Cellphone overage charges

Overage charges are incurred when a mobile phone (cellphone) is used for more time than the quota fixed under a post-payment plan.

Billing for mobile phones can take the form of either a pre-paid plan or a post-paid plan. In a pre-paid plan, the cell phone user pays for the minutes before using them. This kind of plan is popular in many Asian, South American, and some European countries.

In post-paid plans, the cell phone user pays at the end of the month for the minutes used during that month. Post-paid plans are common in North America and are catching up in other countries. The cell phone providers (that is, the wireless carriers) typically charge a monthly fee for the post-paid plans. In turn, users get a monthly quota of minutes. When a user goes over the minutes allowed under the particular post-paid cell phone plan, they are charged separately for the extra minutes. In North America, this fee for the extra minutes is called overage fees or overage charges.

For example, suppose that a mobile phone user signs up for a post-paid cell phone plan that costs $40 per month and is allowed a quota of 700 minutes under that plan. If this user were to end up using 750 minutes in a month, then they would be charged an overage fee for the extra 50 minutes.

Mobile networks may offer the ability to check how much of a quota has been used, or users may sign up to third-party monitoring services. Overage charges are being phased out by some major providers.^[1]

In Germany as of 2015, most post-paid cell phone plans are (for calls within Germany) either true flat rates (monthly rates between 17^[2] and 40 EUR, depending on how much data and how many SMS are included) or include a more limited amount of included minutes (100-200 Minutes), with a modest overage of 7 to 21 Euro-cent per minute. The time of days is not accounted for.

North American post-paid cell phone plans typically divide the minutes used in various categories such as peak minutes, evening and night minutes (also called off-peak minutes), weekend minutes, mobile-to-mobile minutes, and so on. The peak minutes also go by the name of "anytime minutes" or "whenever minutes".

Los minutos en horas punta permitidos en la mayoría de los planes pospago suelen ser limitados (por ejemplo, 750 minutos en horas punta al mes por 40 dólares mensuales), mientras que los minutos en las demás categorías son gratuitos o tienen una cuota mensual elevada (por ejemplo, 5000 minutos para fines de semana y noches). Por lo tanto, en los países norteamericanos, los cargos por exceso de consumo suelen referirse a los "cargos por exceso de horas punta", es decir, se cobra aparte al usuario por los minutos adicionales en horas punta utilizados durante el mes.

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