Cutting costs: Cell service

This is going to be a lot of meat to chew on. I have been asked by many people to post this one ASAP! So here goes. Have a sit and buckle up.


How much do you spend on cellphone service each month? According to the national average you could be spending at least $50 PER LINE per month. That puts cell service at well over $600/year. And that is just for basic cellphone service. If you choose to have a smartphone then you can easily run $75-$100/month per line. The convenience of a cellphone is something that most people don't want to do without. But at what price are we paying for that convenience? I am here to tell you NO MORE! There are many ways to cut your cellphone bill in half or even more and still keep similar if not the same level of convenience you are used to. Here are a few ways...



First and foremost you CAN NOT be a "spec junkie". These are the people that just have to have the latest and greatest phone on the market. They typically are the ones that stand in line hours before the store opens on the day a phone is released just so they can be the first of their friends to have that phone. You will never be able to save money and "keep up with the Jones'" like that. So what if you are using a phone that doesn't have the latest dual core processor or the best resolution display? As long as you can do what you need to on the phone you should be good, right?  Now all that is not to say steer clear of all smartphones. Some actually are a smart buy. I will get to that later.

There are varying degrees of saving money on your cell service. We will start with the easy stuff and gradually get to the "drinking the koolaid" stuff. So let's get started.

If you are locked into a contract your only option to save money, other than coughing up an early termination fee, may be to cut your plan down to the bare minimum. This is not as hard as you may think. Lets take a look.

• First see if your employer has any kind of standing offer with any of the carriers for discounts. Since I work for the State, they have a deal with AT&T for 15% off your monthly minute package. So for the 2100 minutes that was normally $100 we only paid $85. Not bad really as a dollar saved is a dollar earned. Also be sure to analyse your bill. 
• Do you really need the "Unlimited" plan? Are you using all of the minutes you pay for each month? Or could you drop down to a lower minute plan and save money by doing that alone? 
• Do you text a lot? It may be cheaper to get an unlimited text plan. 
• Just say no to phone insurance. If you upgrade your phone, save the old one as a backup in case something happens to your current one. And be sure to BACK UP your contacts and other important data regularly in the event you lose or break your phone. There are many ways to do this and they vary by phone manufacturer.

If you are not in a contract, or near the end of your contract, take a look at prepaid service. Back in the day it was the belief that prepaid was only for those that couldn't get "real" cellphone service. That is not the case anymore. Most of your major carriers have a prepaid plan but they don't compare with their post-paid plans. This is only because they want to sell their primary service and not the prepaid. Just remember, pre-paid is just another way for the carriers to get money from you each month. Let's take a look at just one instance here:

• Verizon Unlimited talk/text/web: $69.99 + tax and gotcha's
• Straight Talk (available at Walmart) Unlimited talk/text/web: $45

 So if you were looking at Verizon and wanted the unlimited plan you would be crazy not to go with Straight Talk from walmart for roughly $25/month less. And just in case you were wondering... nearly all but maybe two of Straight Talk's phones run on Verizon network. The other two I know actually run on AT&T's network. These two nokias are powerful tools to the frugal and geek alike as you can actually get your AT&T iPhone 3GS/4 or Android to work on the Straight Talk $45/month plan. So you were spending how much on your iPhone/Android service with AT&T? If you are like some of my friends they are spending close to $180/month on two iPhones. That is not even the Unlimited plans either!!! So if they were to do the switch to the Straight Talk plans they would cut their bill in HALF and have unlimited service. Getting the AT&T phone to work on Straight Talk is not terrible hard but may be better suited to the geek in your life if you are not technically inclined. Heck, you could probably throw them a free lunch or an Andrew Jackson or two to do it for you and still be on the gravy train to cash flowing. I will probably cover the exact howto on this in another post soon. If you are interested in that be sure to let me know in the comments or email.

While we are on the pre-pay train let's cover a few others that are cheaper. If you are a data hog and would like to stay with totally unlimited check out Boost Mobile. They have a $50/month unlimited plan and they ride on the Sprint network. Now I know I said "cheaper" than the $45/month of the Straight Talk, but this is more. So what is going on here?!?!?! Well Boost Mobile has what they call "shrinkage". The longer you stay with them and pay your bill on time your bill will shrink. So after 6 months you pay $45, 12 months is $40, and 18 months you will only be paying $35/month for the same unlimited service. That isn't bad if you ask me. It is a bit more on the front end but you end up saving in the long run. Being totally unlimited it is still cheaper than any Verizon/AT&T unlimited plan out there.

If you do not need an unlimited minute plan but still would like unlimited data and texting you have to check out Virgin Mobile. They, like Boost Mobile, ride on the Sprint network. They have 3 of what they call "Beyond Talk" plans. All three plans include unlimited text/web/data. The only difference is the amount of minutes on the plans. They are $60 for unlimited, $40 for 1200 minutes, and $25 for 300 minutes. There is no night/weekend as these are just anytime minutes. Although they do have the cheapest Android phone I have yet to have seen. You can buy the LG Optimus Prepaid Android Phone (Virgin Mobile) on Amazon or spend a few more dollars on it here or here. Either way you get a nice phone with all the benefits of the android os.

With all of these pre-pay services there is yet another way you can save on your monthly bill. Buy your discounted wireless prepaid refills at CallingMart.com. You can also click the link in the column on the right side and you can save a lot of money. We use Virgin Mobile and have the $25/month plan. We pay $24.01/month for this service through callingmart for each line. The trick is that you buy from callingmart so you don't have to pay the crazy taxes and they usually have discounts available for most services.They have good discounts on most pre-pay cell services out there. If I were to buy locally I would be charged nearly $3 in taxes on top of the $25. So going through callingmart I am able to save roughly $4/month per line!

This should be enough to chew on for now. In another post I will cover how to save minutes by using your smartphones data connection. Let me know if there is anything else you want me to expound upon.


The Frugal Geek