The FCC wants to help you avoid extra phone charges

The Federal Communications Commission announced a new plan yesterday that is supposed help you avoid unexpected phone bill fees. According to the FCC, almost all major wireless carriers have agreed to start sending warning messages to your phone when you’re getting close to reaching your plan’s quota for minutes, texts, international roaming or data usage.

Gizmodo writes that a second message will be sent “as soon as you exceed [the limit]. It’s set to be rolled out in part by October, and then completely, across every US carrier, by 2013.”

So the next time you’re backpacking through Europe and forget to turn your roaming off, maybe you’ll get one very life-saving (and probably expensive international) text letting you know you’re about to get charged.