It has
been awhile since I've talked about our family's cell phone plan so I thought
it might be time for an update. What I
love most about it is that it isn't anyone's plan but mine. I'm not tied to anything and it doesn't cost
me a fortune.
Now
that we no longer have a land line I use my cell phone a lot more than I used
to which means I've needed to spend more money on it than I did before. Also, because the girls are now getting
themselves to and from school on their own, it is important that they keep in
contact with me and let me know they have arrived at their destination safely.
Since I
am no longer the only one with a cell phone I needed a way to easily afford not
one phone but three. I stayed with
Tracfone because I like their service and their prices. And the longer you stay with them the lower
the price is for service. Love that!
At
first I paid for my minutes and every once in awhile they'd give me a coupon or
email a special offer. Initially my
first phone cost me $10 and the monthly cost for service $19.99 for 90 days or
$6.66 a month. Not bad at all.
After
shutting off our landline last June that saved me $50 a month but it also meant
I'd be using my cell phone more. Now I
spend $39.99 for 90 days of service, which gives me three times the minutes I
used to have, or $13.33 a month. My new phone
cost $39.99 and the only reason I bought it was because the old one wore
out. This one allows me to text much
better too because it has a key board.
The
girls had to buy their own phones. That
was the deal because I figured if they had to buy them they'd be more careful
with them and less likely to lose or damage them. I pay for their service at $19.99 for 90 days
or $6.66 each.
To
recap, the total I spend on our cell phones averages $26.65 a month for three
of us to have a phone, with internet and texting. We don't use the internet, which saves us,
but we definitely use the texting.
Especially the oldest. If they
want more minutes than what I am willing to provide then they have to pay for
them. So far neither one has been
willing to fork over the extra dough and they are really good about rationing
their time.
Once a
month I update the service to one of our phones so I'm not paying for all of
them at one time and we are always overlapping one another. If you update your phone your service is
completely transferrable at no cost and I love the fact that there are no
hidden fees. It is what it is. XX of service and minutes for $XX. Easy, peasy and if you no longer want to do
it, you stop.
Do you
have a cell phone? How affordable is
your plan?
We also use the tracfone and are totally happy with how reasonable it is price wise. One of the best values I have found.
ReplyDeleteYou just can't beat it. I love it.
DeleteIt sounds like you have a good plan- we have talked about switching ours at times but haven't done anything about it yet. Right now we have a plan with AT&T wireless. We get enough minutes for our phones for the month and that's it. We can talk to each other for unlimited minutes since we are both on the same plan and can talk to anyone else with an AT&T plan for unlimited minutes for. We do not have any texting or internet/data at all- just talking. And our phones are dumb-phones. We get the $10 Go-Phones from Walmart and just put our SIMS card in them. There is no camera or anything on the phones. I know that seems pretty bare-bones, but it works for us. Plus we have the Vonage land-line for $10 a month (300 local/long-distance outgoing minutes, unlimited incoming minutes.) :)
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the less my phone has on it the happier I am. I wouldn't use enough stuff on an I Phone to make it worth having one.
DeleteThat's a great deal! We were paying around $112 a month for two cell phones through verizon. Then my husband got a cell phone through his work and didn't need a home one anymore. When we went to cancel his plan we found out it was still going to cost around $90 for my phone--and I didn't even have a smart phone. A friend told us about Ting--a month-to-month cell provider that only charges you for what you use each month--and I figured out that if I cancelled my current contract, paid the $250 early termination fee and bought a smart phone, I would still save myself $1200 by the end of the year if I switched! My bill is always around $25, which I've been really pleased with but it sounds like you have figured out how to get 3 phones for that price. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThose early termination fees can be brutal but it sounds like it was worth the expense for you in the long run. I can't believe how economical our phones are. It has been wonderful.
DeleteWe pay $142 a month for 3 smart phones(Iphone 4s, Samsung Galaxy 3 and my Razr). It is a 3 year contract. It is not crazy expensive, but not cheap either. It is what it is.
ReplyDeleteI don't want a phone that is smarter than me. lol. I'm so technologically challenged it isn't even funny. I still haven't set up my voice mail.
DeleteI don't understand why people need I phones. My 87 year old mother has one. My brother has her on his plan. My cell service is free. My son has me on his plan. He said it was my retirement benefits from babysitting his children. My husband has a trac phone. We still have the house phone. Where we live the cell service doesn't work all the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm really happy with just the basics. All I need to do is make and receive calls really. Texting isn't my favorite thing to do but my kids have gotten me to do it. At least they don't laugh at me anymore when I try to text.
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