Leaving a Long Term Relationship When we bought our first house, we got absolutely no reception at our new home on our AT&T cell phones. So, we switched to Sprint, which did have coverage in our house. We have been with Sprint ever since- so, 8 or 9 years with the same cell phone company, and the majority of that time on the exact same plan. In fact, we didn’t change our plan until we added the MIL to our account a little over a year ago. In order to add someone, we had to upgrade to a current plan vs our old grandfathered in one.

Before adding the MIL, we were paying about $75/month. After the MIL passed (which allowed us to remove her from our plan with no hassles) our bill became $90/month. This was for 700 shared minutes (an amount we never came close to using) and very limited texts- something I did go over on occasion.

Still, given what our friends with smart phones pay for their cell service, it seemed like a pretty good deal. But the truth is, C has wanted to switch to a pay as you go plan for a long time. There were two reasons he didn’t when he last got a new phone (and therefore reactivated his contract).

One was that it was an emergency replacement of the phone. Junebug had destroyed his previous phone, and considering he was on unemployment and actively job hunting at the time, we didn’t really have time to do a lot of research into pay as you go services. We needed to replace the phone the same evening it was destroyed.

The second was the cost of leaving me on our plan with Sprint, since my contract wasn’t up. A contract for a single line is not that much cheaper than a contract for two lines, and we just did not see much (if any) savings at that time.

But it’s now three years later, and finally, both of our contracts with Sprint are expired. We knew this was coming up and we planned for it, did our research, and were prepared to switch both of us to a pay as you go plan. Last week we got our new phones. As of yesterday, our numbers were ported (my contract wasn’t up until Saturday, so we waited until Monday to officially switch) and we’re good to go on our new plan.

 

Boost We started our research into pay as you go with Boost Mobile, partly because they do the most advertising, but also because a friend has the Boost Unlimited plan and, after 18 months of on time payments, he only pays $35/month for unlimited talk/text/data on his smart phone. If C and I wanted smart phones and data, we could have gone to Boost and started at $100/month for the two of us (only $10 more than we were paying, but getting a lot more) and every 6 months, our payments would have gone down $10 until we reached $70/month for the two of us.

That would have been a great deal if we thought we needed unlimited anything. But again, between the two of us (especially now that the MIL has passed) we don’t even get close to using 700 minutes a month. C uses less than 100 most of the time. I text a few times a week, but certainly not enough to need unlimited texts. Plus, C very much doesn’t want a smart phone. All he wants out of a phone is the ability to make and receive calls. (Though he also finds texting convenient occasionally.) And while I was flirting with the idea of a smart phone, I still didn’t see the need for an unlimited plan.

Outside that structure, Boost’s per minute/text charges were higher than most other places we’d seen.

 

Net10 Next we looked at Net10. We looked at them because they actually have phones and “minutes” for sale in our local grocery store. They had some good deals on nice phones, so we took a look. If I had decided to go with a smart phone, I would have gone with Net10. They have a $25/month plan for 750 minutes/texts/data packages. That’s $10 less than the best price at Boost and would have been much more along my usage patterns. (Their unlimited plan was also $50/month, but without the ability to lower the price via on time payments.)

Their other packages were okay, but nothing really jumped out at us.

 

PlatinumTel C then looked at PlatinumTel. PlatinumTel had a promotion going on where if you bought their $100 year long plan, you got a free last generation non-smart phone (LG Rumor, for those who care). Since we were switching carriers, we were going to need new phones anyway. The $100 plan charges you $0.05/minute, $0.02/text, and $0.10/megabyte. There’s also a $0.50/month federal tax. The “minutes” never expire, but the plan is only good for one year.

Still, if C had a ton of money left on the card after a year, we could buy him another 90 day card for $10, and he’d still have access to whatever was left over from the $100.

I did some hard thinking and decided while I LOVE the look of the HTC smart phones and I like the idea of them, the truth is, I also really like not being connected when I’m not at home. Sure it would be nice to tweet or post a FaceBook status update from the RollerDerby bout, but I’m fine not doing that. And I’m more than fine not having my phone chirp at me every few minutes with updates from other people. Being able to get directions or look places up might come in handy once every few months, but not more often, and we could just do what we do now- call a friend at home (often roomie J) to have them look something up for us.

I, too, decided to go with the $100 plan from PlatinumTel.

Now, it’s very possible that I will use all $100 in less than one year, but even if I go through it every 6 months (and my guess is closer to 9 months) that’s still only $200/year for me and $100/year for C. Cell phone service for $300/year.

 

Savings and Flexibility Now, remember up top when I mentioned paying $90/month with Sprint. That’s $1,080/year. We’re saving almost $800/year on our cell phone service. That’s enough to buy C a tablet and me the new light-weight laptop I’ve been coveting at CostCo. Not that we’re likely to get either of those things, at least not anytime soon, but the savings is ongoing. And, if we don’t like our service or have some other problem, even if we changed our minds today, we would only be out $200. Sprint charges about $350 for breaking your contract.

That means that in addition to extra cash in our budget every month, we have also gained flexibility. No more waiting 2+ years to be able to make a change to our phones or our service. Plus, we’re not tied together. If I decide I really want/need a smart phone sometime soon, and C wants to stay with what we have, there are no issues. I’m free to find the best deal, regardless of who it’s through.

 

Never Going Back I have to say, I’m thrilled with going to a pay as you go plan. I doubt we will ever have a cell phone contract again. Sure, if we ever get smart phones, we might have to pay for them out of our pockets, but the savings we’re getting by not being on a contract would more than cover that over the life of the phone.

For those who have to have a specific type of phone or just the latest and greatest phones, a pay as you go plan might never be an option, but that’s a choice. It seems to me that most people I know could save a lot of money just by ditching the contract.