The cellular service world is a prime candidate for a makeover; the limited unlimited plans and the prorating and charging for texts and calls you don't want are two examples of the shell game the companies play with their customers. While some carriers have come a long way in the last few years in clarifying their charges, most still have a long way to go.

For example, Verizon imposed prorating on me earlier this year when I switched from a 1,000-text-message plan to an unlimited one. Even though I was under the limit, the company billed me almost $40 for overages incurred because it had prorated my plan. When a carrier prorates a change you make they basically look at how long you've used the service that month, for example half of the month and then charge you half price and half the allowance you would have had. In my case Verizon cut the 1,000 messages to 500 and the charge to $2.50 but in doing so caused any messages already sent to be billed as overages. To complicate matters, even when you don't get billed in that matter, prorating makes your bill jump up because you are being billed for 1 month and a partial month as well.

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Or consider unlimited plans, which seem akin to a one trip, all you can eat buffet! My friends have horror stories about unexpected charges on supposedly unlimited plans, such as data plans with caps or overage charges on unlimited minutes and texting plans.

Another common complaint lodged against cell phone plans is that users are charged for calls and texts they receive, even if they don't want them. While users can simply choose to avoid a phone call, they have no such option with text messages. Instead, they are charged for the text messages, even spam messages, they receive. It's no wonder subscribers are upset when their cell phone bills contain overages.

It happens all the time. One Comcast customer was dumped for using too much web service on a plan he purchased because it was "unlimited." The company told him the word referred to the fact he could be on his computer as much as he wanted, not that he could view as many pages and videos as he wanted. And then Comcast tried selling him a more expensive plan. Infuriated, he fought back, launching a fiery blog and a cutting YouTube protest to tell the world he'd been ripped off. And a consumer advocate was born.

In July, Sprint put a cap on its previously "unlimited" data card usage, following Verizon and AT&T. Now, 5 gigabytes is all you get unless you want corporate monkeys to shut off your supply. Americans aren't the only ones to suffer the bait-and-switch defended by dense legalese and bent logic in the Terms of Service contract: U.K.'s Vodafone puts similar caps on its "unlimited" mobile phone plan, as does Canada's TELUS.

T-Mobile is rolling out a new feature in the next few weeks called "Family Allowances" which lets parents control just about every aspect of phone usage. The plan starts out at $2 a month and covers up to 5 lines on your account. The new feature comes on the heels of feedback from 30% of parents who identified their primary concern was getting a surprise bill.

The Family Allowances program will let parents set the number of texts, downloads and minutes on their children's phones using an online tool, as well as limiting the times of the day that the phone will work. Parents can put their minds at ease with the ability to set up always-allowed numbers which will permit their children to reach them at any time.

While the "Family Allowances" feature is aimed at helping parents curb kid's desires and their inability to follow the phone usage limits imposed at the dinner table, there is also a cool way that "adults" with less self control can use the feature to manage their own usage as well. We've all heard of freezing your own credit card to ward off the temptation of overspending. Well, if you can't stop your urge to download ringtones or curb your text messaging, you can set up an allowance for yourself so that you don't go over your plan amounts. Since you'll have to wait until you're in front of a computer to bump up your limit, you'll have likely overcome the urge to purchase the new "I Kissed a Girl" ringtone you thought was sooo sweet last night.