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Ask HN: How do I cut down on my cell phone bill?
5 points by eibrahim on Jan 22, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 17 comments
I have a family plan with AT&T: 2 smart phose with data plans and 2 regular phones and I am paying $260 a month. Getting ready to quit my job :) and want to cut down on expenses. I am ready to lose 1 data plan and possibly both..

I would love to cut this bill by half - any ideas? suggestions?

PS: 1 phone for me, 1 for wife, 1 for mom and 1 for dad.



"Hiya AT&T CSR. I'm considering canceling my two smart phones and two regular phones because I feel I'm paying too much for cell phone service. Yes, I can hold."

"Hello Retention Department. Two smart phones with data plans, two regular phones, total bill $260. What can you do for me?"

This will knock about a thousand bucks a year off your bill in about 5~10 minutes.


Bingo. This works for several services. I've personally had success with this (accidentally) with my cable provider back when cable was something people used. I called to cancel and enjoyed 3 months at a very reduced rate prior to cancelling. Not bad.


Drop the minutes and data plans to the minimum and drop your 2 regular phones. Then share your plan with other people if you can.

I am sharing a family plan with my inlaws at 550 minutes for the 3 of us. I also pay $15/month for data, so incrementally my 3rd cell phone adds $25/month + fees to the monthly costs. I keep cell data turned off most of the time except when I truly need to use it (typically Pandora or mapping while driving).

I typically use more than 550 minutes of phone time by myself each month as follows:

In office: Google Voice (free).

At home: My wife uses T-mobile@home service for $10/month. No longer available but you can use Google Voice comfortably at home with the right kind of phone router, such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/OBi202-Phone-Adapter-Router-2-Phone/dp...

Lots of high quality cell phone use on a single day: T-mobile $2 for the day (with my old Blackberry, which gives me much higher voice quality)

Our total monthly costs including fees and taxes are about $45. For that price we have unlimited domestic calling at home and in my office, I have an iPhone 4s with limited minutes and data and my wife has Virgin Mobile cell phone that she only uses for emergencies. Would only be $35/month if we got the above-referenced phone router and dropped T-mobile@home.


I suppose the additional two phones are for your kids? Does your wife need a smartphone?

Check out Net10. You can get an unlimited plan for $50 for a smartphone, 750 minutes for $25/mo. and 200 minutes for $15/mo. The 200 minute plan has carry over minutes. Your net total would be $105, and ~$115 by the time you include sales tax. Granted, you still have to buy the phones.

You could also look at Walmart's family plan. http://www.walmart.com/cp/Family-Mobile/1076544 That would get you down to $150 for the whole family and it's powered by T-Mobile.

FYI, I'm not offering this simply as a suggestion. I did this back in 2009. I was looking to move away from Sprint (poor coverage where I moved to) to a regional carrier. They wanted $60 per live for activation. I was told they'd only charge for one but I ended up still getting billed for all three. They wouldn't honor the discount the sales person offered me saying the offer wasn't approved by a manager.

Fed up with the state of wireless companies at the time, I originally moved to Tracfone and later to Net10 when Net10 came out with monthly plans (both owned by the same company). Only this past August did I finally upgrade to Android. While my phone is no frills (800 MHz processor and 3.2 pixel camera), it keeps my calendar and contacts in sync, which makes life easier.


When is your contract up? Check out Republic Wireless - www.republicwireless.com for a cheaper option.

It's $19 a month for unlimited data/talk/text. Runs over wi-fi when you're around wi-fi or cell towers when you're not. That will save you quite a bit per month.


OP here:

I called AT&T to cancel and got $130 off my monthly bill and about $140 in refund. This should keep me going until October when I can cancel and move to T-mobile which has the BEST prices I found for 2 smart phone + 2 basic phones. Thanks everyone.


We've very heavy voice users, so needed lots of minutes/month. We've had great luck with Boost Mobile... I particularly like their retention policy which is NOT to lock you up on a 2 yr contract, but rather, to reduce your bill after N months of on-time payments. (Started at 60/mo, and after about a year we're paying 45/mo for unlimited voice+data+text.) On the other hand their customer support sucks if you need any help beyond the self-help on their website. AFAIK they do NOT have any live support.


I use a combination of Google Voice (free) and H2O wireless ($10/month for 200 minutes). H2O uses AT&T towers, so your existing GSM phones should work fine. I give people my Voice number, which I set to forward calls but not SMS, so text messages don't use up my minutes, and when I'm in a wifi zone (pretty often) I can log in and check my text messages.


Text messages count as minutes?


Well, you load up your account with $10, and you can use them on text, data, minutes, etc. It's 5c per text.


Interesting. I'm thinking about picking up the $30 / mon from T-Mobile. Although sprint is free but absolutely no signal where I live.


An option might be heading to StraightTalk (www.straighttalk.com).

Plan Costs would break down as follows:

2 Smartphone @ $45/line = $90 2 dumbphones @$30/line = $60

Total = $150/month

These figures don't factor in ETFs. Your existing AT&T phones will work without unlocking.

StraightTalk is an MVNO that operates on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks. You can pick which network.


Switch some or all of your phones to pre-paid tmobile.

Get google voice numbers, and use them for SMS and voice calls for personal business (like calling your bank).

I don't have 4 accounts like you, but I have saved hundreds of dollars this way.


So you're using some sort of SIP account to GV to avoid using minutes?


Yes.

Mostly my friends just text each other, not talk. Google voice provides SMS and voice mail, so it saves me a lot of monies.

Then I use my paid minutes to return calls if needed. For making calls where quality is not critical, I put on headphones and make SIP voice calls.


I switched my girlfriend and myself to StraightTalk plans. $49.xx (post tax)/mo for unlimited everything. Bought two sims and popped them into our iPhones.


If the coverage works out for you, 4 $35/month VirginMobileUSA plans. Includes data, text, and 300 minutes per line. The 1200 minute version is $45.




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