by Marijoyce Porcelli

Created on: June 18, 2009

I personally think cell phones are one of the world's greatest inventions. However, I'm not always so crazy about the attached long-term contract or plan that often comes with the purchase and daily use of a particular cell phone.

Not happy with the cell phone contact you have now? There may be a way to legitimately get out of your long-term cell phone plan.

The first thing I did to get out of a costly plan was to visit my cell phone company's offices and talk directly to a representative. It helped, too, that this employee had worked for a long while in this industry and knew all the tricks and trades of switching to a new plan before the old one had expired.

My family was originally paying close to $100 a month for our cell phone plan. When we, as novices, had signed this original long-term contract we had been issued the plan by a young man, just out of college, who, it turned out, had just got out of company training and wasn't that familiar with what was really best for our particular family needs in this area.

When I returned and talked to the more experienced assistant, she pointed out we always had a lot of rollover minutes we were never using, since our plan included talking to other people on the same carrier for free. She suggested we upgrade one phone and with that, she did her magic, canceled our old plan and assigned us to a new plan. And our bill for basically the same cell phone service, only with fewer outside minutes (which we never use anyway) suddenly dropped from around $100 to $70 a month.

Now whenever I have any question or problem with our cell phone plan, when I go in I always ask to speak to a "seasoned representative." I'm sure there are many newer employees are just as sharp, but I have found this step simply works best for me.

If your carrier can't or won't help you when it comes to changing your long-term plan without charging you a hefty early termination fee, you may want to try swapping your long-term cell phone plan with another. Check out CellSwapper.com at www.cellswapper.com. Here you may be able to swap your cell phone long-term plan you have now with someone else for a plan you would prefer instead.

Even if there is nothing you can do at present to change your cell phone plan, plan ahead. Check out LetsTalk.com at www.LetsTalk.com. This web site uses your zip code to help you find the best deals in cell phone plans for your area. The information on this web site does change regularly, so check it out often to find the best cell phone plan for you.

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