Author Topic: Google Voice + Tracfone + Galaxy s3 = $8.33 / mo : $22,285.59 savings swing!  (Read 6049 times)

aglassman

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I dumped my old U.S. Cellular plan that was costing me $80 bucks a month.

I initially tried moving my Galaxy s3 to Airvoice, but it was not so easy.  After a few days my wife started getting mad that I no longer had a working phone, so I had to think quick.

I ended up getting a Tracfone @ $100 for 1 year of service with 1000 minutes.  The phone cost me $10.  This is ok for me since I don't call a lot of people, BUT I do like my s4.

So, I figured, why not just keep it?  Anytime I'm using it for all it's awesome features, I'm usually around wifi, or don't need data.  So now, I just keep it as a badass pda.  If I don't need it, I just bring my super small, light, and incredibly battery efficient Tracfone.

To save money further, I setup Google Voice.  I have it forward to my office phone during office hours, and my Tracfone at all times.  I also downloaded an app called GV+ on my Galaxy s4.  This allows me to make and accept calls to my Google Voice number for FREE!  There is a slight latency when using it over wifi, but it on the scale of maybe 50-200ms.

All in all, this comes out to a savings of $80 - ($100 / 12) =  $71.67 per month!

$71.67 * 177 = $12,685.59 worth of savings over 10 years!

If I would have kept my plan, it would have cost me $9,600.  Taking this into account, our savings swing is more like $22,285.59.

Over time, I'm going to try to cut that $8.33 down as low as I can. Since I'll be using Google Voice, nobody will even know if I swap out the Tracfone for something else.

Daley

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It's great that you've made the changes you had, but I'd like to point out for others that a little tweaking and knowledge would have made this setup far more badass.

First, a little context to help GlassMan understand where he ran into problems. USCellular is a CDMA carrier, and AT&T (the network Airvoice uses) is GSM. Even though the USC Galaxy S3 has a SIM card for their LTE network, these networks and their phones are incompatible. Airvoice also could have worked exactly the same way as his Tracfone setup with a simple feature phone swap (more on that next paragraph).

For the record, 1000 minutes for $100 and a year of airtime is actually very expensive in the prepaid market. P'tel (a T-Mobile MVNO, also GSM) would have been 2000 minutes for the same money spent. Airvoice's $10/month plan would have provided 3000 minutes for an extra $20 a year, thus potentially eliminating the need to use Google Voice to supplement any usage at all. A carrier unlocked GSM feature phone can be easily found for under $25, Nokia has flooded the market with these things. In the case of P'tel, if an average of 100 minutes of airtime or less were actually needed every month and a full year wasn't purchased up front, a $10 refill could be purchased every 60 days, dropping effective monthly cost to the $5 mark.

Tracfone carrier locks their handsets and will not allow you to take them elsewhere, and the handset quality leaves a lot to be desired. Tracfone also restricts network access through their devices. People also have frequent difficulty porting their numbers back out if they ever want to take their business elsewhere. Customer support is terrible, I know first hand. My experiences with America Movil is partly why the Superguide exists in the first place.

I don't point this out to disparage, It's great news to see someone save a lot of money on the cellphone front, but it also highlights how a little patience, research and planning ahead can provide a far better experience and greater deals across the board before making any drastic changes to your phone service.

GlassMan, you made an excellent step in the right direction... but take the time to research your options further and plan ahead. Consider purchasing a cheap, carrier unlocked Nokia feature phone and returning to Airvoice when you get close to running out of minutes instead of adding more airtime back into the Tracfone. The switch back is financially sound and will be worth it.

greenmimama

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I like this idea and might try it out when my contract is up.

Daley

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I like this idea and might try it out when my contract is up.

Run the numbers on your contract and the cost of breaking it. Frequently, it makes more financial sense to buy out than wait out.

Also, since Google Voice was mentioned, be aware of what's going on on that front.

aglassman

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Thanks for the input I.P.

Yes, I do agree that some more research could provide better results, and experience.

I was attacking this problem from an 80/20 perspective.  I put in 20% effort, and got about 80% of the results.  I'll hopefully improve on my setup as I go, and hopefully Google Voice won't cause me too many future headaches!

As for the price / minute, yes, I did notice Tracfone was one of the worst.  It was the best "prepay only" plan at Target.  All the other no-contract phones had a monthly minimum of about 20 bucks.  I don't like talking on the phone and use less than 100 mins a month, so i went with Tracfone because the overall cost seemed to be the cheapest option at Target.