How much will my cell phone bill be?

July 5, 2006 10:20 AM

Is there an online calculator to determine how much my cell phone bill will be?

I'm on Verizon Wireless, and I'm talking and txt-ing a lot more now that most of my friends are long distance.

Is there a way to determine, quickly and easily, how much my bill will be next month? Online calculator would be nice, but I can do the math if shown how the billing works.

Example: $39.99 plan gives me 400 minutes and 1000 IN minutes.
If I were to talk more than 1000 minutes IN, what happens to the 400? What if I go over 1400 minutes total?

Not to mention that some minutes are "Peak" and some aren't.

Any suggestions?

posted by jacobw to work & money (8 comments total)

Why don't you call customer service and ask them, since they're really the only ones that can positively tell you their terms and conditions?
posted by kcm at 10:23 AM on July 5, 2006

ditto kcm
posted by edgeways at 10:28 AM on July 5, 2006

You should definitely call customer service, but as a Verizon customer I can tell you this much:

1. The 400 and 1000 minutes are different buckets. They're not ever combined - which means you will be hit with per minute charges if you go over the 400, and again if you're over the 1000. So if you're talking a lot you'd want to be careful. (verizon has lots of plans with unlimited IN, which is well worth it if lots of your friends/family are Verizon customers

2. Peak minutes with Verizon are 6AM-9PM M-F, local to the time zone you are calling from. Any minutes used outside these hours do not count against either your IN or non IN bucket. (read: weekends are *always* free minutes)

But yeah, call Verizon if you want a more exact accounting - they can also use your billing history to suggest the best plan for your usage pattern.
posted by pdb at 10:33 AM on July 5, 2006

This isn't exactly what you are looking for I think but perhaps useful. It's an extension to firefox that shows your current usage in the status bar.

http://verizon-minutes-used.blogspot.com/
posted by about_time at 10:55 AM on July 5, 2006

Re-negotiate your contract. Verizon now offers unlimited IN calling. For me it was as simple as asking for the new plan in place of the $10/extra/month for IN. They even retroactively knocked two months off. $20 credit. Took a few minutes.
posted by mmdei at 11:48 AM on July 5, 2006

PDB: regarding #2, the peak time is based on your areacode/billing zip, not the location of the call. Which can come in quiet handy if you have a westcoast number and are spending..... some years on the east coast =)

Not so handy in reverse.
posted by mmdei at 11:50 AM on July 5, 2006

But, more importantly, call Verizon and get a better plan. I pay $39.99 a month for the 450 plus unlimited IN calls with the free Nights & Weekends deal.
posted by FlamingBore at 11:57 AM on July 5, 2006

BTW: There is an E in the word Text. *twitches at Verizon marketing*
posted by jeversol at 12:02 PM on July 5, 2006