Smartphones and cell phones can be very expensive devices. You have the cost of the handset combined with the cost of using the phone. As such, many of you may pay loads of money for your phone every year. Well, here are three clever tips that are certain to help you pay less, and save more:

Trade In Your Old Phone & Pay A Little Upfront

Some smartphone plans come with the phone for free, while others offer you the chance to pay an upfront cost. When you pay a portion of the phone price upfront, it means your monthly costs are less. This is a very smart idea if you don’t want to have very high bills coming through each month. But, you can make it even better if you trade in your old phone too. Doing this will give you some money back for the old device, which you can then use to pay a little upfront cost for your new phone. Therefore, you save a lot of money by now having much lower monthly bills thanks to paying some of the phone costs already.

Reduce Your Cell Data Usage

By far and away the biggest cost of any cell phone plan is the data. Everyone loves using their phones to go on Twitter or surf the web, and this requires data. So, we often pay for the biggest data plans, which tend to be the most expensive. If you reduce your data usage, you can greatly limit the costs you pay every month. Some people use more data than others so it can be hard to choose the right amount for you. There are elderly people with phones that just don’t use any data at all. If this applies to you, or someone in your family, then be aware companies are offering a cell phone service for seniors where you can just buy talk and text bundles with no data. This brings the costs of each bill down dramatically! If you desperately need data, then start off on the lowest amount, and connect to wifi whenever you’re in range. This will save you a lot of money too!

Shop Around For The Best Deal

When most people look to take out a new plan, they tend to go for an upgrade on their existing network. This is because we assume these are the best deals for us. However, you could miss out on so many ‘new customer’ offers from other network providers. Or, they might have special sales on at that moment in time, making their plans way cheaper than your networks upgrades. So, don’t assume that an upgrade is the best way to get a cheap deal – do your research, shop around, and figure out who will offer the best plan for you.

Follow these tips, and you will definitely start saving money on your cell phone bills. Also, you may find that you can afford a much nicer phone when you apply these tips. So, you can pay less, but get a better device than you expected!