It turns out that the eye-popping retail price of $499 was just the start. Even those who got the cheapest deals -- such as existing AT&T customers who pay $40 a month for service -- found their bills spiraling well over $100 once activation fees, data plans, surcharges and taxes were added in. (See one example.)

Let me say up front that I'm not an iPhone hater. It's a really cool phone. I'm also not blind to the fact that every carrier likes to lard on fees. They're all evil that way.

What I am saying is that the iPhone experience vividly illustrates why we have to keep our wits about us when it comes to wireless service. If we want to be savvy cell-phone consumers, we have to:
-- Know what we're paying for.
-- Minimize paying for crap we don't need.

To that end, here are some thoughts for keeping your cell costs in line:

Shop the plan, not the phone

With a few spectacular exceptions, like the aforementioned iPhone, most cell phones are basically commodities. If a phone has a certain configuration of features at Verizon, you can find something similar, perhaps even the same phone, at Sprint or Alltel.

Phones are usually loss leaders, anyway. The carrier makes its profit on the monthly plan you choose. So make sure you shop hard for the right plan. Sites such as MyRatePlan.com, SaveOnPhone.com and LowerMyBills.com can help you sift through the alternatives.

Service is important. Make sure you'll have coverage in your home and all other locations you'd regularly use the phone.

But you also should find out what carriers your friends and family use. At most carriers, calls to cell phones in the same network don't count against your bucket of "anytime" minutes. At Sprint Nextel or T-Mobile, you can add this in-network feature for $5 or $8, respectively. If you use the same carrier as the folks you call the most, you often can get away with a cheaper plan.

Get a better phone deal

If you plan to switch wireless companies, consider buying your phone (and the monthly plan that goes with it) from someone other than the carrier.

Why? Because wireless companies pay retailers such as RadioShack, MyRatePlan.com and others a bounty to bring them business, and many retailers pass that bounty on to consumers by discounting phones even more than the carriers do.

Retailers are "competing basically on the phone price because the plans are all the same" as what the carriers offer directly, explained Allan Keiter, the president of MyRatePlan.com.

Unfortunately, wireless companies don't pay the same bounty on existing customers, so if you plan to stay with your carrier but want a new phone, you may get the best price simply dealing directly with the carrier.

But you can still save money by buying all your phone accessories from a retailer instead of from the carrier.

Tweak your tier

Most monthly phone plans these days are pretty similar: You get unlimited night and weekend minutes and a bucket of peak or anytime minutes. These come in tiers that vary somewhat by carrier, although blocks of 300, 600, 900, 1,200 and 2,000 minutes are typical.

Getting that bucket right is a bit of an art. Buy too few and you can pay a small fortune in overages -- peak minutes that cost 40 to 45 cents each. Buy too many and you're wasting money.

But there's another hitch: The typical wireless contract lasts two years. Most carriers are happy to let you switch to a more expensive plan with a bigger bucket of peak minutes without penalty, but if you want to step down to fewer minutes, you typically have to agree to extend your contract an additional year or two. (If you regularly have 200 or more unused minutes and like your carrier, though, you should consider stepping down a tier.)

Thus, it pays to be a little conservative when estimating your future use. If you're signing up for a new carrier or a new plan, monitor your minutes closely in the first two weeks to see whether you're on track. Carriers let you change plans or even terminate service in that window. The same holds true if you switch to a new carrier and discover its coverage is spotty. As long as you end the contract within the allotted two weeks, you're off the hook -- although you may face a charge if you return a phone in less-than-new condition, Keiter warned.

Continued: Monitor your minutes

You can monitor your minutes online -- by signing up for online access to your account -- and from your phone. Just ask your carrier how, or check its Web site. If you're hopeless about remembering to check, consider a service such as MinuteGuard, which will text or e-mail you when you're getting close to exhausting your minutes.

Another option if you think your life or usage will drastically change soon: Avoid contracts entirely and sign up for prepaid service. (More on that below.)

You occasionally see advice to lower cell bills by "eliminating unnecessary add-ons, like text messaging," and you instantly know the writer is over 30.

Texting is half the reason many people even have cell phones. There are smarter ways to keep costs contained:

Bundle up. Texts typically cost 10 to 15 cents to send or receive, so it's worth signing up for a text-messaging plan if you send or get more than a few dozen messages a month. But the details of carriers' bundles vary, which is why it's important to:

Shop the plan, part two. Sprint, for example, offers 300 text messages for $5 a month and unlimited texting for $15. Verizon charges $5 for 250 messages or $10 for 500, with unlimited texting to other Verizon users. AT&T charges $5 for 200 messages and $20 for unlimited messaging. T-Mobile charges $5 for 400 messages a month or $15 for unlimited texting.

Clearly, if you text a lot, or your kids do, you'll want to weigh these costs along with the other features of the carriers' plans.

Text smart. Text messages sent from your computer are free -- for you, anyway -- so use that option when you're online. Also, be choosy about premium text-messaging services that send you sports scores, horoscopes, etc., for sometimes-steep per-message or per-month rates. You can typically end these subscriptions by responding with the word STOP.

Make the kid pay. If you don't text but your kids do, let them absorb the cost of the messaging plan and any overages. Take it out of their allowance or put them to work in the yard. Soon enough, they'll be responsible for all of their own bills, so they might as well start getting used to it now.

Consider a block. If you don't text and can't imagine why anyone would, you can ask your carrier to block all text messages. Most will comply, with the exception of T-Mobile, which refuses to turn off this feature.

6 more ways to save

Buy a data plan. Data can cost a lot. Yes, it's handy to be able to use your cell to send e-mail or surf the Web, but it can also get expensive pretty fast, and some carriers are less than clear about how you're being charged. The default is by minute or by kilobyte; either way, you can quickly run up a three-figure bill if you're more than a sporadic user. Your options: Don't use those features, or buy a data plan, which typically starts at $25 to $30 a month and goes up from there.

Review the add-ons. As the price of cell-phone minutes plunges, carriers are keen to boost their profits by selling you lots of other services: music, video, games, ring tones, child locator services, broadband Internet connections, roadside assistance and more.

Any of these services can be worthwhile if you use them and can afford them. If money is tight or you're being billed for services you don't use, however, it's time to give them the ax.

Ditch the insurance. You may think $5 or $6 a month is a small price to pay for ensuring you can get a replacement phone if yours is lost or stolen. And that's what carriers want you to think, because insurance is a huge profit center for them.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Smart consumers use insurance to protect themselves against catastrophic expenses, not stuff they can pay for out of pocket. If losing your cell would be a catastrophic expense, then you're paying too much for your phone.

Continued: Check your bill

Scour your bill. This is oh so basic, yet it's so often ignored by consumers who -- for some inexplicable reason -- think wireless companies won't take advantage of them. Yikes.

The reality is that customer-service reps often are rewarded for selling you add-ons, and some aren't strictly diligent about getting your permission first. And surprise, surprise, companies make mistakes. It just takes a minute or so to check your bill, but you've got to do it every month.

By the way, most of those fees that sound like government-mandated charges -- "Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge," "Federal Universal Service Charge" and so on -- actually aren't, as I wrote in "Fight all those hidden charges." Typically, it's your carrier passing along some of its costs of doing business. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do to get rid of them, although you can always complain to your lawmakers.

Avoid 411. The cost for being clueless is rising: Cell-phone carriers now charge at least $1.50 per call. That's OK as an occasional last resort, but 411 shouldn't be your first choice. Program 800-373-3411 into your phone; that's the number for 800-Free411, which gives you free directory assistance in exchange for sitting through two 10-second ads.

Ditch the cell or go prepaid. Although half of us view our cell phones as necessities, not everyone needs a cell, as I covered in "Ditch those money-sucking bills." Any charged-up phone will dial 911, even without a service plan; if you really need a phone only for emergencies, get an old one from a friend and keep it in your car.

And don't be a hostage to early-termination fees. Carriers typically charge $175 or more to end service early, but you'd save that much in a few months by cutting off unneeded service. (The average cell-phone bill is about $50 a month, so you'd break even during the fourth month.)

Another option favored by those who use their phones lightly: prepaid or pay-as-you-go plans, in which you buy a phone and a set number of minutes or a calling card. Use all of your minutes, and the phone stops working until you buy more.

The per-minute cost of prepaid plans, although lower than it used to be, is still fairly high, which tends to make them a good fit for folks who talk less than 200 peak minutes a month. You can find prepaid plans at three of the four largest carriers -- AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon -- as well as from other providers, including TracFone and Virgin Mobile.