The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: jimmyshutter on June 03, 2018, 12:58:51 AM
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I thought I'd share this. My phone bill is $60 per year. I use Tracfone and purchase smartphones with a year service which include text/talk/data.
I use Google Hangouts for free calls and I use no data while I'm at home or at work. I can't believe people spend close to $100 month on cell phone service. :)
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Nice. I'm still on my original $5 (with $10 free bonus) for the Tello paygo account I signed up for in Feb 2017. I don't yap on the phone much at all, rarely text, and am almost always connected to wifi for data.
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For the past 14 months I have been using sprint promotion of unlimited plan for Free up to 5 lines.
For 5 lines, we have unlimited minutes, texts, calls, data ... and also Free international roaming... we pay 4.xx dollars per month! They are still doing it ...
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Could you guys provide additional detail? Googling your information does not bring up massive data without a lot of actionable steps.
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Yeah I'd like to see some data... How many minutes/text/data do you use per month? What are the rates?
I'm currently on Verizon unlimited data family plan (we stacked 10 lines on one plan). I pay $35 a month. While I bet this is the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan... I'm craving to jump over to Sprint for that 1 year free data.
Would be nice to see exactly how you are doing this $60 a year strategy...
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Yeah I'd like to see some data... How many minutes/text/data do you use per month? What are the rates?
I'm currently on Verizon unlimited data family plan (we stacked 10 lines on one plan). I pay $35 a month. While I bet this is the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan... I'm craving to jump over to Sprint for that 1 year free data.
Would be nice to see exactly how you are doing this $60 a year strategy...
Sprint is great... I just ported my number into Sprint and they enabled me with 5 lines... once the 1 year is up... just port out and port back in if the promo is still on, which so far it's been up for almost 2 years.
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Yeah I'd like to see some data... How many minutes/text/data do you use per month? What are the rates?
I'm currently on Verizon unlimited data family plan (we stacked 10 lines on one plan). I pay $35 a month. While I bet this is the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan... I'm craving to jump over to Sprint for that 1 year free data.
Would be nice to see exactly how you are doing this $60 a year strategy...
Sprint is great... I just ported my number into Sprint and they enabled me with 5 lines... once the 1 year is up... just port out and port back in if the promo is still on, which so far it's been up for almost 2 years.
Oh man, my dad is paying $180 a month ($2,160 a year) on his Sprint Plan. He is locked in until Oct. 2019 on the contract. Wish I could help him on this.
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We were using a Virgin Mobile introductory promotion $1/line/mo for 6 months. Now that's up and I'm looking for a new, inexpensive option. Super helpful thread!
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Yeah I'd like to see some data... How many minutes/text/data do you use per month? What are the rates?
I'm currently on Verizon unlimited data family plan (we stacked 10 lines on one plan). I pay $35 a month. While I bet this is the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan... I'm craving to jump over to Sprint for that 1 year free data.
Would be nice to see exactly how you are doing this $60 a year strategy...
I use Tracfone pay as you go but the trick is to use wifi whenever possible.
QVC and/or HSN sell phone package/mins deal bundled with a phone. You get 1500/1500/1.5GB PER YEAR and a year of active service for $60.00 (now $80.00 for LG Fiesta 2 bundle).
Free wifi is available in so many places. Free wifi at home, at work, in grocery stores, fast-food joints, airports, coffee shops, even my gym etc.
I have two phone numbers. One Google voice number and one Tracfone number. I use Google Hangouts for all of my wifi calls/text and wifi to surf web. The 1500 mins phone number is ONLY for when I am not around wifi and I use data ONLY when wifi is not available.
I've been doing this for a number of years now and all I do is buy a phone/bundle each year when I see it on sale. You can easily make the 1500 last for the year if you use wifi first and data as a last resort.
One other thing, after you activate the bundled phone you can change over to a better phone or use you may already have. You are not tied to the bundled phone. I personally use their phones now because they run all the apps I need and they're free so why not. :)
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Yeah I'd like to see some data... How many minutes/text/data do you use per month? What are the rates?
I'm currently on Verizon unlimited data family plan (we stacked 10 lines on one plan). I pay $35 a month. While I bet this is the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan... I'm craving to jump over to Sprint for that 1 year free data.
Would be nice to see exactly how you are doing this $60 a year strategy...
Sprint is great... I just ported my number into Sprint and they enabled me with 5 lines... once the 1 year is up... just port out and port back in if the promo is still on, which so far it's been up for almost 2 years.
Oh man, my dad is paying $180 a month ($2,160 a year) on his Sprint Plan. He is locked in until Oct. 2019 on the contract. Wish I could help him on this.
$180 a month?!?
$180 x 14 months = $2520.
Quickly googling, it looks like breaking a contract results in up to $550. Eat the $550, switch to T-Mobile for a month or so, then switch back to Sprint for the unlimited plan!
The 10 hours of painfully porting out and in will save him $2k. $200 an hour isn't a bad rate... ;)
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That rate probably subsidizes his phone. Some plans give you a "free" phone if you sign a multi-year contract.
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Line 1:
Lycamobile pay-as-you-go. They don't advertise it, but you can get the sim for $7, add $$ to it, and it's 5c per text/minute iirc. Downside is no data at all. Been using this for 5yrs or so, average $3-4/mo
Line2:
Red Pocket $10/mo 500/500/500
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There's a thread on here somewhere abut the Sprint deal. Ported over painlessly from Verizon, and our bill for 2 phones is about 7 bucks a month. Good tip about porting out and back in. Hopefully the deal is still going when our time expires.
I can't even begin to count the (potentially tens of) thousands of dollars MMM has saved me since I found it a few years ago!
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If you qualify for SNAP or Medicaid you can get a free cell phone.
https://www.assurancewireless.com/
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I have freedompop account for my Dad. It is only 1 center a month (200minutes, 200MB, 500 texts). Service is not great.
They recently assigned him new number saying they found some issue with old number during auditing. Quick google search and lot of other people had same thing happen to them multiple times.
@jimmyshutter did you have any issue with phone number?
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Free wifi is available in so many places. Free wifi at home, at work, in grocery stores, fast-food joints, airports, coffee shops, even my gym etc.
How do you get free wifi at home? Does your neighbor not have a password? A low phone bill is intriguing, but for an ISP to give you free internet seems unbelievable.
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Man, and I thought I was a badass for switching to Google Fi... instantly saved $30 a month for a total bill of about $35, including a new phone payment. (The last one was crapping out in bad ways.)
Rock on, all!
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Yeah I'd like to see some data... How many minutes/text/data do you use per month? What are the rates?
I'm currently on Verizon unlimited data family plan (we stacked 10 lines on one plan). I pay $35 a month. While I bet this is the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan... I'm craving to jump over to Sprint for that 1 year free data.
Would be nice to see exactly how you are doing this $60 a year strategy...
Sprint is great... I just ported my number into Sprint and they enabled me with 5 lines... once the 1 year is up... just port out and port back in if the promo is still on, which so far it's been up for almost 2 years.
Oh, you're churning Cell phone plans. Interesting.
That sounds like too much work to me at this point- don't even churn cards anymore unless they fall in my lap.
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Yeah I'd like to see some data... How many minutes/text/data do you use per month? What are the rates?
I'm currently on Verizon unlimited data family plan (we stacked 10 lines on one plan). I pay $35 a month. While I bet this is the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan... I'm craving to jump over to Sprint for that 1 year free data.
Would be nice to see exactly how you are doing this $60 a year strategy...
not much work and the savings are huge... 1200$ savings... and we get unlimited everything!!! I was just in Europe and didnt even need to buy a local SIM card because my phone was working just fine.
Only thing I pay is 3.XX$ for some random taxes
Sprint is great... I just ported my number into Sprint and they enabled me with 5 lines... once the 1 year is up... just port out and port back in if the promo is still on, which so far it's been up for almost 2 years.
Oh, you're churning Cell phone plans. Interesting.
That sounds like too much work to me at this point- don't even churn cards anymore unless they fall in my lap.
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Line 1:
Lycamobile pay-as-you-go. They don't advertise it, but you can get the sim for $7, add $$ to it, and it's 5c per text/minute iirc. Downside is no data at all. Been using this for 5yrs or so, average $3-4/mo
Line2:
Red Pocket $10/mo 500/500/500
How do you find the red pocket plan? I'm considering switching to their 100/100/500 plan since I don't talk of text much but the data amount seems good. I've seen their sims on Ebay for $60 for an entire year.
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Line2:
Red Pocket $10/mo 500/500/500
How do you find the red pocket plan? I'm considering switching to their 100/100/500 plan since I don't talk of text much but the data amount seems good. I've seen their sims on Ebay for $60 for an entire year.
It's the standard $10 (https://www.redpocket.com/plan/add/M010) plan now. I get Verizon coverage, but you can also get this plan with T-Mobile, AT&T or Sprint coverage.
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And I was happy I got my T-Mobile bill down to $35/line.
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In Canada, one can get $15 CAD/month/3GB data-only from Fido -- currently on a bonkers promotion where this is $0/month for the next year (both my lines on the promo).
I use jmp.chat to get unlimited calling and texting on top of this for an extra $3 USD/month/line
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In Canada, one can get $15 CAD/month/3GB data-only from Fido -- currently on a bonkers promotion where this is $0/month for the next year (both my lines on the promo).
I use jmp.chat to get unlimited calling and texting on top of this for an extra $3 USD/month/line
Wait, what? 0$? Do you need to be an existing customer with lines?
Can you link me to the promo please? I'm contemplating switching to voip.ms with the Fido data plan, and 0$ seems much better than 15$!
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In Canada, one can get $15 CAD/month/3GB data-only from Fido -- currently on a bonkers promotion where this is $0/month for the next year (both my lines on the promo).
I use jmp.chat to get unlimited calling and texting on top of this for an extra $3 USD/month/line
Wait, what? 0$? Do you need to be an existing customer with lines?
Can you link me to the promo please? I'm contemplating switching to voip.ms with the Fido data plan, and 0$ seems much better than 15$!
https://forums.redflagdeals.com/fido-3gb-lte-data-plan-15-byod-no-contract-2078212/
The 100% off for 12 months (or some people get offered 50% off for 24 months instead) is a retention offer, and only for customers who have been with Fido for 3 or more months and only on the data lines. But it was easy for me to get and people on RFD still reporting it working.
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Yeah I'd like to see some data... How many minutes/text/data do you use per month? What are the rates?
I'm currently on Verizon unlimited data family plan (we stacked 10 lines on one plan). I pay $35 a month. While I bet this is the cheapest Verizon unlimited plan... I'm craving to jump over to Sprint for that 1 year free data.
Would be nice to see exactly how you are doing this $60 a year strategy...
Oh man, my dad is paying $180 a month ($2,160 a year) on his Sprint Plan. He is locked in until Oct. 2019 on the contract. Wish I could help him on this.
$180 a month?!?
$180 x 14 months = $2520.
Quickly googling, it looks like breaking a contract results in up to $550. Eat the $550, switch to T-Mobile for a month or so, then switch back to Sprint for the unlimited plan!
The 10 hours of painfully porting out and in will save him $2k. $200 an hour isn't a bad rate... ;)
So late to responding to this 😫 but have had time to look into this and talk to him more about it 😎. We have 3 active "advanced" devices and as of now, could save around $1,500. To me, still worth it. Convincing him though is still a work in progress 😏. Thank you very much for shooting me this idea.
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Line2:
Red Pocket $10/mo 500/500/500
How do you find the red pocket plan? I'm considering switching to their 100/100/500 plan since I don't talk of text much but the data amount seems good. I've seen their sims on Ebay for $60 for an entire year.
It's the standard $10 (https://www.redpocket.com/plan/add/M010) plan now. I get Verizon coverage, but you can also get this plan with T-Mobile, AT&T or Sprint coverage.
you can get their $10/month plan for $99 for 360 days on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Pocket-360-Day-Prepaid-Wireless-Phone-Plan-Essentials-No-Contract-SIM-Kit/132043269270?hash=item1ebe646496:g:9XYAAOSw7nZar-26:sc:USPSFirstClass!94706!US!-1
I assume you can use this to renew your plan but I haven't checked. I'm still waiting for my tracfone data to run out so I can switch.
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I just added another bundle with phone and a year service 1200/1200/1200 for $49.99.
I use wifi almost entirely for my phone calls and internet. The phone is junk but I'll transfer back to my original phone in a few weeks.
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This looks interesting. I'm using Ultramobile. Unlimited calling & text. I think 5 GB LTE and slow speed internet after that. The other thing is International calls to 50+ countries (like India etc) is free. This is the main reason I'm sticking with Ultra. It is $30 per month. Has had that for more than 1 year and decent service so far.
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Mint Mobile offers unlimited talk, text, and data for $15 a month. It does slow down after you use a certain amount of data. There's no family plan, though, so it's per line.
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I was considering MintMobile but TMobile service isn't that great here where I live (data is slow).
I ran across the Tello plan which uses Sprint. My boyfriend and I just signed up for it. I am paying $14 per month for unlimited calls, texts & 1 GB of LTE data. Data is fast. I am usually on wifi all day and I don't stream stuff over my phone when I am away form home, so this plan works well for me. Was on the $30 per month cricket plan which was the same but 2GB of LTE.
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My unlimited FREE plan w Sprint is ocming to an end this November so it's time I start making some moves to prolong this.
My plan is to port out of sprint, have my wife sign up, and then she signs up and port me back in for another year of FREE unlimited sprint plan. I love it... even when I travel outside of USA I get free texts and internet which is great!
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My unlimited FREE plan w Sprint is ocming to an end this November so it's time I start making some moves to prolong this.
My plan is to port out of sprint, have my wife sign up, and then she signs up and port me back in for another year of FREE unlimited sprint plan. I love it... even when I travel outside of USA I get free texts and internet which is great!
We just started our second free year similarly. Ported to Mint for 3 months then back. With discounts ended up paying roughly $10 per month per phone while on Mint.
Now back on Sprint Unlimited for taxes/fees.... $3.75 per phone per month.
Even re-used the original SIMs from the first year...though its a slight hassle because you have to call up and give them a bunch of long numbers over the phone rather than just typing it in online.
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I have to assume the free Sprint transfers will end after T Mobile and Sprint merges. Milk it while it lasts. =)