Google Fi Q- individual or go on hubs plan?

[dandypandys]

I am sick of Ting not working at my office! Plus my phone is dying.
Hubs is already over at Googlefi, he just recently switched and loves it! He got the 150$ off deal on the Moto g6 via them.
I also want the same phone, and deal, and am wondering what to do.
I can go under his plan and add me for $15 for each additional person. But, they don't give you the deal on the phone! ahhh it would be 249$ for me!
Or I could just get my own plan and get the deal, and his referral. its only 20$ a month vs 15 under him.

OR, this is what I am really wanting to know, can I go under his plan, and buy a used googlefi locked phone on ebay, and have it work for me with all the cool network switching capabilities Googlefi has?

See any other workarounds for not having to spend 249 on a new phone, but still getting all the cool googlefi network switching stuff. (I've only ever had free flip phones)Maybe getting my own account at first, then taking my number and g6 under him later on.

Another thought, my husband is a pc person, but im a mac person- with ipad and macbook. Will i have huge issues trying to sync ical? i doubt i will want to get a used iphone to use at google fi, because my main thing is wanting the international free stuff and the better coverage with the network switching.

[Ynari]

I have a googleFI plan. SO switched over with a used/sale phone at some point. We just ordered him a data-only SIM and had his number ported to google voice. He pays no monthly line fee, just the cost of data (of which he uses little). No problems so far.

[dandypandys]

Oh that is very interesting. I will have to research this. If I could have a used iphone it would be so much easier for syncing- wonder if that would work with a data sim. Not sure what google voice is.. looking it up now.
I maybe don't need the network switching thing, all I know is that ting doesn't work at my office, and hardly works much at all, even though we are in metro orlando! It's ridiculous. We prob only need his phone while off exploring international places.

[innkeeper77]

Google Fi never (or at least for quite a while) has locked their phones- they sell unlocked ones to you. You can get any unlocked phone any use it! (For the best experience, get one that is the same model as the ones they sell)

I'm just over here looking to get off of google fi for something cheaper.. I will probably try out mint mobile.

[sui generis]

I plan to consolidate accounts with my husband eventually.  A few months back, they had a really great deal, $100 referral for him and I got $20 off my first bill, so it was obvious we should take advantage of that, vs. the $5 per month saving if I went on his plan right away. I haven't actually looked into the mechanics of merging our plans, so hopefully this will actually work or obviously eventually we will be spending more with separate accounts.

I also got another like $100 credit or something by bringing my own phone, getting it unlocked and getting a SIM card through them.  It was wonderful and worked seamlessly.  Although because of that, I don't have the network switching capabilities, so I have noticed his phone gets better service than mine (but it only came up in a remote area of a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico, so not normally an issue!).

I'm now looking for a new phone - mine is so old, the battery only lasts a few hours if using it a lot.  My google FI account tells me I can get a Moto X4 (what my husband has) for $150 which seems really awesome, or a G7 for $250.  The G6 is out of stock, so I can't see what the price is on it, but assume it would be less now, since the G7 is out?

[sui generis]

Oh one more interesting thought about joint vs. separate account - you get "free" data after 6GB, apparently on the *whole account* not per like SIM card/device or something.  So, you could potentially save money on a joint account if you use more than 6GB combined per month.  However, you start getting throttled at....I think it's 15MB?  So if you use more than that, you'll both get slow speeds for the rest of that month.

This doesn't apply to us, as we only use about 3MB combined on the average month.  We almost had to use it when we moved and couldn't get new internet for a long time and were thinking about getting a hot spot to leave at home with another Google FI SIM card in it on my account...that's when we discovered that it was 6GB for all SIMs on my account, not per SIM card.  If you are heavy users, it seems like something to consider.

[dandypandys]

Thank you for your reply. I hope you are able to merge accounts! This is what I hope to do, but am scared there will be some caveat for a loophole like that. Let me know when you try it! :)

[I'm a red panda]

I went separate for the referral credit, then we plan to go joint

Neither us us has ever used more than 30 cents of data in a month though.

[dandypandys]

I've never had data, I have just used an ipad at wifi places- which is everywhere in my life practically. I really want to not use any- hubs even has his turned off on his googlefi account.. I will likely be the same- unless we reallly need to download a map while driving or something.

[dandypandys]

Has anyone merged accounts after having a single account already? How long did you wait? Did you have to give up your number? Was there any snags?
I would love to know if that is possible, and not a problem because this is the way I plan to go if they will let me. Thanks!