Phone plan thread

**dawnwes** · 03-26-2014, 05:19 PM

We just switched. I had Republic Wireless before, but truth be told, I missed my iphone! The plan was GREAT though!

Since ATT came out with the $160 plan for 4 phones, AND Dh's work gives us a 25% discount, and pays his portion ($50), we ended up paying $25 for the plan plus $15 per phone for a total of $75 for 4 phones out of pocket.

Dawn

**MonkeyMama** · 03-27-2014, 06:54 AM

Ting. We are technically paying $25/month for 2 phones (all the minutes, data and texting we need). But, it's cheaper than that since we get referral credits and so on. We switched after Thanksgiving and so far we have not paid a single penny yet for our service (& don't expect to pay anything in April).

The catch is that the phones are not subsidized, but our current phones were with Sprint and we were able to transfer them over. We don't buy phones very often, so we are fine with that. Still come out WAY ahead. & my spouse likes high-end phones. But the phones have really come down in price the past year, which motivated our switch.

Edited to Add: XL would be $50/month for us, which is 2100 Minutes, 4800 texts and 2000 MB. There are small, medium, large and XL tiers for each category (minutes, texts, data). & there are very reasonable fees to use above the XL tier (no slapping you with crazy "per text" or "per minute" charges). We are only in the medium tier for the moment, but expect to push it up with the data and texts when we add our kids. You only pay for what you actually use every month.

**bjl584** · 03-27-2014, 09:25 AM

I have Verizon Wireless. We are on the family share plan. 2 lines, unlimited talk and text with 2GB of data for $134 a month.

**snafu** · 03-27-2014, 11:27 AM

HTC [Mobilicity] unlimited calling, text, data $ 42. per month. The downside is that it only works in cities. No service out of city limits, no rural or on the highway service. DH has a iPhone with unlimited everything at $ 62. per month but it's paid by a consulting company as a benefit.

**hamchan** · 03-27-2014, 12:18 PM

We are paying about 73$ a month on three smart phones with Ting. It's 64 before taxes and fees. I don't really make any attempts to limit my usage either. I use a lot of texts and data, and so does DH. DD mostly uses hers at home, so she is on wifi more than data.

**phantom** · 03-27-2014, 12:26 PM

My parents have Verizon Wireless and my husband and I give them $60/month for our two lines on their family plan. Our two extra lines probably cost them less than that, but that's what we thought was fair. I am a fairly light phone user, maybe 50 minutes of voice and 20 texts per month. My husband is a heavier phone user, but I don't know exactly how much more than me he uses the phone.

I've been considering leaving my parents' plan for awhile now, but I've been a bit paralyzed trying to decide whether or not I want an iPhone. I'm pretty sure I'm ready to make the jump to smart phone and never look back, but I can't decide whether or not to go for an iPhone. I've been doing iPhone development for several months at work, and I feel like I'd be better at my job with a smartphone in general and an iPhone specifically. But, the way Apple keeps putting out new phones every year and dropping support for older phones after a couple of newer phones are out, makes me really leery. As a developer, I love that I don't have to worry about supporting older phones, but as a consumer, I dread needing to buy a new phone every couple of years.

**elessar78** · 03-27-2014, 01:53 PM

Originally posted by bjl584 View Post

I have Verizon Wireless. We are on the family share plan. 2 lines, unlimited talk and text with 2GB of data for $134 a month.

Damn. Must be doing something wrong here. I'm in the same geographic area as you and I'm paying 170 most months with Verizon. 2 lines/2 GB of data unlimited talk and text. and we're even getting 18% off because of my wife's work.

**JulieAlbright** · 03-27-2014, 03:05 PM

We switched to Republic Wireless late last year - had to do something when it got to the point where our monthly cell phone bill was more than our old car payment. LOL

The initial investment of buying 4 new phones up front was a bit of a sting. I was going to stretch it out by switching one phone every couple of months but then we just decided to bite the bullet and do them all at the same time.

I've calculated that we will break even on the cost of the new phones in October and then hopefully the phones will last for a good long time. Right now our bill for the phone service plans is around $75 a month. My phone has a bit of referral credit money built up and I don't expect to pay a monthly bill for it until summer sometime.

**FrugalTexan75** · 03-27-2014, 05:42 PM

I currently am with AT&T - 450 minutes/200 texts/unlimited data - $74/month. I have an iPhone 4S which I love.

I'll be moving to NE soon, and am considering moving to Ting. I think I'd probably be in the Medium category for minutes, small for texts, and XL for data - and still would come out ahead. Before switching though, I'm probably going to do an experiment with the Android phone I previously got to experiment with Ting here - just to make sure that the data is good everywhere I might go. Before I break my grandfathered in unlimited data plan, I want to be *very sure* I'll be happy with Sprint's coverage.

**humandraydel** · 03-28-2014, 03:41 AM

Originally posted by bjl584 View Post

I have Verizon Wireless. We are on the family share plan. 2 lines, unlimited talk and text with 2GB of data for $134 a month.

Basically this - $137 I think. But we are switching soon to something cheap since most of our minutes/data usage is actually at home so we can just use the internet and VOIP.

**LizfromtheBronx** · 03-28-2014, 10:49 PM

For the past few years, I was paying around $112 on Verizon for a non-unlimited anything plan (iPhone). That was including a 21% discount! My discount expired (was from an old company), and between rising costs and losing that $ off, somehow my phone bill was approaching $150 a month for just my line!

About a month ago, I rolled my line into my mom's family plan. 3 lines (2 smart, one dumb) - ~$175 for unlimited talk and text, and 3gb of data to share (mom uses less than .5, I use around 2, other line is my deceased dad's line that she's not ready to cancel yet). Mom gets a 19% discount through her employer.

We're waiting to see what her plan actually goes up to decide on my portion, but guesstimating around $75 (probably less). I also get reimbursed $50 from work. Bringing my net bill to $25 for a much better plan.

**feh** · 03-31-2014, 06:40 AM

Tracfone family plan: 4 phones for $30 per month.

Of course, we don't get a ton of minutes/data at that price, but we don't need it. We aren't extremely heavy phone users.

I refuse to pay $100+ per month for cell phones, just like I refused to pay high monthly fees for cable/satellite service. I think most people don't realize how much they spend per year on such things.

**NetSkyBlue** · 04-03-2014, 02:54 PM

Usually $26 a month with Ting, sometimes less. I'm one who uses a cell phone till it doesn't work anymore, so I'll be using my Samsung Galaxy II till it dies or has an unfortunate accident.

I don't find internet works well in my area on Ting. I only even turn it on when I "need" to find something out on the go - some months not at all. And there's maybe a 50/50 shot it will work when I DO turn it on.

**tom edward** · 04-03-2014, 04:57 PM

I have a droid 4 on verizon with free tethering, unlimited data, 500 minutes and unlimited text. 107 just for my phone. I was grandfathered in so i got to keep the unlimited data plan. Until that changes, we use the phone as wifi for online gaming, netflix, and internet. I use about 60 gb a month so i would never get away with 2 gb of data.

Phone plan thread