Cell phones have become a big part of our lives and it seems like everyone has one. They enable us to stay contact with our friends and family members, as well as call for help if there’s an emergency while on the road. There are 6 main providers of cell phone service. They are Alltel, Verizon, Cricket, Cingular, T-Mobile and US Cellular. With so many providers competing for your business, it can be very difficult to choose the one that’s best for you. Consider the different types of plans that these companies offer to help make the choice easier.
Package Plans
The first thing to consider when choosing your plan is what you will primarily use the cell phone for. If you are going to use it for your main source of communication, then it’s best to choose a package plan. These plans include not only daytime minutes but offer other features, such as no roaming charges, free long distance and free nights and weekend minutes. Make sure to ask what time the free night minutes begin, since they vary from company to company. Naturally, you will want the one that starts the earliest.
Anytime Minutes Plans
Packages that offer just anytime minutes might be more cost effective, if you will be using your house phone when returning home at night and during the weekends. These plans offer a set price for the amount of minutes that you choose. Determine how often you think you will use this phone, so that you can choose the right amount of minutes on the plan. This is also good for families, since many providers will allow you to share your minutes with other family members. This way you won’t have to have multiple phone accounts.
Prepaid Cell Phones
Another option is prepaid cell phones. These phones are good to give to children. Many parents give cell phones to their children, so that they check up on them. It also gives the child the ability to call for help should an emergency arise. The problem is that children may use the phone to call their friends and go over the minutes on the calling plan. This can result in large phone bills. By giving a child a prepaid cell phone, they are limited in the number of calls they can make and there’s no worry about breaking the bank when the bill arrives.
As you make your plan comparisons with the providers, ask about what specials they are offering. The competition between them is fierce and many run special promotions where you can get a free or low cost phone and a good plan at an excellent price. Also, if you are going to be traveling to another part of the country, make sure that there is a signal available there.
By knowing the type of plan that you need and doing your research, you will be better able to pick the plan that’s right for you.
Gregg Hall
http://www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles/how-to-pick-the-best-cell-phone-plan-without-pulling-your-hair-out-51413.html
How does my novel sound?
An extract from chapter 4. They’re Juniors in high school by the way. 10 Points Awarded to the Best Answer. Tell Me what you think. Tell me why you like it or if you hate it (though, I wish you wouldn’t) just kidding.
“You’re Julie, right?” I turned to see Josh; his hair in disarray.
Or maybe he could just approach me. I sighed. “What do you want?” he reached into his pocket and pulled out the white note my mom had given him. He grinned and handed it to me. I took it quickly and unfolded it.
“Oh my God.” I muttered while staring at the black numbers in front of me.
“Your mom slipped me your number,” I looked up, “and she left me a big tip if I called you. She said that you suffer from severe withdrawal and she figured that if I called you then it could make everything better?”
“This is wrong on so many levels,” I paused and examined the note. “you don’t have my number saved in your phone, do you?” he gave a sly grin and arched his eyebrow. He reached into his pocket and handed me his cell phone.
“Go ahead check for yourself but I promise you I did not put your number in.”
I held my hand out and lingered it in the air. What was I doing? This was exactly what he wanted they always talked about these things in Seventeen magazine. I retracted my hand back and folded my arms across my chest. “What’s your problem?”
He knitted his eyebrows together, “Whoa, where did this come from? I was just trying to prove to you that I didn’t save your cell phone number and you’re asking me what’s my problem? Are you bi-polar or something?”
“Why did you spit in my food? I didn’t do anything to you.”
He laughed. “Oh, so telling me to flip burgers and get paid my minimum wage wasn’t anything?”
“I wasn’t the person being rude first and since I’m obviously the mature one I’ll start by apologizing for my outburst. I’m sorry.” I stood there and I could feel the steam rising.
“I accept your apology.” Josh smiled and I waited for my apology but after several minutes of silence it never came.
“Well,” I urged.
“Well, what?” he asked while leaning against the wall.
Huffing I stepped closer to him. “This is the part where you apologize for being so rude,” he was silent. “Okay, let me help you here. Sorry, Julie for being etcetera, etcetera. . .”
“I don’t really see exactly why I have to apologize. I was simply quoting what the boss told me, “you don’t get paid for creating conversations” all I care about is the money. Even if it is minimum wage.”
Unbelievable.
He actually thinks he did absolutely nothing wrong? Has he lost his mind? I couldn’t care less what his boss told him. Being rude is rude. I wanted my apology and I wasn’t going to leave him alone without getting one. Fine Rebel Without A Cause. You want to play hardball? I’ll size you up to that challenge.
I smiled back, “You know what? Take all the time you need; you don’t have to apologize to me now hell, it can be four months from now. So, I’ll just leave you to your meaningless little life and walk away.” I turned my back to him and began walking down the hall but stopped. I forgot one more thing. Turning around I walked up to him and stood there then stuck my tongue out. Grinning I turned on my heel and walked proudly down the hall. So, what if I had retorted to being immature. After all the mission was set in stone. I knew exactly what I did leaving him with the last words coming from yours truly, he’s going to be running up to me apologizing and begging on his knees before I’m done with him. I laughed to myself. I felt so evil because this whole plan could work.
My mind was still buzzing with my ideas for Josh when Andrea interrupted my thoughts.
“Okay, this definitely has a swamp taste to it,” she chewed slowly. “but then again it does taste like the woods. . .”
“Maybe it’s both.” I said while getting out a container of edible food.
Andrea reached and picked out an apple from my brown bag. “What are you doing this weekend?” I looked up at her. Andrea and I had become fast friends. I went from having two friends on Facebook to three. . .big difference. Even after meeting her yesterday she had this whole big event planned this weekend and it didn’t involve coming over her house and watching COPS.
I took a bite out of my PB&J sandwich, a timeless over the counter snack. “I thought you had it planned out.”
“I do it’s just. . . I don’t want to push you into doing something that normally you wouldn’t do, you know?”
“Depends,” I looked up at her. “what exactly is it that you want to do?”
She took a bite out of the apple and grinned. “Nothing special, just going to the mall that’s all. . .”
“Hmmm, sounds like you want to add more to that sentence.”
She widened her eyes, “That’s it. Honestly,” she paused and took another bite of the apple. “Okay, so if we were going out shopping for clothes, hypothetically speaking would you possibly consider go
She widened her eyes, “That’s it. Honestly,” she paused and took another bite of the apple. “Okay, so if we were going out shopping for clothes, hypothetically speaking would you possibly consider going to one of those underground parties with me?”
“Andrea,” I cried.
“Hypothetically speaking,” she grinned. I whimpered and laid my head down on the table. “O c’mon, Julie. You need to get out of your house and do something exciting,” I held my head and raised one finger in the air. “something that doesn’t involve watching COPS.”
I groaned. “I don’t think I’d be up to it. All they do is get drunk and stumble around the streets all night, not exactly the atmosphere I want to be surrounded by.”
“Julie, wake up and smell the morning muck,” she said while stabbing her fork in the mystery food. “teenagers are supposed to get drunk and stumble around. It’s apart of nature. And who are we to disrupt nature from running it’s course? Your teenage years are supposed to be the best
Your teenage years are supposed to be the best years of your life. Why resist something you haven’t tried before?” For some reason Andrea had always mixed truth in with insanity and like always she was right.
I like to bad it had to end
do please write more I really liked it. And I’m assuming the readers already have a pretty good description of Josh and Andrea so I think it’s really good they would be characters I would fall in love with especially Josh lol rebel, smart ass, me likey 
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Well, it seems gripping and promising on the one hand, but also somewhat confusing and childish on the other…
I’d LOVE to help you edit and stuff…
I guess you’ve already set up the whole book in the first couple chapters, but I think you should work on making it more coherent, like proper grammar and syntax. It sounds unimportant, but it’s crucial.
The sticking out the tongue thing was kind of unnecessary, leave out the unnecessary stuff – you rambled on about the apology for sooo long in the first part (which was kind of boring)..
Expand on the good parts, the conflict between Andrea and Josh – characterize them both a bit more – and work on the relationships and thought processes of the characters, rather than repeating the useless details and making your plot boring and repetitive.
The ideas are good! I wish you’d include the beginning chapters of your novel, too
Any plans on getting published?
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Not bad at all! I like the content and the characters seem interesting, so you do have a good start. Right now it needs a little editing down to make it tighter and a few places seemed a little off. Right now your grammar needs some work.
It’s a little choppy right now and there’s a little too much explaining in the dialogue. I’m not sure what ‘Or maybe he could just approach me.’ means because I got the feeling he was already there. No need to say the numbers are black. Also edit out ‘it lingered in the air.’ ‘I held out my hand’ is enough, that seems a little odd.
The apologizing is too long, like another user said. Edit it down, especially her thoughts on how rude he is. It’s too wordy right now.
Oh I read the rest yesterday. Well I see you didn’t change much, so I’ll stop here. Good luck!
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