If you pull together a group of multiple cell phone users and put them all on family cell phone plans, you may find you’ve done yourself a favor when you get your phone bill. The number on you bill will seem big - but do the math. Think of it as buying plans in bulk.



The idea behind family plans is simple:

These plans are not going to cost less than one individual plan, so don’t look for that. However, if you put 3 or more of your family and friends on to one family plan, the total cost, divided by each phone, will cost less than if each of the 3 individual users were paying for their own plans.

If you have a family of four, for example, and your total bill equals $200.00. That’s $50.00 per person. Individual plans average around $60.00 or more, and for four people, that about a total of $240.00. Many people prefer to merge their bills this way.

So, what’s the best family plan?

The best family phone plans are the ones that offer you the most usage of the most common cell phone perks, at the lowest price. You will need to compare family plans to see which ones offer more of what your group will need.

You share from a pool of minutes, data, web access and messaging with these plans. You won’t find family cell phone plans that give you everything you want for one low price, so you have to do a little shopping around.

How do family plans work?

As a member of these plans, you share the minutes, data usage and messaging - basically everything. Plans where members share everything will force the users to budget minutes.

If, say, you have a chatty member in your group who pays no attention to the rules, budgeting your pool of data can turn into a hassle. Thus, unlimited minutes is a desirable feature, as multiple users have high chances of exceeding a preset number of minutes every month.

Other options include:

* Rollover minutes, where any unused minutes will add on to the following month’s minute total.
* Video calling is offered in some family cell phone plans.
* Unlimited text messaging.
* Free or heavily discounted new cell phones when you enroll.

Do I get to call members of my family plan whenever I want?

Usually phone calls to any of the cell phones in the family plan are free any time of day or night. In some cases, users that are not in your plan, but share the same provider can make and receive calls from you without charges.

If by chance your family or group of phone plan members don’t talk that much, you can get cheap family phone plans that let you do the same types of things. Be sure this is what you want, though, because these cheaper plans have more limits.

FYI: You don’t necessarily have to be a family, nor do you have to live under the same roof to join a family plan.

A word of caution:

Family cell phone plans that set limits on common features like texting and phone minutes need to be monitored carefully. Overage charges can double or triple your bill quickly if they are not checked regularly. This means you will have to ration whatever your plan has limits on - or pay pretty high overage charges.

The majority of phone users who use their cell phones casually, probably want texting, unlimited minutes, and data usage. So when you are shopping for your own family cell phone plans, these are going to be your top three must-haves.