cell phone plans

[jellowrestling]

My cell phone plan is a little bit complicated, because I have my wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law on our plan. At the moment, son, d-I-l and I have smart phones, wife and daughter do not. In the past, we would periodically get a round of new phones when they were needed. If one phone broke down, we always kept spares so that we could avoid lengthening the contract period. Once the current round of phones became increasing obsolete, we got a new group of phones, usually about every 2 years.

In the past, the phones were relatively cheap, and the real cost was built into the monthly plans. It was a better deal to get new phone every two years, because we were paying for new phones in the plans, whether we had them or not. Because of the way our plan was structured, each of us with a smart phone had our own data plan.

However, all of that has now changed. When getting a new phone with AT&T, we would pay a monthly fee for a period of months which would equal the cost of the phone, so getting all new phones for the five of us would cost (over the course of the contract) well over $3000.

Instead, we are changing the plan to a shared 15GB data plan with unlimited talk/text. I have bought a refurbished 32gb iPhone 5 for my wife and daughter, which were about $180 each (on Amazon). I will keep my iPhone 5, and son and d-I-l will keep their Samsung S3 Actives. We will buy new phones as needed to replace them. The new phone plan will save us about $75 a month, and all of us will have smart phones.

I had been a little reluctant to change my plan because I had an unlimited data plan. However, I have been watching the combined data usage for the 3 of us with smart phones, and it has never been more than about 5-6 gigs, and is usually closer to 3. Figuring in the taxes and fees, we will save nearly $1000 per year this way. We won't have the "latest and greatest" phones, but refurbs of the previous generation are great phones. We also won't worry about extended warranties as a hedge during the contract period, since we will now own all of the phones. If one goes in the washer (or breaks, or whatever), we will just buy a new refurb.

I figure this will cut our overall phone costs by about a third. Your mileage may vary. Anyway, the point is that the way the phone companies make their money has changed, and you might want to look into the way you buy phones and the way your plan is structured.

[jellowrestling]

One other thing I should mention about buying phones on Amazon: be sure that you are buying phones that work with your carrier. AT&T requires a different kind of phone than Verizon, for example. For AT&T you need a GMA phone, for Verizon you need a CDMA phone. In the description, they are usually pretty good about making clear what kind of phone it is, and which carriers it is good for, but you want to make sure.

[Jim Jack]

I was very skeptical when AT&T wanted to usher me off of unlimited data, but I wasn't using that much data at all. And I am on my phone a lot for an old guy.

[Mark]

We've got unlimited data on the kid's phone. She doesn't want to lose that, and it prevents me from making any major changes to the plan. We'll be getting her moved off our plan sometime this summer, and I'll gain some flexibility. I don't know if she'll be able to maintain her unlimited data when she moves the phone to another account or not.

I believe AT&T's new strategy of not giving away the phones in exchange for the two year commitment is a little short-sighted on their part. Since the customers are now paying for the phones and making no commitment to the carrier, it will be much easier for the customers to move from carrier to carrier. We're taking a look at Verizon.

We've been AT&T customers for over 20 years.

[Gigi]

My husband and I went with Consumer Cellular about a year ago. They are a reseller of AT&T minutes. Husband's AT&T phone was compatible, my old one was not. I bought my new phone through the new company. We have all of the minutes and data we need and pay $25 for me plus $10 for him as an added person per month. The plans are flexible, choose talk and data amounts as you wish. They were very easy to work with and made keeping our same numbers seamless. We are very pleased. They use AT&T towers, so the coverage is the same.

[John in Plano]

StraightTalk=WalMart=TracPhone runs on the majors networks and seems to have the best price. Anyone ever use them ?

[jellowrestling]

We've got unlimited data on the kid's phone. She doesn't want to lose that, and it prevents me from making any major changes to the plan. We'll be getting her moved off our plan sometime this summer, and I'll gain some flexibility. I don't know if she'll be able to maintain her unlimited data when she moves the phone to another account or not.

I believe AT&T's new strategy of not giving away the phones in exchange for the two year commitment is a little short-sighted on their part. Since the customers are now paying for the phones and making no commitment to the carrier, it will be much easier for the customers to move from carrier to carrier. We're taking a look at Verizon.

We've been AT&T customers for over 20 years.

Have you looked at how much data she actually uses?

[jellowrestling]

Just realized I wrote "GMA" instead of the correct "GSM"

[Mark]

We've got unlimited data on the kid's phone. She doesn't want to lose that, and it prevents me from making any major changes to the plan. We'll be getting her moved off our plan sometime this summer, and I'll gain some flexibility. I don't know if she'll be able to maintain her unlimited data when she moves the phone to another account or not.

I believe AT&T's new strategy of not giving away the phones in exchange for the two year commitment is a little short-sighted on their part. Since the customers are now paying for the phones and making no commitment to the carrier, it will be much easier for the customers to move from carrier to carrier. We're taking a look at Verizon.

We've been AT&T customers for over 20 years.

Have you looked at how much data she actually uses?

I believe I've seen as much as 5 gig on there, but rather than rock the boat, I'll just get through the next six months and let her worry about hit herself.

[glenn/dallas]

Todays Dallas Morning News has a article comparing the top five providers in their business section, page 5D.

[GFB]

I'd say it's real important that everyone on the plan understands the difference between cellular data and wifi..and making sure you know which you're on..wherever you are.

[jellowrestling]

I'd say it's real important that everyone on the plan understands the difference between cellular data and wifi..and making sure you know which you're on..wherever you are.

Absolutely

[Bob Of Burleson]

My wife and I have L15G Sunrise smartphones, which cost about $10 apiece. TracFone to run them adds about $7.50 a month for each of us. I use the heck out of mine, but make sure that most of my browsing is on Wi-Fi and not cellular.

[jellowrestling]

My wife and I have L15G Sunrise smartphones, which cost about $10 apiece. TracFone to run them adds about $7.50 a month for each of us. I use the heck out of mine, but make sure that most of my browsing is on Wi-Fi and not cellular.

I've thought about doing something like that, but my daughter, son and d-I-l do a lot of traveling across/between states, so there will always be usage of a few gigs or more.

[crackertoes]

I believe AT&T's new strategy of not giving away the phones in exchange for the two year commitment is a little short-sighted on their part. Since the customers are now paying for the phones and making no commitment to the carrier, it will be much easier for the customers to move from carrier to carrier. We're taking a look at Verizon.

We've been AT&T customers for over 20 years.

Yeah that.

I was shocked when I went in for an "upgrade" after my two years was up on one of my phones. I'm sticking it out with AT&T for the moment because I'm grandfathered on an unlimited data plan and I get a very nice discount through my employer. If something happens to that discount, I may flip back over to Sprint. I was very happy with them but when I got my first iPhone, AT&T was the only game in town for that.

However, husband just redid his AT&T plan (which includes the kids) and got unlimited data, unlimited cell, unlimited texting all wrapped up into our satellite and home phone (which we didn't even know we had!) and will now save a ton. All the kids are mega-texters, two are very heavy data users (streaming tv shows and watching a lot of You Tube stuff) and one is using the phone as his primary work # now. (That was a shock to see that first month!) Anyway, with the bundling, everybody has unlimited everything and we're saving about $200 over the old way.