bob_nestor wrote:
Consumer Cellular may be great if most of your calls are outgoing. What they don't tell you (or it's in the fine print) is incoming calls are counted against you and most are rounded up to the nearest minute. That's fine for calls from people you want to hear from, but it can kill all your savings if you're the target of a lot of SPAM calls like telemarketers, car warranty scams, political advertising and money donation organizations.
If you are on the cheapest bargain basement Consumer Cellular plan of $20 per month (250 minute and no data), you would be correct. Not only outgoing calls are counted against your minutes but all incoming calls including spammer robocalls.
Per
HERE"Consumer Cellular is a small, no-contract mobile phone provider that offers low-cost cell phone plans starting at $20 per month (not including tax or data add-on) for unlimited texts and 250 minutes. From there, plans can be customized to include unlimited minutes and data amounts up to 25 GB per month per line for customers who want to take advantage of app downloads, high definition video, and other uses of the 5G, 4G LTE, 4G, and 3G network. For Consumer Cellular's most advanced plan of two phone lines, unlimited talk, and 25 GB of data, you'll pay around $75 per month."Charging in incoming calls is 100% normal business practice for all carriers that offer
limited minutes plans and has been that way since the 1980s when cell phones first hit the market.
You should not have been surprised.
To get around that move up to the next plan, I believe for $25 per month you get unlimited talk and texts..
For about $30 per month including taxes I am on prepaid $25/month ATT service with unlimited talk and text and 2 GB of Internet data.. I rarely use the data but for the unlimited talk/text it is a no brainer for me and I don't talk/text all that much (well below 100 minutes per month and maybe 10 texts per month).
Sometimes trying to shave off costs by running with the basement level plans ends up costing more..
