RatePlan.com and MinuteGuard are pleased to announce the launch of two significant enhancements to the RatePlan.com tool and MinuteGuard service.   RatePlan.com now offers retailers the ability to compare Family Plans as part of its rate plan analysis tool.  MinuteGuard now tracks text messaging in addition to its minute monitoring feature.

Family Plan Analysis
Today over 50% of all new postpaid cell phone activations are on family type plans – and this number is growing daily.  In addition, over 80% of all teenagers with cell phones subscribe to family type plans. Contrary to popular belief, however, family plans are not always the best deal for the consumer and let’s face it; commissions for selling family plans are not as generous as those for individual plans.

During extensive testing of the new Family Plan rate plan analysis tool, it was surprising to see that the tool often recommended several individual plans, or a combination of individual plans with a family plan, over a single family plan.  For example, a rate plan analysis conducted on five lines concluded that only two people should share a family plan while the remaining three people were better off on individual plans.  Cumulatively, the recommendation saved the consumers hundreds of dollars a year as compared to a single family plan.  Not only was this recommendation a win-win for the consumers but it also provided an opportunity for greater commissions to the dealer as well.  The newly enhanced RatePlan.com tool allows the retailer and customer to sift through the hundreds of individual and family plan rate plan combinations and quickly identify the best plan or plans.

Text Message Tracking
Ask the parent of a teenager with a cell phone these days about their biggest gripe, and they will more likely than not complain about the number of text messages – and the corresponding high costs – that their teenagers send each month.  It is not uncommon for teenagers to send hundreds, or even thousands, of text messages a month at a typical cost of 10 cents per message.  The inability to monitor these charges has caused many a parent to take away their child’s cell phone, or at least cancel text messaging privileges.  This behavior has resulted in many a chargeback for dealers.

MinuteGuard now offers parents an alternative to such draconian measures.  In addition to the minute tracking component of the MinuteGuard service, text messages can now be tracked on a daily basis at no extra charge.  As part of its regular service, MinuteGuard has added a “text message” column to its daily e-mail that cumulatively tracks the number of text messages sent and received during a subscriber’s bill cycle.  As is the case with the family plan service, the administrator, or most often-times parent, is e-mailed daily with such an update.  MinuteGuard’s ability to track text messages in addition to minutes provides subscribers with all the tools to control their wireless expenses.