The Art of Having a Family Phone Plan With Your Friends

Before I finalized my decision to add an iPhone to my mom’s family plan, I did a little research to find out how I could afford this luxurious gadget without having to sell blood. After surveying my friends with iPhones, I found that one friend started a family plan with his other friends just so they could all have what they wanted while saving a good amount of money. Although I didn’t end up starting a family phone with my friends, I did give it serious consideration.

The whole purpose of a family plan with friends is to save money. Great perks about it is that:

• You can get the hottest new phone you’ve been wanting for a while. Your parents have a family plan already but you want that trendy iPhone or sexy Blackberry Storm that their phone carrier does not have. So, find a couple of friends who want the same thing and get it.
• Minutes won’t be wasted on calling these friends who you talk to the most since they are now in your phone plan (assuming this is a feature of your carrier). Many of us use our cell phone minutes on our friends more than our family. With a family plan where the members are your friends, you will free up the minutes to use on other people.

Using the highly popular iPhone plans with AT&T, let’s see how you and your friends can stay connected in style and save money doing it:

An individual plan: 450 Minutes + iPhone data plan + 200 text messages + taxes and fees = around $83
A family plan (4 people): 1400 Minutes + (4) iPhone data plans + Unlimited text messages + taxes and fees = about $280 = around $70 per person

Annual savings with family plan: $150+ per person / $600+ for the group

The Perfect ‘Friends’ Family Phone Plan

The success of a family plan with friends can be achieved following these steps:

1. Find a couple of honest and trustworthy friends. This is the key to making this work. If you do not know a friend’s personality and character well enough to make the right judgment, then this friend is not a good candidate. The best friends to do this with are those who you have known for many years, have a stable source of income, and you know their address, workplace, and parents.
2. Pick the most honest, trustworthy, and responsible friend to be the primary account holder. This person will be collecting payments from the group and paying the cell phone bill. If you picked the right friends to do this with, you should be having trouble deciding who takes this role (because all of you are equally trustworthy and responsible).
3. Put everything down in writing. Things will come up and nothing is guaranteed to run smoothly. Have the terms of the agreement between the group down on paper and sign off on it. Exact numbers need not be included since they can vary. This step serves as the last resort should things not work out and legal action is taken.
4. All members pay, to the primary account holder, an amount equivalent to their share of three or six months of phone service (repeated over the duration of the plan’s contract). This amount will, of course, be an estimate. The primary account holder should refund any extra funds or request addition funds as needed. Once again, this is not a problem with a close group of friends.
5. Review monthly bills to monitor minutes usage. There are hefty charges for the minutes that are used past those in your plan. Make sure everyone knows how many minutes they are allowed

With great benefits come great risks. There are many complications with these types of arrangements with your friends. If it isn’t taken care of carefully, there will be financial problems and friendships could be in jeopardy. You must know what would happen and what to do if:

• Someone decides to terminate their line. Typical phone contracts would charge an early termination fee for each line that is canceled prior to the expiration of the contract. Calculate whether or not it is worth it for that person to pay the fee or just stick it out. One other option is to transfer the extra line to another person.
• Someone doesn’t pay their share. Prepayment was meant to lessen the effects of this unwanted, yet common, situation. Call the person, his/her home, workplace, and family. Try to resolve this issue without bringing in legal action into the picture. If all else fails, save the monthly bills, bring the group’s agreement, and suit up for court.

Photo credit: D Sharon Pruitt

• How A Prepaid Cell Phone Plan Saves Me Money...
• Vent Post: Telemarketers And The Cell Phone...
• The Psychological Effects Of An Automatic Savings Plan...
• Started An Automatic Savings Plan With HSBC Direct...
• What I Did When My iPhone 3GS Died...
• Why I’m Not Getting the iPhone 4 (Yet), Sticking With 3GS...