Money Matters
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Updated in comments: Ideas wanted to save on phone

csuavecsuave member
Seventh Anniversary 500 Comments 250 Love Its Name Dropper
edited January 2016 in Money Matters

I'm going over budgets with Mr. csuave and we want to know if anyone has ideas on how to save on his cell phone bill.  He has an iphone and his plan is AT&T Nationwide 450 with rollover.  He pays $99 per month.  This is after a 19% corporate discount.  There is no current contract with AT&T.

ETA: he is the only phone on this plan, it isn't a shared or family plan (I use a dumb phone on a family plan with my parents).  It has unlimited data.

All ideas on how to lower this bill are appreciated, thanks! 

Re: Updated in comments: Ideas wanted to save on phone

  • 1 word - Tmobile.  We were paying $50 for each of us - now less because we added MIL and FIL to our family plan and it brought it down even lower.
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  • Sprint is running a promo where they will cut your bill in half of you switch from AT&T.

    Also, I have heard Republic Wireless can be as low as $25 a month after you purchase one of their phones ($125-$200). No contract and they will reimburse you for any unused data (some get as low as $11 a month). It does a combo of wifi and data.
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  • An AT&T MVNO would probably be the cheapest option. Essentially they're smaller companies that buy service in bulk from AT&T then sell the service cheaper to their customers. There are some downsides though. Read about them here. They do get extremely cheap though, especially if you get a plan without data and just use wifi.
  • bmo88 said:

    Sprint is running a promo where they will cut your bill in half of you switch from AT&T.

    Also, I have heard Republic Wireless can be as low as $25 a month after you purchase one of their phones ($125-$200). No contract and they will reimburse you for any unused data (some get as low as $11 a month). It does a combo of wifi and data.

    Our work phones are with Republic Wireless. If he's willing to switch to Android it's a great way to go. The phones aren't bad at all.
  • If he likes the service with ATT, check out GoPhone. It isn't unlimited data, but it is cheap enough that if you had to pay for some data, you would still come out ahead.
  • If he likes the ATT service, check out ATT GoPhone. I don't think they have unlimited data, but it is cheap enough that you could buy extra data and still come out ahead.
  • als1982als1982 member
    1000 Comments 500 Love Its Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited November 2015

    bmo88 said:

    Sprint is running a promo where they will cut your bill in half of you switch from AT&T.

    Also, I have heard Republic Wireless can be as low as $25 a month after you purchase one of their phones ($125-$200). No contract and they will reimburse you for any unused data (some get as low as $11 a month). It does a combo of wifi and data.

    Our work phones are with Republic Wireless. If he's willing to switch to Android it's a great way to go. The phones aren't bad at all.
    Plus, Sprint is terrible. Bad service and a reducilous amount of dropped calls (and we live less than 10 miles from its world headquarters!) and even worse customer service. I'd go back to Verizon if we didn't get a decent deal from a family member who works there ($107 for unlimited calls, texts and data on two smartphones).
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  • We switched to net10 wireless. Dh and I are on a plan that is $90 a month, so 45 each phone. We get unlimited talk and text, and we brought our phones with us so that is 5gb of 4glte data. After 5gb, the data slows down but is technically unlimited. We have been really happy with it and I wish we would have switched sooner to be honest. It cut out bill almost in half.
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  • Before switching providers, talk to people in your area to find out who they have service through & how their service is. And when I say service I mean reception. In some areas some services are better then others. In one apartment I lived I never had any issues with my Verizon service, but when I tried T-Mobile, every call was being dropped and when they researched the matter they told me there was nothing they could do to improve things because of my location. Then another friend who lived more in the country lived within eye site of a Verizon tower but couldn't get Verizon reception at their house. Once you figure out who has good reception in your area and who doesn't then start checking out plans. Depending on how much data your husband uses, you may be able to save money by reducing your data package. Also check over bill for any small charges like ring back tones, recurring app charges.

  • Erikan73 said:
    Depending on how much data your husband uses, you may be able to save money by reducing your data package. Also check over bill for any small charges like ring back tones, recurring app charges.

    I was thinking starting out here might be better.  Just changing plans could reduce his bill.  Especially if his data usage doesn't match what he's actually paying for.

    If you don't count the installment plans for the phones (we just got new phones), our bill is $86/month for 2 phones, but we're also on a 1GB data plan and don't even use that.

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  • Just wanted to say, I have Sprint and they work just fine, I don't have any problems with them.  Probably just depends on your area in terms of service quality.  It also works up in Wyoming when H's old AT&T didn't work at all up there (he's now on Verizon and it works there).  

    Can't input much on the plans though, I pay $40 to my stepdad to be on his unlimited family plan.  
  • I have Metro PCS and have been happy with them.  It is $40/month with unlimited data up to 5GB on 4G.  They also have a plan that is unlimited 4G data for $60.

    Their gimmick is "$40 period."  The bill is truly a straight $40/month, with whatever taxes and fees already built into that price.

    I also think IPhones can be put on their plans.

  • jtmh2012 said:


    Erikan73 said:
    Depending on how much data your husband uses, you may be able to save money by reducing your data package. Also check over bill for any small charges like ring back tones, recurring app charges.

    I was thinking starting out here might be better.  Just changing plans could reduce his bill.  Especially if his data usage doesn't match what he's actually paying for.

    If you don't count the installment plans for the phones (we just got new phones), our bill is $86/month for 2 phones, but we're also on a 1GB data plan and don't even use that.

    That's what we did, we use to have unlimited. The highest we ever went was 8gb. Our average is 5-6GB.  We're on AT&T so we took advantage of their recent 15GB for the cost of 10GB. It saved us about $30 a month
  • Sprint is running a promo where they will cut your bill in half of you switch from AT&T. Also, I have heard Republic Wireless can be as low as $25 a month after you purchase one of their phones ($125-$200). No contract and they will reimburse you for any unused data (some get as low as $11 a month). It does a combo of wifi and data.
    Our work phones are with Republic Wireless. If he's willing to switch to Android it's a great way to go. The phones aren't bad at all.
    We have Republic as well, and we've been happy so far. We actually have the super cheap plan ($10/month) for unlimited text and talk but no data unless we are connected to wifi on one phone because I am almost always near wifi. DH's plan is $25/month for 1GB of data. The nice thing is that if I'm ever travelling or anything, I can switch plans for the length of time I need data and they will pro-rate the monthly fee. It may not a good option for you since your DH has an iphone, but it is definitely MM. It's actually cheaper than the plan we used to have for our dumb phones. 
  • csuavecsuave member
    Seventh Anniversary 500 Comments 250 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited January 2016
    UPDATE
    @smerka thanks so much for the tip on Go Phone!  We didn't know about it before you mentioned it.  H made the switch this week.

    His unlimited data plan was $99 out the door and after I wrote my post he actually got a letter that they are going to raise the price by $5.

    Turns out he was only using 3GB or less most months, although a couple months went up to 5 or 6.  Go Phone is $60 for 4GB.  It is technically unlimited because they don't cut you off at 4 but rather throttle down.  They also have rollover.

    He paid $61 for this month.  I guess the $1 was taxes?  If that is all for taxes then that is awesome!  Future months will be on auto pay and go down to $55-56 per month.  So overall he'll save close to $40 each month!

    Since he owns the phone he can do this month to month with no contract and easily switch to something else in the future if and when that makes sense.

    Now my only question is can he buy the Go Phone gift cards to put towards his bill without screwing up the auto pay discount?  There are deals to be had on gift cards so that could yield more savings.
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