Cutting Cell Phone Bill

neguy11 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-24-2009, 07:51 AM

Right now I pay $73 a month through Sprint and that's WITH a discount of $7 per month. I can't stand paying so much because I never use all my minutes and it's got too many unnecessary features.

I am thinking of switching to Virgin Mobile prepaid. They have a phone for a one-time cost of $29.99 and for $29.99 a month I can get 200 anytime minutes, 500 night and weekend minutes (starting at 7 pm), and 1000 text messages. That should be enough for me.

I would have to pay a $200 Sprint cancellation fee, but I could also likely sell my Sprint phone for about $80. So it would cost me about $120 to cancel Sprint and I think I should recoup that in 3 months with the lower monthly payments.

I am in a contract with Sprint until November 2010 so I think getting out now will be the best in the long run!

Does this sound like a good idea?

disneysteve · #2 (**permalink**) 03-24-2009, 08:53 AM

I think that sounds like a great idea. You'll recoup your cancellation cost very quickly and then be saving that money month after month.

LivingAlmostLarge · #3 (**permalink**) 03-24-2009, 10:57 AM

How much longer do you have left?

noppenbd · #4 (**permalink**) 03-24-2009, 11:04 AM

Check out celltradeusa.com

They allow you to find people that are interested in swapping or taking over your plan. There are other sites like this as well.

neguy11 · #5 (**permalink**) 03-24-2009, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LivingAlmostLarge

How much longer do you have left?

My contract expires in either October or November 2010 so basically 18 months left.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noppenbd

Check out celltradeusa.com

They allow you to find people that are interested in swapping or taking over your plan. There are other sites like this as well.

I did not know you could do that. I will look into this. Thanks!

noppenbd · #6 (**permalink**) 03-30-2009, 06:26 AM

I can't vouch for any of these but this is what google turned up:

Cellswapper.com - Get out of your cell phone contract - mobile contract - wireless contract
Cellular Swap - Don't Drop It, Swap It!

workingmamma · #7 (**permalink**) 03-30-2009, 12:46 PM

Just be careful of changing because sometimes there can be hidden fees with the new company. There may not be but I would make sure before I paid the fees to switch.

TheDude80 · #8 (**permalink**) 04-03-2009, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by workingmamma

Just be careful of changing because sometimes there can be hidden fees with the new company. There may not be but I would make sure before I paid the fees to switch.

Very good point to keep that in mind. There are so much "fine" print with contracts, especially cell phones.

emilywebster07 · #9 (**permalink**) 04-04-2009, 01:16 PM

Thanks for posting about the
celltradeusa.com.

Its a cool website.

Ronin · #10 (**permalink**) 04-15-2009, 01:08 AM

Also keep in mind a lot of the coverage areas, service, and call quality really sucks with the pay as you go phones and the less well known companies.

tulsa_sr5 · #11 (**permalink**) 04-15-2009, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronin

Also keep in mind a lot of the coverage areas, service, and call quality really sucks with the pay as you go phones and the less well known companies.

Virgin mobile actually uses the sprint network, they are a reseller.

You should find your very best plan before you call sprint to cancel. They will do everything they can to save your account. They offered me $10/mo for 100 minutes which is close to what my t-mobile pre-paid is costing me. One deal with monthly plans though is all the fees. Take a look at your sprint bill sometime and note how much extra stuff is tacked on, taxes, surcharges, universal service fees... it really adds a lot to the base monthly rate. I ended up going with the prepaid just so I know what it really costs, and I have the flexibility to change service, use more of my minutes without the rate changing, etc.

neguy11 · #12 (**permalink**) 04-20-2009, 10:20 AM

Well I went ahead and cancelled Sprint. I'm so glad to be contract free and am very pleased with the Virgin Mobile service. It's going to be nice paying $33 a month instead of $73.

faithman1012005@yahoo.com · #13 (**permalink**) 04-20-2009, 12:19 PM

Sounds like you made a wonderful decision! You just saved $480 a year not counting your fee for having cancelled.

KevinCarr · #14 (**permalink**) 04-23-2009, 03:32 PM

Wow, that was really smart. I need to do that for my Wife!

kebark · #15 (**permalink**) 04-27-2009, 05:55 PM

not sure if this is helpful, but im currently paying £25 a month over here for 600 any time mins, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile internet. Would be suggesting you lot get really ripped on for your phone contracts.