When I retired, cost cutting was top of my list. I was shopping rates all over the place, but a guy at an independent phone store gave me the best advice. He said if you’ve been with your current carrier as long as I have (over 10 years), go in, tell them what you’re willing to pay, and they’ll find that rate for you. And it worked!! $50/mo. Of course, I do no streaming or anything, but I’m fine with what I have. Or I was until I broke my old Galaxy 3. 
Thanks. “Boom” mentioned earlier won’t work for me, because they just block you if you hit your monthly data limit, and I don’t want to risk that on the odd occasion when I might need more data. But with Puppy, so long as you have some cash in your account, your data service just continues at 3c per extra MB. And they offer international as well. Seems like an easy decision, I’m wasting $50 per month with Verizon.
That’s crazy. During the winter I typically wear a heated vest rather than a heavy coat, and I’ve often wished I could run the vest off my phone rather than a separate battery; this would be perfect for that, as it’s got more maH than my phone and vest batteries combined.
There’s just about no way in hell that’s a realistic mAh figure. You can usually divide Chinese manufacturer’s battery mAh claims in half to approximate reality. Then, if you actually get 40% of that and it doesn’t spontaneously combust on you, you count it as a good purchase. Truth in advertising is not a thing in China.
From what I’ve seen Googling it, the phone has issues (being cobbled together from low-cost and/or outdated components), but the battery claims are true, as the phone is ridiculously thick and heavy by current standards (3x the weight of my 10S Max). Some reviewers on Youtube have benchmarked it at over 30 hours of active run-time (not standby).
Paid $450 for my iPhone 7 with 256gb 2 years ago when they were clearancing them out. I pay ~$40/month to Verizon to use it with our family share plan.
I use the video/camera and texting extensively, listen to music in the car and the gym, and talk on the phone at least once per day. I plan on using the camera more in the new year because my first grandchild is on its way!
I also use a few apps for entertainment, but the best app is the one that allows me to connect into the security system at our lake house. The ability to tap into the camera saved my father from being arrested because he didn’t tell us he was going out and didn’t know how to turn off the alarm. I also use the same app to control the temperature. No more arriving to a freezing cold or stifling hot house.
I love my smart phone.
We have a family plan (4 iPhones; 15GB shared data, unlimited talk/text) that runs around $170/month including all the taxes and fees. I buy the phones outright direct from Apple, so there’s no amortized cost built into the phone bill. The phones generally last about 3 years, so I’d estimate that each one effectively costs about $20-$30/month over its lifetime, depending on the model.
So call it around $65-70/month total for each phone.
I bought an older model smartphone, have Virgin mobile unlimited text and data 35 dollars a month.
30/month for Cricket for unlimited talk/text 2 gigs data. I got an LG Stylo for 50 dollars from Cricket, I think I got a discount using a promo code. I don’t really use a phone, it’s mostly just for emergencies so the data doesn’t really get used much. I can just use wifi from my Comcast, which comes free with my rent and is available in the few places I’d be bored enough to scroll about the internet. This is my first smart phone and I just got it last month. Before that I had my old dummy phone I traded in for a Safelink aka “obamaphone” smartphone but my daughter uses that. It’s 500 minutes talk/text and 1 gig of data. She really only uses it when she’s on the bus so the data is plenty.
People who don’t want to be bombarded with pop-up and banner ads, that’s who. And $88 isn’t that much to spend, over a year’s time, for apps that add real value to your handset.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
I just moved to Spectrum where it’s $14 a month per GB or $45 unlimited. I’ve been on it for two weeks and have easily stated under a half GB of data. It’s a Verizon MVNO and i need their coverage for remote parts of Texas. I was with Boost for 7 years where I paid about $30 a month for unlimited. I loved the service i got from them. If still be with them, but they’re a Sprint MVNO and the coverage wasn’t as good. If you don’t spend time in the boonies, they’re an excellent carrier.
Prepaid $3/month for 30 minutes or text messages, $0.10 additional per minute/text after with T-Mobile. $5/day up to 500MB or $10/week up to 1GB 4G LTE data.
I have three accounts, primary, secondary (used mainly to locate my primary phone when I misplace it) and the third is a credit card sized one I keep in my phone for emergencies.
I buy unlocked GSM Android phones from Amazon and never spend more than $100 since that’s all I’m willing to lose/break. My primary phone is a <$100 Samsung J7 and I got a couple of other older Android phones for <$20. I got one at Target for $10 because it was a discontinued T-Mobile prepaid model.