How Often Do Carriers Change Their Plans?

By Chris Holmes

Last updated 16 November 2017

How often do carriers change their plans?

Carriers seem to change their plans with every passing breeze.

If you keep up with WhistleOut’s news feed, you know that cell phone carriers are dropping, modifying, adding on to and launching cell phone plans constantly.

The last two months alone saw dozens of plan alterations among the big carriers. From a consumer’s perspective, it can be totally overwhelming.

That’s why it’s important to keep up with the goings-on of your carrier. That means opening those emails, downloading and using your carrier’s app, inspecting your monthly bills, and, when in doubt, making phone calls to your carrier.

If you haven’t done any of these things in a few months, do one of them now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Carrier Emails

We all get tons of email, and the last thing we would seem to need is promotional garbage from our cell phone carriers.

However, hidden in these emails are often important plan notifications. Whether it’s information about a brand new plan, the discontinuation of your current plan, or the addition of features, actually going to the trouble of opening these emails can prove valuable.

Admittedly, it used to be that I wasn’t the best about this. Once upon a time, my carrier sent me emails for months informing me that they were doing away with overages on their new plans. Had I taken the time to open just one of these messages, I could’ve saved myself a lot of money. Instead, I reflexively deleted them, and my carrier kept me on an inferior, grandfathered plan with overages.

Don’t make the same mistake. Devote five to ten seconds to opening and scanning your carrier’s emails.

Carrier Apps

Your carrier’s app—if they have one—can be just the thing to help you stay informed of plan changes. In fact, it may just change your life.

There’s something easier and more fun about opening an app as opposed to a paper mailer. Maybe it’s all the colors, or that the app is positioned between Twitter and Candy Crush. Whatever the case, apps can be a great way to not only stay on top of your monthly bill, but learn about benefits and plan changes.

Thanks to my carrier's app (pictured to the right), I learned about their new unlimited plan (which I ultimately switched to) and Ticket Twosdays, where I can get two movie tickets for the price of one.

You own a smartphone, so there’s no excuse. Download your carrier’s app. Do it now. I’m not waiting this time.

Monthly Statements

Having celebrated digital over print in the paragraph above, allow me to backtrack a bit to say that many of us still prefer to see things on paper rather than a screen.

If you are someone who still receives paper statements each month, you probably already know that it's important to open these things. Often they'll contain details about your plan that you should know about, and that might lead you to changing to a different one.

Phone Calls

So you've spent months ignoring paper and digital communications from your carrier, and have a sneaking suspicion that you should be on a better plan. It may be time to make a call to your carrier.

It took me a phone call to my carrier to learn about overage-less plans and to make the switch to one. Such a call may yield you a similar result.

Be advised, though, that no matter how well trained they might be, customer service agents at the big carriers may not be fully aware of the very latest promotions (this is less of an issue with smaller carriers, where news travels faster). That's why you can often learn more yourself by just opening emails or exploring your carrier's app.