What is a family or shared plan?

Family and shared cell phone plans explained

Shared plan (often called a family plan) options are a fairly recent and wonderful option offered by many wireless carriers. They are useful because they might save you a great deal of money while providing more contact with your family, friends, work, or others not even members of your plan.

A shared plan typically consists of from two to five cell phones. The program offers you one amount of minutes per month for all phones.

You can distribute these minutes in any combination you wish before any user is charged for minutes over the total limit. The first phone in a family plan pays a monthly charge for a number of minutes. The plan then allows adding multiple numbers at low monthly fees, typically around $10 each.

For example, you get a plan that offers 1,000 minutes per month for a fixed charge. You add three more cell phones to your shared plan. You use 700 minutes yourself, and the other three use 100 minutes each. You should have no airtime minute charges at all.

An equally important feature often available involves minutes when one family plan member talks to another. These minutes may not be counted at all when you talk to other plan members. You can then use your entire monthly allotment of minutes to speak with the rest of the planet, thereby maximizing the minutes in your shared plan.