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The cost of monthly service is dropping. The change for your wallet is the best since the last big wave of discounting began 15 years ago. Plans and services are morphing in many different directions at once. That makes saving money more complicated and requires you to decide what compromises you are willing to live with to save money.
Cell phone service can now be divided into 3 types: The Big Four, discounters, and innovators.
1. Visit Sprint.com/HalfPrice to upload a copy of your current bill.
2. Bring a copy of your latest bill and all of the phones on your Verizon or AT&T account to turn in to your Sprint store.
3. A Sprint representative will select the service plan that most closely matches the data allowance in your current monthly rate plan.
4. Get your new phone either by leasing, doing installment billing, or paying full retail price for the device.
Meanwhile, Sprint has a sub-brand called Boost Mobile that offers the same service, the same towers, the same everything at a lower price. Like the other Big 4 sub-brands, you get unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 2.5 GB of data for $35 a month. No contract!
You sign up no contract and pay a real price for a phone. When it comes to service, the first line is $50 per month. The second line is $30 per month. Lines 3 through 10 are $10 per month. Each line comes with unlimited talk, text, and 2.5 GB of data through 2015.
Here’s a bonus: T-Mobile will pay termination fees for you if you leave any contract carrier and come to them.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile has cut prices on its sub-brand called GoSmartMobile.com. For $25 a month, GoSmartMobile customers get unlimited talk and text and unlimited Facebook at 4G speeds. At $35 a month, you get unlimited talk, text, Facebook, and 500 MBs of data a month. And for $40 a month, you get all that and 3 GBs of data in total, which would meet the needs of the vast majority of smartphone users.
Feeling the heat from T-Mobile, AT&T has now instituted a big price cut as well for families. The first two lines cost $130 per month. Not great. However, each additional line is $15 per month. For 5 lines you pay $175 per month or $35 per line. That includes unlimited talk and text for all lines and 10 gigs of data to share among the lines.
Meanwhile, AT&T also has a new discount brand of cell service now that they’ve boughtCricket. The pricing starts at $35 a month and goes up to $55 a month depending on how much data you use.
While this certainly isn’t the best deal for single individuals, it’s worth noting because Verizon has historically been reluctant to discount. If you’re looking for the best and cheapest deal for individuals with unlimited everything, check out this $25 a month option from a smaller player in the wireless world.
The latest news from Verizon is that they’ve announced a discount sub-brand called Total Wireless. The standard offer is unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 2.5 GB of data for $35 a month. No contract!
As with most discounts, you have to ask for these to get them; if you don’t ask, you don’t get! And if you’re intent on staying with any of the Big 4, take a look at WhistleOut.com. The site makes it easy for you to find the best plan to meet your needs with a free comparison shopping tool.
The discounters have grown their customer bases by big amounts in the last few years. However, I don’t expect much growth unless they cut rates again.
With any of the discounters, the phone you buy or bring determines whose network you will be on.
These providers have the most opportunity to save money — and the most odd terms of use. All three use wi-fi as a way to pass savings on to you.
That’s the good news about Freedom Pop. The bad news is the call quality on FreedomPop is severly lacking. While the coverage seems fine, the call quality is just mediocre at best. It’s a definite work in progress. But the data works very well, just as promised.
There will be many more new innovators in 2014. Look around and take your time before you choose. And NEVER sign a 2-year contract again!
This post was last modified on June 5, 2018 2:56 pm
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