LG Banter phone: Texting character limit?

i have an LG banter from alltel, and i've been wondering... does anyone know what the character limit on one text message is? my old phone counted down so i knew when to stop, but this phone doesnt have that. so now i find myself guessing and hoping that the text i wrote is short enough to send. i only know it's too long when someone tells me they never got my text.