You see the cell phone plan deals and minutes offered in advertisements. Whether it may be television, newspaper, magazines, or radio we all by now have seen the minutes offered with family plans and so forth.
Of the most popular plans, the 1,000 minute plan is the most consumed by Americans today. It may seem like a lot of minutes however the reality is these minutes can easily be drained and cost you more in the long run.
A very important part of the decision process should be based on how many people are going to be using the calling plan. More importantly, who is going to be using your calling minutes. Are the users teenagers? How many of your children will be using the plan? Do you or your spouse frequently make calls? How long is the duration of most of these cell phone calls?
To help you better understand what your usage will be in a realistic manner, using hours instead of minutes is vital. Converting your minutes to hours will help you better see exactly how much time each month you will need. We plan our days by the hour, why not our cell phone minutes?
In an Example:
Stan (Husband) 4 hours
Jenny (Wife) 3 Hours
Chelsea (17 Years Old) 5 Hours
Joe (15 years old) 4 Hours
FAMILY TOTAL USAGE: 16 Hours
Okay, so now you have put together the accumulated usage estimate. Simply dissect these hours into minutes. To do this is quite simple. All you have to do is multiply the hours by 60:
16 hours x 60 = 960 Cellular minutes
The end result will be the amount of minutes you expect to spend on your cell phone plan each month. So with this family using 16 hours a month we have come up with 960 minutes.
In this scenario the family is just right for a 1,000 minute plan and that is lucky being you can expect to pay as much as .30 cents per minute after you go over your amount. In any case you should always use some math and fair estimates of how much cellular calling you really will be making.
In all cases, the easiest way to pick a plan, especially for a single cell phone plan is to divide any plan minutes by 60. Dividing by 60 you are dividing the minutes giving you an answer that equals in hours which gives you a more realistic look at how much you usage you will be utilizing.
If you do not want to do the math, here are some quick conversions that can help you out quickly. 3,000 Min./50 Hr. 1,500 Min./25 Hr. 1,000 Min./16.5 Hr. 600 Min./10 Hr. 300 Min./5 Hr.
