Video:What's a Family Plan?
with Nick JaynesA family plan is often the cheapest and most logical cell phone plan for a group of people getting phones all at once. Here's a video on how a family plan works.See Transcript
Transcript:What's a Family Plan?
Hi, I'm Nick Jaynes and this is what a family plan is. I'll be using information from the Cell Phone Guide site on About.com.
How Family Plans Work
Let's say you have a family of four or five, and it's time to get everyone a cellphone. While this may sound expensive, signing up for a family plan will save you money every month on your wireless bill. The way a family plan works is simple. Everyone in the family must be using a phone from the same wireless carrier. With the plan, everyone will share minutes, make calls for free to one another, and adding additional lines will cost as little as $10 per month. Most plans also offer unlimited minutes at night and on weekends to anybody.
Verizon's Family Plans
To give you a better idea let's dive deeper into some of the family plans carried by wireless providers. Verizon Wireless is one of the most popular carriers today, and one of the reasons for that is their family plan. Verizon offers two family plans, one for just talking and another for talking and texting. Enrolling in the talk and text plan is more expensive but it includes a data plan for unlimited texting. You can have a total of 5 lines on either plan. Each additional line will increase the plan by about ten dollars. The cheapest monthly payment for each plan is 700 minutes for $69.99, and $99.99 for the talk and text plan. The most popular rate is 1400 minutes for $89.99, and $119.99 for the talk and text.
Keep Track of Minutes on Family Plan
So lets say, for example, you are a family of 4, and you want the 1400-minute talk and text plan. The 4 lines would cost $19.98 and the plan is $119.99, giving you a total bill of $139.97 plus tax. That's not bad at all considering how many lines you have. Everyone in your family will share the 1400 minutes, so be careful not to go over. Keeping track of the minutes is very important. It's easy to go over if someone in your family talks more than everyone else. AT&T offers a very similar plan, but they offer smaller amounts of minutes as well. Their cheapest plan is 550 minutes for $59.99. If your family doesn't talk that much, then this may be your best option. It is also only $9.99 per line for up to 5 lines. Unlike Verizon, At&T offers rollover minutes. If your family has extra-unused minutes at the end of the month, they roll over into the next month giving you more time to talk to the ones you love.
As you can see, enrolling in a family plan can be very beneficial to your family. It is a much cheaper option than enrolling every member of your family in separate plans or having them all have different providers. The goal of the plan is to save families money. The biggest thing to remember is to have your family keep track of their minutes since you all are sharing. Going over can be costly. Thanks for watching. If you'd like to learn more, visit us on the web at About.com.