09/27
I recently had the need to be alerted when my T-Mobile cell phone minutes were running low to help avoid overage charges. Unfortunately T-Mobile does not offer such a service. I did some searching on the internet and I could not find anything that would automatically alert me if my minutes were running low. The best I could find was a Firefox plugin that would show your used minutes in the Firefox status bar. Although it worked well and saved me from logging in to my online T-Mobile account each time I wanted to check my minutes balance, it didn’t do what I was really looking for. I needed a service that automatically alert me so I don’t have to constantly check myself.
A few days ago I decided to write my own program to alert me when my remaining minutes were running low. I spent a few hours and created a simple script that would check my personal T-Mobile account once per day and send me an email when my my remaining minutes reached 90 or less. It worked great but I thought there may be others out there in need of the same service. I thought this would be a great opportunity to contribute to the internet community with a free service that anybody could use. I spent a few more hours and created a simple database and web application to allow anybody to sign up and configure their own alert criteria.
It’s not the most refined application. It’s pretty basic with limited error checking but it does the job it’s supposed to do.
Check out my T-Mobile Low Minutes Email Alert here.
If you try it and find it useful please let me know by commenting on this blog entry.
