Pay to Get Out of Cell Phones?

[Truckman]

Our current cell phone bill through Verizon is about $250/mo.  Three Droids and 2 non-smart phones, one with unlimited texting.  Four of the phones are currently under the 2 year contract, so there would be a $200-$250 fee to break the contracts.  Would we save enough going to a pre-paid or something like Republic or Consumer Cellular to justify paying out to cancel our current contracts?

[Daley]

The first seven posts in this thread are the most important:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/communications-tech-isps-voip-cell/

As to running the numbers to see if buying out your contract is worth it:
http://www.myrateplan.com/contract_termination_fees/
http://www.techmeshugana.com/tools/wirelessroi.html

As to specific alternate carriers, beware of promises of unlimited anything, pay for what you actually need instead of cutting corners with plans that sound too good to be true, and sit down and do the math on what you actually need... and by need, I mean actually need in the way of mobile communications, not just phone service.

Finally, if you're wanting to stick with Verizon coverage and possibly keep your current equipment (which will save you the most money), the best provider for Verizon refugees is going to be Page Plus.

[Truckman]

Awesome, looks like quite the write-up! 

Haha...need.  A wife and two teenage girls who are the antithesis of mustachian (and me, too, up until just recently)....need. LOL  I'm working on it..

Thank you for that link and the quick reply!

[JessieImproved]

Hubs and I both broke our Verizon contracts to go to PagePlus.  $150/mo to $50/mo, same phone, I had a $200 contract break and hubs had a $180 contract break (didn't do it at the same time).  Our contracts were going to be up September 2014, so over the next 11 months we will save $1100 - $380 in termination fees = $720.   So yeah, it can be worth it.

[Truckman]

Thanks! I'm not 100% sure yet when ours are up. I think they stagger a bit, but I'm thinking late winter-spring 2015. 

[benjamin]

Ting will reimburse you 25% of the etf for each line that you transfer.  They are on the Sprint network though, so the cost of new devices might offset that.

https://ting.com/etf

PS- here's my referral link for anyone who sees this and decides that it's worth a shot.  I've been with them for almost a full year now and have nothing but good things to say.  Average bill is $17 for my smartphone with voice, text, and data.

https://z3gstnfeb1.ting.com/