How overage works

A busy month is a good month, and it should not come with a surprise on your card. Your plan includes a pool of answered minutes, and if a storm week takes you past it, the extra minutes bill at a rate we publish up front rather than a rate you find out about later.

What counts as a minute

A minute is time Cara actually spent on the phone with a caller, tracked to the second. Your seconds are totaled across the billing period and only the total is billed, so a 20-second call and a three-minute-ten-second call each add their exact length to your running total rather than a rounded-up minute.

• Calls Cara answers count.
• Calls that never reached her, because your own phone picked up first, do not.
• Your first test call, the one you make while setting up, is free and never counts against your allowance.
• An unusually long call — over 4 hours — is excluded from billing entirely rather than charged; it's treated as a data problem, not a real call.
• Your total resets at the start of each billing period.

What each plan includes

The per-minute rate falls as the plan grows. That is deliberate: the more you use Cara, the less each extra minute costs, and you are never forced onto a bigger plan to get a better rate.

Where to see your usage

• Web — open Billing in the left nav. The Answered minutes card shows the minutes you have used this period against the minutes your plan includes. The same figure appears as a compact strip on your dashboard, so you pass it every day without looking for it.
• Mobile — go to Settings, then Usage this period under Plan & billing, for the same minutes, allowance, and overage rate.

What to expect

Only the minutes past your included pool are billable. If your plan includes 1,000 minutes and you use 1,120, you are billed for 120 minutes, not 1,120.

Overage is added to your next invoice for the period it happened in, not charged as a separate payment on the day. The minute count on your billing screen is live, so you can watch it move through the month instead of finding out at the end of it.

When you cross 80% of your included minutes, the billing screen says so plainly while you still have room to decide what you want to do about it.

Limits

• Going over your minutes never stops Cara answering. We would rather bill you 22 cents than drop a customer's call.
• Included minutes do not roll over. Each period starts fresh.
• Minutes are counted per business, not per person. Everyone on your team draws from the same pool.
• While you are on a trial you are not billed overage at all. Trial minutes are their own pool, and the billing screen gauges you against that pool rather than your plan's.
• A call longer than 4 hours is excluded from your minutes total rather than billed — this protects you from a bad recording or a stuck line being charged as a multi-hour call.

Common questions

Do I get warned before I go over?

Yes. The billing screen and the dashboard strip both change once you pass 80% of your included minutes, and they name the number you are approaching.

Can I buy a bigger pool of minutes instead?

Moving up a plan raises your included minutes and lowers your per-minute rate at the same time. You can change plans from Billing whenever you like. There is no separate minute pack to buy.

Does a junk call use my minutes?

A number on your blocked list is turned away at the start of the call, so it costs you next to nothing. The junk-call screen is different: it looks at the conversation after it has happened, so it keeps a robocall from pinging your phone but the minute was still spent. Both controls are on Settings → Call handling.

Where do I see what I was actually billed?

Your invoices are on the Billing screen, with the plan charge and any overage for that period shown separately.

Does my free test call count against my allowance?

No. The one test call you make while setting things up is marked free and is never included in your minutes total.