Author Topic: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...  (Read 2826 times)

MatthewK

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Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« on: May 01, 2018, 06:13:22 AM »
Ok, I should start by saying my wife is not a spendy person by any means. We keep overall spending pretty low for a family of 5 and a good savings rate. No debt other than mortgage. We have reduced a lot of costs, but one thing that makes me crazy is her AT&T bill. $60/m versus my 18/m through Us mobile. She does't come close to her monthly usage either, pretty light user. She works for one of the major power utilities here in Michigan so she hate's utility deregulation. Feels it isn't right other companies can sell service that doesn't have to produce it or maintain infrastructure and she feels it's the same with wireless. I feel that with the big wireless companies, the bill's are so outrageous due to them charging to advertise on television and sponsor sporting stadiums...like the Cowboys stadium in Texas....fuck that, I am not subsidizing that kind of shit with my money....I will gladly pay for what I use and that's pretty much it. I don't see our major utility sponsoring things like that, just local things to our community and state. What do you think, should I leave it alone or keep trying to nicely convince her?

sokoloff

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2018, 06:36:16 AM »
If she's gotten herself into a line of reasoning that MVNOs shouldn't exist and that they are threatening her way of life, I'd probably just leave it alone and live to fight another day.

We switched to Ting ages ago and I couldn't be happier, but I also wouldn't make it a gun rights or abortion-level debate against a fundamentalist. "You can't reason someone out of a position that they didn't reason their way into."

Trying2bFrugal

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2018, 06:40:59 AM »
I live in Michigan. Sprint has pretty good coverage in Mi.

Check Sprint Coverage
Sprint provides 1 year free coverage. Check that too. I moved many of my friends to Sprint, we pay $3/mo per line for unlimited everything.

 Sprint signup referral-you would get $50

If you decided to join use above or any referral, so both sides get 50 and you would the year totally free.

After signup, go to https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/offers/free-unlimited.html?phone=byod&cf_offer=100579&cf_id=843075513.843075512.798861073&cfp=e433307880050a5550ad58c3f975f275&ECID=SEM:Google:p:2018_Q1:Text-Brand-SGA-BYOD-Exact::sprint_one_year_free:Exact, check the phone for cdma compatiblity, if you got the phone, just get the sim and you are good for one year plan.

I gave it my wife too. It's not MVNO, if she isnt happy give her mintsim or worst case ATT prepaid.

undercover

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2018, 08:14:13 AM »
This is akin to not shopping at Walmart because you're morally against eliminating the little guy...except it's sort've in reverse which is even more bizarre. Either way, both are unhelpful ways of looking at the world.

Trying2bFrugal

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2018, 08:50:57 AM »
This is akin to not shopping at Walmart because you're morally against eliminating the little guy...except it's sort've in reverse which is even more bizarre. Either way, both are unhelpful ways of looking at the world.

Agreed.

Its like speaking about money in Theives wallet. Its his money,  but could be anyone's else. Lol.

NathanP

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2018, 08:58:06 AM »
Assuming that you can't change your wife's mind (probably not worth it), have her switch to https://www.cricketwireless.com/ . They are owned by AT&T and should offer equivalent coverage. The $30 plan should work well for a light user.

This is probably one of the best options if you must be paying a network operator directly.

Wayward

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2018, 08:58:46 AM »
No two people are going to think exactly alike, there always needs to be some give and take in a successful relationship.  As long as all of your other spending is on track and you share similar goals/values/etc in other regards I would let this go.  BTW, would it cost you more than $18 per month to be on the same plan as her? 

Daley

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2018, 08:58:57 AM »
She works for one of the major power utilities here in Michigan so she hate's utility deregulation. Feels it isn't right other companies can sell service that doesn't have to produce it or maintain infrastructure and she feels it's the same with wireless.

If it helps, let her know that the wholesale and MVNO market here in the United States is voluntary. There's absolutely no regulation or deregulation on the books demanding that the MNOs sell off airtime to third parties as they do. It's not at all like Europe where there's a legal mandate to allow fair access and pricing to network resources. (I could get into a massive rant here about the US telecom industry, but it's nothing I haven't said before and not exactly germane to the discussion at hand.)

What this means from a practicality standpoint is that AT&T, T-Mo/Sprint, and Verizon are voluntarily reselling this airtime (for the time being) to MVNOs, even in an era where the FCC and Executive appears to not give a crap if they shut down all wholesale network access and merged into a single monolith (unless that merger apparently involves CNN as an asset). It's also worth noting that even in Sprint's "dire" financial situation, it (and all the MNOs) have still been turning obscene profits for years in a saturated market, even with their wholesale customers. If it wasn't profitable for them to do it, they wouldn't be doing it.

It also ignores the carrier owned prepaid and off-brand pseudo MVNOs as well. AT&T owns Cricket. T-Mobile owns MetroPCS and in a year will likely include Sprint's own in-house brands Virgin and Boost as well. I personally don't recommend these brands for the same reason I rant about the condition of the mobile industry and the lack of regulation and mandated fair wholesale network access like in Europe as from the first paragraph, but it doesn't mean they don't exist. Dropping postpaid billing and off-network roaming does save a significant amount of money, even when buying directly from the carrier.

As you can see, the argument is technically hollow. However, happy wife, happy life. Don't push the issue as her being wrong, let her come to her own conclusions with the simplest of facts, and support her even if she doesn't come around. This is an argument about ethics as worked in a flawed and damaged world to the best of her knowledge and understanding. It would be a disservice by feeding more strife and anguish into the world through bitter disagreement as you're both trying to achieve the exact same goals with different sets of information as filtered through personal bias.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2018, 09:02:19 AM by Daley »

pk_aeryn

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2018, 11:14:54 PM »
If you guys otherwise are in agreement about money and this is her one bit of illogical spending based on some strong ideology- I'd let it go.

From the headline I came here thinking she'd used international data without a plan or something :)

elliha

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Re: Wife's cell bill is making me crazy...
« Reply #9 on: May 02, 2018, 02:23:18 AM »
I personally wouldn't try to convince her anymore. Most people are set in their ways in some way and have little quirks that are hard to get away from.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!