AIf you have an AT&T voice plan at the $59.99 (or $89.99 for Family plans) or higher price point, you have the “A-List” feature for free! This feature arrived with little fanfare back in September 2009 and I’m sure there are lots of people who have the feature who haven’t even looked at it yet.

What’s A-List? It’s a list of 5 phone numbers (US only) that are free to call or receive calls from. The best part? You can put any national number on the list – land line, cell phone, toll-free number (directory assistance and 900 numbers need not apply).

How to save? Actually use it! Look at your calling habits and pick your most-called numbers. If you spend 3 hours a month listening to the movie times for your local theater, add that number to your A-List! Add your conference call numbers. Add the main line or the primary line that shows up on caller ID when people dial out of your office or your client’s office. Think outside the normal “friends and family” numbers.

If your cell phone is your primary phone line and you max out your minutes, this list could totally save you money! Overage charges are not cheap!

My iPhone is my primary phone line and I use it for work as well as for personal calls. So who’s on my A-List?
- My parents. An hour or several hours a month saved.
- 3 conference call lines I use for work. Hours and hours saved each month.
- My boss’ desk number. Another couple of hours saved.

I can update my list online at any time and changes take about a day to take effect. Many of my friends and family have A&T cell phones themselves, so calling them is already free under the Mobile-to-Mobile feature.

So let’s talk numbers. I have 3 days left before the end of my plan’s month. I have used 1606 minutes so far. Less than an hour of that time is Night/Weekend time (unlimited minutes on my plan). Of the remaining 1550 minutes, 895 minutes have been charged against my Anytime Minutes (i.e. the 900 minutes in my plan). Scanning down my list of calls, it looks like about 45 minutes are covered by Mobile-to-Mobile. Leaving more than 600 minutes covered by A-List.*

10 hours of time I’m not paying extra for! (I’d be saving even more if my developer contact was in the US rather than Canada!)
I am able to maintain a lower cost cell plan thanks to A-List!

As a contractor, I don’t always need more than 900 minutes a month for months in a row. But when my minutes go up, it’s often for conference calls and long calls to the same number. I can manage my A-List to compensate for these peak usage months and keep my plan at a lower level. During the slow months, I accumulate Roll-over minutes that also help compensate for the peak usage months.

I think AT&T was one of the last carriers to add a “free calls to your specified numbers” feature – so if you’re hitting your limit for cell minutes on another carrier, try this with your equivalent plan. Adding conference lines and the main office number (the main, umbrella number that shows up when anyone calls from inside the office) to your free list could save you a serious number of minutes.

So why bother? The next step up from my monthly plan is the Unlimited plan at only $10 more per month… but $10 per month is $120 per year that I’d rather have in my pocket. And even though I’m being reimbursed for my cell phone costs at the moment, that doesn’t mean I will be in the future at my next job… not to mention between jobs.

*If you hadn’t guessed, I’m really not much of a phone person. Most of my calls are work-related.

a-list, AT&T, cell phone, savings, service, work