Over60
Retirement Income

How to manage your phone's data use

Smartphones give you access to a wealth of information and media, but most networks put a cap on the amount of data you can use each month. A typical phone contract includes a data allowance of between 500MB and 10GB per month; the more data, the higher the monthly cost. Your usage can mount up surprisingly quickly – watching a film on the phone is about 700MB in SD, an hour of streaming TV is around 500MB or 60-140MB for the same of radio, chatting on Skype for an hour is around 40MB. Try these tips to better manage your data usage:

Travel Smart

Using your phone overseas can be costly. Before you go, see if your carrier offers prepaid or flat-rate roaming. At your destination, if your phone is unlocked, you can buy a local prepaid SIM to replace yours, or buy a cheap prepaid phone and use free Wi-Fi for internet.

This article first appeared in Reader’s Digest. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, here’s our best subscription offer.

Tags:
phone, data, technology, retirement income, savings