Finding the right mobile phone plan is not an easy task. Competing carriers, features, prices, incompatible phone technologies and rebates all serve to confuse the mobile phone shopper. Various points are to be considered while choosing an appropriate mobile phone service provider and mobile plan.

Ask yourself these questions: how much you use your phone, what time of the day will you make most of your calls, which mobile network is used by most of the people you are likely to call and what kind of services do you want on your mobile? With so many mobile service providers, prices changing so often, any information would quickly become out of date. Try to find the updated information by referring to retailers. Your best deal would depend on your needs and usage pattern. Explore the different mobile phone companies websites, mobile phone shops and find out more about their network coverage.

The different plans you can choose from are:

Prepaid plans: Prepaid involves paying upfront for a number of minutes. Most of these plans have minutes that expire after one or three months. Youll have to pay before making calls, with a credit card or debit card. There are no monthly contracts, credit checks or minimum contract period.

Monthly contract: In this plan, you are billed for calls and monthly subscriptions, typically for a minimum contract period of at least 12 months. There is a wider choice of services and handsets in this plan. Moreover,call charges and handsets are generally cheaper. Normally, you get inclusive call minutes, which is included in your monthly subscription and you are not charged for it.

Pay up front: In this plan, you are billed monthly, so you can see where your money is going. You are not charged monthly subscriptions; and call charges and the price and range of handsets are similar to prepay. Apart from choosing the right mobile phone company and tariff for your usage pattern, you should know how to control the cost of your mobile service. You may be able to save money by opting for a tariff having the inclusive call minutes cover all networks and charges for calling different networks do not vary much.

Find out exactly how you can get more for your money. Find if the inclusive call minutes you are getting cover calls to people on other networks as well as yours, find out if the calls to retrieve voicemail are free, can you buy add on services to save your money overall, for how long will any unused inclusive call minutes in one month be carried forward.

If you usually use your mobile phone abroad, keep in mind that calls and text messages can cost much more, especially if you have a prepaid service. You will also have to pay to receive calls when abroad. So keep yourself informed about the details of charges and services that are available from mobile phone companies before choosing your mobile service provider.