For purely financial reasons, I’ve never owned a cell phone. But I figure it’s about time for me to dip my feet in the market. And I’m looking to go super-cheap.
Currently I pay about $100/month for cable internet and cable landline phone. I’m looking to maintain cable internet (which is about $50/month including taxes), and otherwise minimize my bill. I make very few long-distance calls, and generally spend less than two hours a month on the phone anyway.
Any thoughts as to my best options? Is it possible to get a decent plan for less than $50/month?
Pay-As-You-Go. Every major carrier has their own version and rates, but you can easily find one for $50/month or potentially much less. Just search “pay as you go” and look at each company’s program. Or you can go to Best Buy or Radio Shack and look at what they have.
Are you interested in anything that would use mobile internet and data service, such as a smartphone or connecting your computer to the net via the phone? If not, pay-as-you-go is the way to go. I’m not sure about pay-as-you-go data plans; these have lagged behind in availability in Canada and the USA because of the relative lack of unlocked phones. But if you just want a basic voice phone, no problem.
I’d go with T-mobile prepaid. You can buy a phone/starter minutes combo for as little as 20 bucks. If you buy $100 in minutes you become a gold member they don’t expire for a whole year. If you buy them $100 a time they run around 10 cents a minute/text. If you only spend about 2 hours a month on the phone, you can probably make the initial $120 last almost the entire year. That’s what I did when I worked all the time and never had time to talk.
I still use T-mobile prepaid, buy now that I talk more I supplement it with Magicjack($20 for the jack/$20 year). With 2 T-Moblie $100 refills this year that will be $220 for phone service for the year.
paygo is probably my best option; I’ll check out Best Buy and Radioshack. While I’d love to have a data plan, I’m not particularly interested in paying for one.
I missed your last line. $50 bucks a month? That’s heavy spending. Go with Boost mobile. $35/mo for 1000 min + 1000 texts. $45/mo unlimited talk/text. And $50/mo unlimited talk/text/web.
There’s no contract, so start with a cheap phone. If you hate 'em fire 'em and go with someone else. I’ve heard they are pretty decent though. I listen to Clark Howard all the time and he doesn’t get many complaints.
Yup. If you get lucky, T-Mobile Online sometimes runs specials where when you buy the phone, you get a 25 dollar refill card right off the bat. My kids’ first phones had a net cost of 5 bucks as a result :).
What has prevented me from giving up my land line is that while I, like LHOD, only use my phone about 2 hours a month, there was a year when I was using it more like 30+ hours a month. On my cuurent plan that would have cost me about $225 a month – double that with the plan I had at the time. I saved money by keeping my land line.
If I do PAYG, can I change it later, still without a contract?
Suppose I get a Smartphone/iPhone/Crackberry. Does Internet/GPS usage count as minutes?
PAYG has seperate rates for data, provided your cell provider even offers it. And you’d have to be crazy, with all due respect, to try and buy an iPhone or blackberry out of contract. The hardware alone is PROHIBITIVELY expensive without a contract, never mind the exorbitant usage rates for data and voice.