Not all deals are equal, especially now that telecommunication companies are getting more competitive. With so many reasonable options and enticing devices matched with them, how will you know which postpaid plan is best for you?
As you’ll be using your smartphone a lot, you need to find a postpaid mobile plan which takes care of all your needs. Whether you’re a businessman, adventurer, or a music lover – what’s important is that it fits your lifestyle.
Selecting a Service Provider
So you don’t waste your time jumping from one telco to another, you need to pick a reliable service provider. All you have to do is evaluate the following:
- Network strength in the area you live in and the place you work at
- Access to free apps for music, movies, payments, etc.
- Good customer reviews indicating excellent service
- An established player that ensures connectivity and support wherever you go
As soon as you have a trustworthy service provider in mind, let this serve as your guide in choosing a postpaid plan.
1. Understand your needs
You’ve already decided that you need a postpaid plan. Now, you should determine your needs and which postpaid plan can fulfill those needs for you.
Mobile Data
If you’re the type of person who needs to be always online, having mobile data is necessary.
The two factors of your mobile data consumption are contingent on the activities you do online and the total time you spent using mobile data. Keep in mind that even if you aren’t actively using your phone, there are apps that use your mobile data to receive and send information.
As a rule of thumb, reading articles and sending emails require minimal data usage. However, photo and video-heavy activities like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube require a lot of mobile data. To estimate how much you really need, take a look at your past data usage for reference.
Here are some tips to consider when trying to make a reliable mobile data consumption estimate:
- Place emphasis on the instances that you’re not connected to a Wi-Fi network.
- Look at your high usage activities such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify as they’ll make up the majority of your mobile data usage.
- For low usage activities, you can consider a 400MB allocation per month as your baseline assumption.
Text Messaging and Calls
There are postpaid plans which have promotions and offers that include unlimited texts and calls. This is quite beneficial for a person who makes phone calls more than five times a week for more than ten minutes. However, if you aren’t a frequent caller, this may be less useful to you.
2. Set your preferences
After you’ve determined what you need from your postpaid plan on a monthly basis, the next thing to do is to define your personal preferences. Depending on how you handle your phone, the preferences you’ve set can also affect your monthly spending.
With these in mind, it will all be about picking your poison. To help you decide, answer these three questions:
- Do you have a tight budget?
- Are you okay with the features of your phone being simple?
- How well can you keep track of your consumption and spending?
When you get a postpaid plan, you are at risk of the possibility of overspending. Do take into account the data cap you’ve set for each month so that you don’t end up losing track of your usage and pay expensive excess fees later.
3. Evaluate the contract
Once you’ve understood your needs and set your preferences, you can now pick a plan. But before you sign any paperwork, do review the contract and see how long the lock-in period is. Most postpaid plans offer at least a six-month to a two-year contract – that may be quite lengthy for you if you choose to make a switch later on.
Following the three steps above, look for a postpaid plan that offers the best value for your needs. That way, you can focus more on finding a plan with the best price and not get tempted into paying more for features that aren’t necessary.
