out of town, and away from the Home coverage
of the 'better' carriers. Just sign up for
the better service in the city, and have
the bill sent to work. This is very common
when your company pays for cell service.
Your employer also may have a discount deal
with certain carriers. See "Are You Special", above.
TIP #17: CAN'T GET THE PLAN OR CARRIER YOU WANT IN
YOUR AREA? SIGN UP WITH A DIFFERENT ADDRESS
Some carriers forbid this, but most don't
care. Sign up with an address of a friend
or relative in the area you'd like. Most
carriers will allow you to go "paperless"
and pay online or on the phone, and you won't
have a bill going to the friend's address.
The downside is that you most likely won't
get a phone number local to your 'real' home.
If that's important, you can get an '800'
number. Expect to explain if most of your
calls are off the carrier's network. You
could even get bumped off as a customer.
TIP #18: GET BETTER IN-BUILDING COVERAGE?
There is disagreement: 800 MHz vs. 1900 MHz.
The answer is: whoever has the closer cell
site. 1900 MHz can actually penetrate a building
better, but only if the signal arriving at
the building is stronger than 800 MHz signals.
Terrain and site power can negatively affect
a 1900 MHz signal more easily, so the signal
that arrives at the building is usually weaker,
yielding a weaker signal inside. Keep this
in mind when choosing a carrier.
TIP #19: GET RID OF THE SECOND LINE INTO YOUR HOME
Instead, get Call Forwarding-Busy for your
main line, which will forward calls made
to your home phone number to your cell phone
when the home line is tied up with teenagers
or the computer (you're still using dial-up?).
If you use the second line for faxes, get
efax instead, or use a "Custom Ringing"
feature on your home line from your wireline
company that the fax machine can recognize
and answer automatically.
TIP #20: GET A PROMOTIONAL PLAN AND A NEW PHONE AT
THE SAME TIME
Combine signing a new contract for a promotional
plan with getting a new phone at a promotional
price. Almost all carriers let you do both
for the same contract obligation, although
changing the plan usually only obligates
you to one additional year.
Or head to the nearest cellular store:
