What cell phone service do you have?

[g3]

I share a Verizon plan with two of my family members and my share per month is $70-$75 a month.  From that, I get unlimited talk (I don't need), text (I don't need) and 2GB of mobile data per month (I could get by with 1GB). 

I'm curious to see what alternatives Mustachians are using and see if they can help me cut my costs here.  I don't live in a very large town (~70,000) and a lot of cell phone companies struggle to provide reliable service throughout town.  That would make me hesitant to sign up for a smaller carrier since they only seem to support major population centers.

[usmarine1975]

Republic Wireless is probably going to be one of the popular recommendations.

Republic uses Sprints network so you would want to know if sprint works well in your area.
In my area it works just as well as Verizon save my bill is $35.00 per month for 2 smart phones with Republic compared to $130 with Verizon.  I use the wifi plan and my wife is on an older 19.99 plan.

[Cromacster]

I have a tmobile plan with 100 minutes, unlimited data, and unlimited texting.  $30 a month (32ish after taxes)

[g3]

Any recommendations for terminating my contract with Verizon?

Unfortunately, I signed a new two year activation back in the beginning of March and would probably pay an exorbitant amount for early termination fees.

[usmarine1975]

That depends on what your fee to terminate is.  Basically figure the termination fee into the cost of new phone and compare to keeping your current contract.  Then make your decision.  To me this is basically a numbers decision.

[marblejane]

Have you read the Superguide? It has a pretty comprehensive list of carrier options. Most MVNOs will provide you service by piggybacking a national carrier's network. For example, PagePlus uses Verizon's network.

How would it impact your family members if you terminate your portion of the contract? Can they just remove you from their family plan?

[mrigney]

My wife and I share a family plan w/another couple on TMobile. After taxes and fees, our total for all four of us is $103/month (unlimited talk, text, and data...although the data does get throttled from 4G to 2G after your first 1GB). With T-Mobile, that doesn't include the price of a phone. If you're going T-Mobile, I'd probably buy the Nexus 5 unlocked from Google. I think it's the best phone on the market and that doesn't even take into account price. I normally keep my phones for 3 years or until the break. Figure each person on the plan does it. That works out to an extra $39/month for phones. So total price of plan + phones (if phones are kept for 3 years and you get the Nexus 5) works out to $142/month for 4 people--$35.50 per person per month.

[BooksAreNerdy]

We have Republic wireless and love it. We got out of our Verizon contract and calculated that paying the termination fee would only take 4 months to break even with the monthly savings. I recommend that you figure out your time to pay off using an excel spread sheet.

[BlueMR2]

Tracfone.  $100 a year for 600 minutes.  I use around half that...

[Daley]

Any recommendations for terminating my contract with Verizon?

Unfortunately, I signed a new two year activation back in the beginning of March and would probably pay an exorbitant amount for early termination fees.

Run the numbers, you'll probably make out cheaper breaking contract and switching providers. As a Verizon user, I'd recommend you hold off briefly until September-ish, it's rumored that 4G support is coming to Page Plus, which means you might be able to bring your current phone. Also, if AT&T or T-Mobile coverage is an option and your Verizon handset is a 4G LTE unit that also supports US GSM bands (this is a big IF, but it is possible), the SIM slot should be carrier unlocked. This means you could switch to any outfit like Airvoice or P'tel.

Ignore the Republic shills, you'll note they care more about getting a referral kickback than actually trying to find a good solution to your needs. Also, it's not that difficult to reproduce the Republic experience for far less than Republic charges through the trivially simple voodoo of "call forwarding".

Tracfone.  $100 a year for 600 minutes.  I use around half that...

You are getting ripped off. I don't recommend T-Mobile Prepaid very often, but based off of your usage numbers, you could get five years of phone service for roughly $220. ($100 first year for 1000 minutes, $10/year for years 2-3, $50/year thereafter for 460 minutes a pop if you keep the balance rolling.) Coverage footprint is probably going to be about equal to Tracfone, too, and T-Mobile will actually let you carrier unlock your handset to take to a competitor. There's also plenty of other MVNOs available for nearly half of what you're currently paying.

[taekvideo]

Recently switched from Verizon to Freedompop.
The coverage isn't as great but it's hard to beat $0/month ;)

[jennifers]

I have a Tracfone from 2007.  I probably paid about 30$/month for minutes back when I got it, but now I only use about 80$ of minutes per year.  I can't believe a 20$ phone still works after all this time. 

[space]

A somewhat quick note regarding Tracfone and T-mobile - Tracfone coverage depends upon what phone variant you have - because Tracfone uses all 4 carriers in the US. Tracfone AT&T or Verizon will probably be better than T-Mobile coverage - even though T-mobile prepaid roams for voice/text, roaming isn't a replacement for native coverage - because there are a couple of edge cases in which the phone will lock onto a weak/unusable signal over a roaming signal, or in regions where roaming is disallowed.

For equivalent coverage and medium usage, look at H2O mobile - $100 gets you 2000 minutes for a year, balance does rollover. For very low usage: look at Truphone if you need AT&T coverage or Lycamobile if you don't - both have very generous balance expiration policies.

Me personally? Giv Mobile, with the half off when buying 3 months code.

(Also: I hope people do recognize the risks of using Freedompop? If you have a Wimax-based phone, you'll probably start having issues with your calls in about a year due to VoIP going over EvDO at that point)

[alsoknownasDean]

I've got two months to go on my Telstra contract.

It's an $80 cap plan ($800 of 'value', unlimited text, 1.5GB data), plus $12 a month for the 64GB iPhone 5, plus $15 for an additional 1GB data pack. All up $107 a month :( Worse still until March I was paying another $57 for my iPad.

Definitely looking around at alternatives once this contract ends. Unfortunately it's cheaper for me to wait until the end of the contract than break contract and pay for another carrier for the two months.

[FIreDrill]

I get Free cell service as well as cable and internet through my employer, GCI.

[neo von retorch]

I switched to Republic Wireless in late June. The numbers look great (when compared to the big four, much less so when you learn about other options), and it is not terrible.. but it's not great. With or without WiFi calling, my call quality frequently suffers. (It's particularly bad with WiFi, but I also don't live in the best Sprint coverage area!) But having bought a "republic wireless" moto g also hurts my flexibility / resale. I'd probably be lucky to get $100 on ebay for the handset I just bought for ~$160, and I can't switch to a GSM MVNO using this phone. If I can sell this handset, I will probably go back to my GSM phone that I haven't sold yet, and go with Airvoice. (I was using Straight Talk for a couple years previously, and I loved it, but there are less expensive options that give you the same exact connectivity.)

[Mrs. PoP]

We use Ting.  2 iPhones that together use < 500 min/month, <100 text messages and <1GB data.  Our bill is $47 including taxes and fees every month.  Runs on sprint network. 

Ting has credits for things like ETF when switching and swapping out your device for an equivalent one that is Ting compatible that greatly decrease the upfront cost of switching. 

[mrsggrowsveg]

I have Sprint.  I am still on my parents plan and they allow me to just pay the $30 add on for my phone.  I have unlimited everything.  Unfortunately, Sprint service is a bit iffy by my house.

[eostache]

I have Tracfone. I've been using it for nearly a decade and have been happy with it for my light talk/text needs, for ~$100/yr. This past spring I went from a flip phone to one of their android phones. I have been happy with it for a $50 phone. The Verizon service is good where I am. I found a great deal on minutes at shopcelldeals on ebay. I got 4 of the 200 min/90 day cards for $20 each. (These are $40 retail.) For that $80 year of service I get 2400 minutes/2400 texts/2400mb data. Way more units than I usually use and they roll over indefinitely.

At home I'm still using Google Voice with an Obi100 box (yes it still works!) for free phone calls.

[Ohio Teacher]

Republic!  Love it.  Also, since no one has posted theirs yet, here's my referral code: http://rwshar.es/39uJ 
Save yourself and me $20 if you use it. 

[LibrarIan]

I use a T-Mobile prepaid plan (unlimited text/data, 100 talk minutes) with a Samsung Galaxy SIII I got free. $31.80/month with taxes.

[sleepyguy]

We both have unlimited phone/data plans, for $0/mth :)  Through work.

If we didn't I would go with a cheapo prepaid phone and load like $100/yr on it with no data (just wifi).

[guzzler]

65$ - 15% corp disc = about 55$
4 lines
Unlimited minutes
One lines has 5 gb unlimited data
Tmobile value family plan of 1000 mins got converted to unlimited mins.
5$ data plan of 5 gb 4 g data, then unlimited.

[Primm]

I've got two months to go on my Telstra contract.

It's an $80 cap plan ($800 of 'value', unlimited text, 1.5GB data), plus $12 a month for the 64GB iPhone 5, plus $15 for an additional 1GB data pack. All up $107 a month :( Worse still until March I was paying another $57 for my iPad.

Definitely looking around at alternatives once this contract ends. Unfortunately it's cheaper for me to wait until the end of the contract than break contract and pay for another carrier for the two months.

I've just switched from Telstra to Telechoice. They use the Telstra 3G network, and my $200 calls and texts plus 200GB data costs me ... $12.50 per month. I haven't noticed any drop in quality or coverage.

There are plans closer to what you'd "need" though, like the $1000 credit + 2GB data which is a bit more, for $40 per month.

[alsoknownasDean]

I've just switched from Telstra to Telechoice. They use the Telstra 3G network, and my $200 calls and texts plus 200GB data costs me ... $12.50 per month. I haven't noticed any drop in quality or coverage.

There are plans closer to what you'd "need" though, like the $1000 credit + 2GB data which is a bit more, for $40 per month.

Very nice, thanks :)

I'm actually looking at going to Vodafone or a Vodafone MVNO, as I've found Telstra 3G to be extremely congested in and near the Melbourne CBD (and signal at my work is very weak), and Optus coverage at my house is weak. I've got a Vodafone SIM in my iPad and data flies on it.

Looking at either the Vodafone $50 Red SIM-only plan, the Lebara National prepaid, or a CMobile data plan (with calls at PAYG rates).

Lately I've been using around 1.5GB a month, but excess rates are high enough that I'd rather not go to a 1.5GB plan. Of course excess rates mean people like me end up buying more plan than we need.

I've been meaning to make a 'Mustachian mobile carriers in Australia' thread for a while actually.

[dbanta]

We are on an att family plan with unlimited voice and text with 10gb data shared. It is $35 per person for 5 of us.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Manguy888]

We switched to Ting and pay 35-45$ per month for two iphone 5's. Ting is so much cheaper than my 140$ per month ATT bill that it paid for itself in 4 months even though

- we had to pay 2 ETF fees of 325$
- we had to sell our ATT phones and buy Spring compatible iphones outright

If we waited until our contract with ATT was up to avoid ETFs we would have los tmoney.