Is the phone company ripping you off? An analysis of unlimited plans vs metered monthly

I have one of the older Vonage yearly contracts that does unlimited everything plus free international to select countries for the low low price of $269/year. Now that we're buying a house, I thought it wise to analyse our expenses and of course, I wrote a program to do it.

$ git clone https://github.com/ppetraki/household-misc.git

$ household-misc/vonage_outgoing_calls.py $(ls Vonage/*.csv)



billing          minutes  750_plan  300_plan
================================================================================
Vonage/callActivity01182013.csv 452 -11.622 + 19.99 = 19.99 7.6 + 11.99 = 19.59
Vonage/callActivity02182013.csv 544 -8.034 + 19.99 = 19.99 12.2 + 11.99 = 24.19
Vonage/callActivity03182013.csv 450 -11.7 + 19.99 = 19.99 7.5 + 11.99 = 19.49
Vonage/callActivity04182013.csv 481 -10.491 + 19.99 = 19.99 9.05 + 11.99 = 21.04
Vonage/callActivity05182013.csv 280 -18.33 + 19.99 = 19.99 -1.0 + 11.99 = 11.99
Vonage/callActivity06182012.csv 359 -15.249 + 19.99 = 19.99 2.95 + 11.99 = 14.94
Vonage/callActivity06182013.csv 457 -11.427 + 19.99 = 19.99 7.85 + 11.99 = 19.84
Vonage/callActivity06222013.csv 3 -29.133 + 19.99 = 19.99 -14.85 + 11.99 = 11.99
Vonage/callActivity07182012.csv 124 -24.414 + 19.99 = 19.99 -8.8 + 11.99 = 11.99
Vonage/callActivity08182012.csv 158 -23.088 + 19.99 = 19.99 -7.1 + 11.99 = 11.99
Vonage/callActivity09182012.csv 265 -18.915 + 19.99 = 19.99 -1.75 + 11.99 = 11.99
Vonage/callActivity10182012.csv 234 -20.124 + 19.99 = 19.99 -3.3 + 11.99 = 11.99
Vonage/callActivity11182012.csv 625 -4.875 + 19.99 = 19.99 16.25 + 11.99 = 28.24


total world $269
total 300 $219.27
total 750 $259.87

I admit, metered plans can be scary but Vonage only charges you for outgoing calls. This program accounts for that and shows you how much you would pay per month: base + minutes used. While there were some high months, I never used more outgoing minutes that what is offered by the 750m plan. If they would only roll-over minutes you didn't use, the 300m plan would save you almost $100/year, instead you save only $50. Better than nothing.