Early Warnings for Cell Minute Minders

Even with everyone in our family on cell phones, we hardly ever run over our cap on minutes. But when we have, it's been a rude shock. There are few things that throw as much cold water on post-vacation revelry as getting a cell phone bill nearly doubled or tripled by minute overage charges.

AT&T provides an iPhone app for you to check your minute usage and pay your phone bill online, and you can get your minute usage information or by dialing *646#.  Other wireless carriers provide similar services.  But these don't alert you when you're about to go over your minute limit without you asking.

A free service called OverMyMinutes.com can do that. The service sends text messages to alert you when you're closing in on your limit. Through the services' website, you can configure the service to warn you when your minutes run down to a number that you specify.  You can set an additional warning to remind you as you grow even closer to the end of your available talk-time. The service also can keep track of text message limits. 

OverMyMinutes works with AT&T, Verizon, TMobile and Sprint phone services, and it's integrated into those services well enough that it's aware of special rates like in-network calls, and nighttime and weekend calling. You can configure the service to alert you by SMS text message—or, if you're concerned about text message limits, you can get them by e-mail.

The service is also offered as an iPhone app, which is temporarily on hold due to a hold-up in the approval of the latest version by Apple.  OverMyMinutes says the free app should be available again on the iTunes App Store within days.