Cell Phone Minutes 101

Cell phone minutes can be another confusing part of a cellular calling plan. Let's look at the different types first and then understand how they work.

Peak Minutes
Peak minutes are calls made during the busiest time on the cellular network. Listed below are the ways some providers define peak minutes
6am to 7pm 6am to 9pm
6am to midnight

Nighttime or Off Peak Minutes
These are the exact opposite of peak minutes. They are times when the system is least in use.

Weekend Minutes
Some but not all carriers define weekend minutes separately from off peak or peak minutes. Some carriers start it at 7pm on Friday night, some 9pm, other midnight, and some not at all.

Anytime Minutes
Anytime minutes simply mean minutes that are used anytime peak, off peak, night or weekend.

Mobile to Mobile / In Plan Minutes
This is little complicated as some carriers have different definitions. Some will define these as calls made only to people who are on a family or shared plan or those you designate. Other carriers define this as calls made to anyone on the same calling service. If you plan to take advantage of this, be sure you know which you are getting before hand.

Rollover - Carryover Minutes
Some plans allow you to take any unused minutes you have at the end of every billing cycle and bank them for future usage.

One thing to understand is you will always use you anytime minutes first before anything else. For example let's say your plan has free nights and weekends and 60 anytime minutes. The first week of the month you make one 45 minute call during the free night time period. The second weeks you make a 30 minute call during the free weekend time period. The third week you make a 15 minute call during the peak period. The last week you make a 30 minute call during the weekend period. Are you going to incur any overage charges? Yes you will!

That 45 minute call you made the first week used up 45 of your anytime minutes, even though it was during the free night period. As stated you use the anytime minutes first before anything else. The second call was 30 minutes so you used the 15 of your remaining anytime minutes, but the call was on the weekend so it fell into the free weekend rate. The 15 minute call made during peak hours are billed at the overage minutes charge. This happened because you had already used all of your available anytime minutes. Overage minutes are the most expensive minutes you can use. The last call was free as well as it was made during the night and weekend minutes. Mobile to mobile or in-plan minutes are billed the exact same way.

Choosing the proper amount of minutes, and understanding how they are billed and calculated is one of the key factors to understand when you have a cellular phone and want to prevent getting a big bill with lots of overage minute charges.