One: You need to try and figure out how much you will be using your cell phone on a daily basis. In other words, will you be talking on it a lot every day or will it be for emergencies only? This is important because most cell phone plans are priced according to the minutes they provide.

Two: Determine how many people you are going to include on the plan. If more than one, a family plan might be a consideration. Family plans are typically offered at a discounted rate to accommodate service on multiple lines. Typically, the more lines the deeper the discount on each line. Some plans share minutes between all family members others assign individual minutes to each member, so you may need to shop around and determine what fits your family best.

Three: You need to try and figure out how you plan to use your cell phone.  Is it going to be used just to make and receive calls? Ask yourself, will you need to use text messaging or get on the Internet through your phone? If you do than you will want to find out how much each plan will charge you for this service. Some of the cell phone plans will have unlimited texting. Do you need a smart phone? Are you someone who will use the apps available? Remember smart phones require Internet access, typically, Internet access will cost you between $5 and $15 a month extra.

Four: Find out what the plan will charge you if you go over your minutes in any given month. If the overage minutes are expensive you may want to consider upping you estimated usage (part one), you don’t want to end up with an outrageous bill because you went over your minutes one month.

Five: This is more for selecting the right service provider, but since part of finding the right plan is finding the right service provider we are including it. Service reliability in your area. While the coverage area of most service providers has improved in recent years, there are some areas where some providers offer better coverage than others.

These are just a few of the most important things that you need to find out about before you decide on which of the cell phone plans you want to use. Cell phones have a lot of good uses but they can be expensive if you don’t have the right plan. So take your time and find the one that works best for your phone needs.

The best cell phone for a business depends on the type of business. Some businesses require their phones provide access to e-mail, a calendar, and address book. Other businesses requires photos to be taken with their employee’s cell phone. Businesses whose employees travel may need cell phones that work in countries other than their own.

There are certain features that are often popular with businesses that are not always used as often with consumers. Features such as three-way conference calling, call waiting, and forwarding are often popular.  Nowadays, some service plans may even offer features where callers can chose to leave a message or be directed to someone else, similar to office call systems, making the transition between office and cell almost seamless.

Text messaging is a feature that is growing rapidly among businesses. Text messaging is now being used by some businesses to send information on delivery schedules and special promotions. Businesses that provide entertainment often use text messaging to notify customers of up-coming events.

Internet Service Providers can notify engineers immediately with text messaging when their systems go down. Schools and colleges can use text messaging to alert students and parents when school will not be held due to weather conditions, etc. The list is endless of what text messaging on a cell phone can accomplish for any type of business.

Similar to consumers, business are now relying on cell phones to help propel work forward.

With the onset of “smart phones” there came the ability to customize them with “apps”, to quote Apple, “There’s an app for that™”. WhitePages.com is now offering a mobile app (here) for looking up residential phone numbers and address and YP.com is now offering a mobile app (here) to find business phone numbers and addresses. Both apps are being offered for free with the hope that consumers will tolerate ads in exchange for the ability to  lookup phone numbers/addresses wherever they are.

There are many circumstances in our everyday lives where having the white or yellow pages at your finger tips could be useful. So if you are someone who frequently searches for people or business online you might consider adding these to your smart phone.

Now-a-days cell phones contain pictures, video, dates, addresses, business documents, credit card information and more… The information we often store on our cell phones can be comparable to our home computers. Making them very valuable to some thieves. As such, we thought we would compile a few ways in which you may be able to help protect yourself if your cell phone is misplaced or stolen.

First, always password protect your phone. Password protecting your cell phone is a great way to protect the valuable information stored on it. Should your phone get stolen, it makes it much more difficult for crooks to retrieve the data (but not impossible).

Never keep sensitive information such as social security numbers, bank account numbers or home addresses. Since this can sometimes be saved in certain files, profiles and history it is important to be mindful about using this information on your phone and never have your phone save online or app passwords.

If you purchase something on your phone try to use a payment gateway like Paypal which require a password to use, rather than your credit card.  This may limit the likelihood of sensitive information being stored on your phone.

Should your phone be stolen, make a list of the information found on your phone, and immediately file a police report. Then notify your cell phone carrier to discontinue service. Nothing can replace the unsettling feeling that you get when a belonging as personal as a cell phone is stolen, but hopefully these steps may help to lessen the impact.

Since carrying a dedicated emergency phone may not be the most practical for everyone, here are a few steps to help make your current cell phone greater prepared for an emergency:

First, make sure your phone is programmed with an ICE contact.  If you are every involved in a serious accident you may not be able to tell authorities or medical professionals who to contact on your behalf (family, friends, etc).  Those on the scene may take it upon themselves to look through your belongings even a cell phone for contact information but if they can’t easily distinguish who to notify, it may delay reaching your loved ones. That is where the ICE contact comes in.

In your contact list, beside the person that you would like notified, you should list these three letters I C E. “ICE”, in this case, stands for In Case of Emergency. Doing this helps authorities identify who they should contact when you can’t easily provide them with this information.

Along with an ICE contact it can be helpful to add additional phone numbers to your contact list as well. Some phone owners might remember to add their insurance agent or a number for road-side assistance, but what about poison control? Poison control is a critical contact to maintain if you are a parent, especially, parents of young children.

Depending on the limitations of your phone, you may also consider listing important personal information in this spot. This may consist of your health conditions, allergies, or even if you are an organ donor.  If you have serious health concerns listing contact information for the medical professional treating you is important.

Even most children know to dial 911 in an emergency but very few people remember their local number for non-emergency police calls.  Using the non-emergency line helps to keep the 911 line available when time is critical.  For that reason, it can be useful to save this number in your contact list as well.  By the way, did you know that FCC requirements state that ALL cell phones, regardless of if the phone has active service or not are able to dial 911? Regardless of phone, service, minutes, whatever… cell phones must be able to connect to 911.

These are just a few ways in which you can help prepare yourself and your phone for emergencies.

A hands-free microphone or speaker system is one way to use your cell phone while keeping your hands free to be on the wheel of your automobile. This will not eliminate the distraction but it may help keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.

If you are driving with a passenger you can always let them handle your cell phone calls while you’re driving. They can relay messages to you and serve as an intermediary for the person making the call. The flipside of that is if you feel you need to talk on the phone, pull over and let the passenger be the driver for a little while. Likewise, if you are expecting an important call and it has to be taken, make sure to bring someone with you so that you may handle the call.

Never carry on any conversation that is stressful, difficult or could otherwise add to the distraction. Never talk on the cell phone in heavy traffic or during hazardous weather conditions. If you have to make or receive a call in such conditions, pull over and park in a safe area first.

By setting different ring tones for various callers (or types of callers) it can help you determine when to answer the phone or not.  Setting certain numbers as high priority can help you determine which calls to take (please pull over first) and which to let go to voice mail.  Even better, some phones / apps allow you to automatically send certain numbers to voice mail, while letting those you specify through.

A cell phone can be a valuable tool for highway safety enabling a person to report a crime, a bad accident, life-threatening emergencies, or drunk drivers. When reporting an emergency situation on your cell phone, it is best to pull over so you or other drivers will not be at risk. Make sure “911” is programmed into your phone for reporting emergencies. Cell phones will still connect to 911 even if no signal can be procured.

There is no denying that the use of cell phones while driving is distracting to the driver and does cause accidents.  Our official recommendation is not to do it, but if you plan on ignoring this we hope that these tips can help you limit the distraction.