Changing your cell plan? Do it by phone

Last month, I wrote about how using Verizon Wireless' web site to increase the number of minutes in my cellular plan mid-billing-cycle, ended up creating $162 in overage charges. The cell shock was caused by an arcane accounting practice that pro-rated and significantly reduced my allotted minutes.

My experience may be uncommon. No other ConsumerReports.org subscribers reported such trouble, while one, Marie Braden, advised that I could have avoided trouble in the first place by telephoning customer service to make the switch, instead of doing so online. She says:

If you are going UP in minutes before the end of the billing cycle, you can ask to have the price plan change 'backdated' to the start of the billing cycle. If you are going DOWN in minutes, however, ask that the change be 'future-dated' to the start of the next billing cycle. This way, you can avoid pro-rations.

Verizon confirmed Braden's advice, but says that customers who make the switch online get a similar and clear explanation before they execute the change. In our discussions, however, Verizon found that this notice appeared for individual plans, but not family plans; it's working on a fix.

We recommend the human touch of customer service via telephone whenever making changes with all carriers.

AT&T and Sprint, however, say that, while overages are possible, you're unlikely to run into this problem with their service. AT&T says that if your account has enough "rollover minutes"—leftover time accrued over the previous 12 months—that will automatically increase your monthly allotment to prevent overages from a plan switch. Sprint says mid-cycle plan switches won't produce overage charges—if the customer didn't exceed his total plan minutes before the change, and if the customer is moving up to a higher-minute plan and doesn't go over the total number of minutes for the new plan during the month in which the change is made.

If you've already messed up, again, call customer service, which may provide a fix. That's what I did as an ordinary consumer—without identifying myself as a Consumer Reports reporter—and Verizon righted the wrong. —Jeff Blyskal