How to Reduce Your Cell Phone Bill
It’s a little ridiculous to think we can live without a cell phone anymore, but we can live without the $100 + bills we all receive from our providers each month. If you use your phone multiple times everyday, this idea isn’t for you, but if you’re like me and your cell phone is rarely used and mostly the reason you wear a belt, then consider switching to a prepaid/pay-as-you-go service. I expect I will lower my bill, which has two phones on it, by 60%.
If you seem to continually come under your allowed cell phone minutes on your current plan, why pay for extra unused time? At best, a plan for a single phone will cost around $40 and this is not adding in the fees, txt messages, etc. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and TracFone all offer some sort of prepaid service that either allows you to pay per block or by the day.
My wife and I are going to switch to Verizon’s prepaid service this month. Currently, our bill is around $90 every month and we never get our money’s worth for a couple of reasons. For one, we have a house phone, primarily for our home’s alarm system. It’s worth nothing that our phone is through our internet service provider (VOIP) and offers free long distance. Second, my wife’s work supplies her with a Blackberry with unlimited access.
The Verizon plan we are going to switch costs .99 cents a day, but only the days we use the phone. The catch is, it costs .15 cents a minute when you call people outside of the Verizon network (not including dead zones–scary), but a Verizon to Verizon call is free. The majority of my family and friends are on Verizon, which makes this deal even better for us. I expect to lower our bill from $90 to around $36-40, based on our current usage.
These types of plans are also great for kids, seniors, and anyone else that has access to other means of communication or rarely uses their phone. If you are already paying for a house phone for example, you’ll just have to get in the habit of using that to call your friends and family versus your cell phone. The savings over a year, depending on your situation, could really add up with this move. However, if you are one that uses your phone like crazy, has a monster text messaging package or an unlimited data plan, then your likely best staying with your current setup. Although, I question the need for all of the extra bells and whistle many of us pay for each month with our phones. After all, your computer does everything your phone does, but cheaper, faster, and with a bigger screen!$
Related articles you might be interested in:
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader or email.
Comments
[...] milkyourmoney@gmail.com (milkyourmoney@gmail.com) added an interesting post today on How to Reduce Your Cell Phone Bill | Milk Your MoneyHere’s a small readingAt best, a plan for a single phone will cost around $40 and this is not adding in the fees, txt messages, etc. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and TracFone all offer some sort of prepaid service that either allows you to pay per block or by … [...]
I’ve been using Virgin Mobile’s pay-as-you-go plans for over 4 years now, and never spend more than $35 a month. I suggest looking at your usage history closely and doing the math to choose the right plan for you.
Frank, nice article. I would say, however, that dropping a plan with a major carrier and switching to prepaid phones may incur substantial early termination fees that wipe out any savings generated by the switch. Wait until your plan expires and then change carriers. In the meantime, focus on reducing the cost of your current plan. Having dealt with a $230 monthly Verizon bill, I’ve found that closely scrutinizing your cell bill in terms of what you need versus what you’re paying for, while intuitive, is essential to finding ways to pay less. I used some other tools for lowering my bill too; for example, one great new cell bill savings blog called http://fixmycellbill.blogspot.com/ constantly tracks new ways to cut wireless costs and exposes shady billing practices utilized by the cell phone companies. There’s also an online company called Validas at http://www.myvalidas.com that cuts the average consumer’s cell bill by 22% annually.
Good luck!
Dylan
[...] on coverage and in the process, doubling up our expenses. I recently wrote about switching to a pay-as-you-go monthly service on your cell phone, which is a great option for those of us that sparsely use our [...]
Dylan, though some times it may no t be feasible to just cancel a contract due to temination fees, it might be worth it in the long run. The reason contract provides have this fee is precisely to have the consumer tied down paying for plns they willnever consume. I agree with Bonita. Prepaid plans seldom go over $30 a month. NET10 for instance, which is what I have, costs me some $20 a month. I’m not a heavy texter and use the cell cautiously, but at least I’m certain that I’m not overspending or paying for mminutes I don’t use. I think that kids and seniors should defiitely have prepaid plans… and due to our bad economy, folks should definitely consider switching to this prepaid option. It does most definitely save money every month!
[...] See some-more here: How to Reduce Your Cell Phone Bill [...]