It just goes to show that you must find a plan that matches your pattern orjust be lucky.

Without giving it much thought I chose Verizon for my daughter about six years ago. She has the $40 plan with 400 prime minutes but she uses about 1,500 minutes each month. A big chunk of that is Verizon to Verizon calls during peak time which are free.

She's a freshman 2,000 miles from home and uses the phone, her only phone, without any thought to cost, but we never have extra charges.

It's fortunitous that many of her friends are on Verizon, but it's also true that Verizon has over a third of the wireless market and most kids have cell phones.

Just a thought.