Cell Phones: Monthly Plans

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WinnieThePujols

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How much do you guys pay for your cell phones? My sister came up to me and said that if I wanted, we could get a family plan. It would cost us $50 a month. $50 a month for a ****ing family plan? I thought you got discounts on that? I was thinking it would be half of that...

How much do you guys pay a month? And how much do you think I could get by with paying? I really don't talk on the phone that much. I just want one for being able to call people when I'm in my car and such. I'm not one of those people that's going to blab for hours on end...so what's a cheap plan that you guys pay that you think I could find, too?
 
I have Verizon. I go in with my mom on it. We have a 400 minute/month plan for $40. Then for an extra $20 I share those minutes.

So it comes to $60 a month. We only use like 50 of the 400 minutes, mainly because of Verizon's Free Nights and Weekends. Thats not too bad.
 
I pay $70 after fees and stuff for a 2 phone family plan with 900 minutes, no roaming, and free nights and weekends from 7pm nightly. I use AT&T, which doesn't exist anymore since Cingular bought them. AT&T offers me the better deal between the 2.

The family plan gets cheaper as you add more phones. Usually $10 extra per line.
 
[quote name='SS4Brolly']I have Verizon. I go in with my mom on it. We have a 400 minute/month plan for $40. Then for an extra $20 I share those minutes.

So it comes to $60 a month. We only use like 50 of the 400 minutes, mainly because of Verizon's Free Nights and Weekends. Thats not too bad.[/quote]

This is like 1000 minutes for $50 a month. I mean, honestly, I'm not going to talk on the phone for 1000 minutes in a month. That's about 32 minutes a day...Most of my conversations are, "Hey...ok....bye!"

And besides, I'll just set my cell phone to forward my calls to my house when I'm at home.
 
A lot of this depends on where you live. There are some great deals in some of the bigger cities that give you unlimited calls for $35.
 
I dont live with my family so all those family plans are worthless to me. I never bothered buying a cell phone because of several reasons:

1. I use the phone all day at work and when I get home I dont want to talk to anyone.

2. I never bothered to figure out all those calling plans thats advertised on TV.

3. All those cell phone sales people seem shifty to me - especially the ones that working in the malls. I dont trust those guys.

If anyone know of a cheap-ass cell phone plan that is good for one guy (not a family) who almost never calls anyone - Let me know. I appreciate it
 
try cingular

i have 900 monthly anytime minutes with free nationwide long distance, and rollover, plus 2 additional lines for $60 (basically, $10 for each add'tl line), we all share the minutes

obviously, they have a variety of plans and pricing but the additional lines seem to be a really good deal, the rollover is pretty cool if you are not an active cell phone user and the free long distance obviously can be a money saver (i cancelled my home long distance carrier and use my cell for long distance)
 
I use T-Mobile and I pay $89 for 900. I have the family plan with 4 phones. Me, the wife, my mom and my daughter. Free long distance and free mobile to mobile. I've been pretty happy with them.
 
Don't forget to add $10 to the montly cost of any plan due to "taxes" and "fees." I switched to Virgin and have never been happier (granted, I fucking hate talking on cell phones, so I barely use mine anyway).
 
I pay 90 dollars a month for 4 phones on my family plan with Cingular. We get 850 minutes a month ans usually go thorough with only 300-350 minutes used but then there is rollover, so that helps.
 
[quote name='Xevious']I dont live with my family so all those family plans are worthless to me. I never bothered buying a cell phone because of several reasons:

1. I use the phone all day at work and when I get home I dont want to talk to anyone.

2. I never bothered to figure out all those calling plans thats advertised on TV.

3. All those cell phone sales people seem shifty to me - especially the ones that working in the malls. I dont trust those guys.

If anyone know of a cheap-ass cell phone plan that is good for one guy (not a family) who almost never calls anyone - Let me know. I appreciate it[/quote]

Go with prepaid if you almost never use it. Virgin is good, and look to see if you have Cricket, or Metro PCS who offer low price unlimited plans.
 
Pay-as-you-go...I pay $20 every 3 months with some Cingular plan. If you don't ever have to use the phone for any longer than 5 minutes at a time, I'd probably go with that.
 
[quote name='SteveMcQ']Any places have good long-distance deals? My monthly bills have reached $300 the past six months. Fun huh?[/quote]

If you are not talking about cellular. Go with a VOIP phone if you have a cable or dsl Internet connection. I pay like $30 a month for unlimited local and long distance on my home phone. If you don't have a high speed connection get a prepaid card at Sam's or Costco for like 2.9 cents a minute.
 
That Sam's / Costco calling card is the cheapest in the industry. No connection fees, and that's what kills.

I'm getting off topic, but as someone who used to work in the landline industry, I can't help but boast my $16 home phone bill through Verizon. With Verizon, they'll always lie to you about what the "minimum" is, but if you tell them specifically to eliminate (not shaq-fuing "block") long distance and local toll calling (SPECIFICALLY "local toll" or "area" calling), you're only paying fees and per call on local calls with an allowance of free local calls. Some companies will not permit you to cancel local toll, but it's worth asking them about ($5 for availability alone--don't let em BS you, tell them 3 times at least what you want to do, you'll get all kinds of static and misdirection)

Then, 60 bucks (Verizon quotes it as $49) for a 500 minute cell phone plan, and you've got a home phone to receive calls and a cell phone to make em. Throw in a Sam's Club card at 3c/min if you want to make the occasional call from home, and that's a strong way to go for moderate talkers.
 
[quote name='dwsscs'][quote name='SteveMcQ']Any places have good long-distance deals? My monthly bills have reached $300 the past six months. Fun huh?[/quote]

If you are not talking about cellular. Go with a VOIP phone if you have a cable or dsl Internet connection. I pay like $30 a month for unlimited local and long distance on my home phone. If you don't have a high speed connection get a prepaid card at Sam's or Costco for like 2.9 cents a minute.[/quote]

Yes, those are my monthly cell bills as of late. Those text messages eat up quite a good chunk though.

I've been looking into VOIP, but since it's my parents paying for it, I'll have to convince them of that. Love the song from that Vonage commercial.
 
I'm paying around $35 for my cell plan with Sprint, but that seems to be going up recently. More talking and text messaging adds up. We just got SunRocket Voip so I'm hoping I can eventually lower my cell plan to the bare minimum and just use my voip phone a lot. It's unlimited minutes for around 17 bucks/month. I wonder what the lowest cell plan I can get is?
 
im paying 54.97 (includes tax) for 2 phones share mins. what sucks its only 250 mins. We went over last month and our phone bill was READY ?


109.87 FOR A FREAKING CAR PHONE!!!!
 
I work for a dealer of Nextel and Alltel, so I pay nothing for both of those phones. My wife and I have a Nextel family plan 600 shared minutes Unltd nights and weekends, free long distance, 350 direct connect minutes, and it's $75.00 a month
 
[quote name='glass joe']That Sam's / Costco calling card is the cheapest in the industry. No connection fees, and that's what kills.

I'm getting off topic, but as someone who used to work in the landline industry, I can't help but boast my $16 home phone bill through Verizon. With Verizon, they'll always lie to you about what the "minimum" is, but if you tell them specifically to eliminate (not shaq-fuing "block") long distance and local toll calling (SPECIFICALLY "local toll" or "area" calling), you're only paying fees and per call on local calls with an allowance of free local calls. Some companies will not permit you to cancel local toll, but it's worth asking them about ($5 for availability alone--don't let em BS you, tell them 3 times at least what you want to do, you'll get all kinds of static and misdirection)

Then, 60 bucks (Verizon quotes it as $49) for a 500 minute cell phone plan, and you've got a home phone to receive calls and a cell phone to make em. Throw in a Sam's Club card at 3c/min if you want to make the occasional call from home, and that's a strong way to go for moderate talkers.[/quote]


I had Bellsouth and a basic phone line with them, no long distance, call waiting, ect. was $19 before taxes, 911 charges, FCC fees, etc. So the bill for just local service no frills was $27. So I was happy to pay Vonage at the time $35 for local, long distance, and all of the calling features.

Plus they dropped there price to $30 then to $25. I never had to call them or anything they sent me a email telling me they dropped the price and changed my account to the new price.
 
[quote name='levi333']My plan is 30, but after other fees/insurance/crap/etc... it comes to just under 40 a month.
Thats with ATT/Cingular.[/quote]

I have the same. It's for 300 base minutes, and 2000 weekend minutes. It way not seem like a lot but it's about 15 minutes a day during the week.

I don't talk much, and hate people who call each other and say, "What's up, dog, what are you doing? I'm chilling. What are you doing" over and over

Be a cheapass, pay $30, use a land line to talk to girls, and limit your cell phone usage. Your brain will thank you.
 
[quote name='dwsscs']
I had Bellsouth and a basic phone line with them, no long distance, call waiting, ect. was $19 before taxes, 911 charges, FCC fees, etc. So the bill for just local service no frills was $27. So I was happy to pay Vonage at the time $35 for local, long distance, and all of the calling features.

Plus they dropped there price to $30 then to $25. I never had to call them or anything they sent me a email telling me they dropped the price and changed my account to the new price.[/quote]
That's a pretty good deal for all your calling. I just figured out my total bill for basically ALL the minutes I will ever need, including my cell plan and voip, is $52. That's pretty good considering all the long distance I use.
 
$85 for:

2000 anytime
8pm night and weekend
2 phone lines
unlimited picture sends
unlimited Sprint to Sprint
unlimited Vision
$5 monthly credit towards ringtons and wallpapers
%5 courtesy discount
another %5 discount
and another %5 discount
 
Here's mine, and yes, it's not a cheap one, through Sprint:

$100/mo for 2000 anytime minutes, unlimited 9PM N&W minutes
Unlimited PCS-to-PCS - $5 add'l
Free ReadyLink with Vision - Free, worth $20, plus $5 additional credit for downloads / month
Free Voice Command (through AAA) - Free, worth $5
Free unlimited SMS - Free, worth $5
Free & Clear America (much wider range free roaming) - $5 add'l
2nd phone line - $10 add'l, normally $20 add'l

20%-something company discount

The discount ends up eating a little more than the extra costs added into the bill, so it's about $100/mo, though I use it for my work as well as my own, and if I was to drop to a different plan, I'd end up spending about the same amount for less minutes and less freebies. If not more.
 
My plan is $35 and that includes free unlimited long distance, 500 mobile to mobile, free unlimited night and weekends and 800 minutes.

I rarely go about half the minutes a month.

You also get 50% for upgrades on new phones after a year.

See if the place you work can offer some discount to employees. My plan is through Cingular/AT&T and I have used them for 4 yrs without a problem.
 
I'm with Sprint PCS
1800 shared anytime minutes between 2 phones
Free nights and weekends starting at 7pm
Free nationwide long distance
Unlimited text and picture messages
Unlimited web access
Free Sprint to Sprint calling
Free voicemail, call waiting, 411, and 3 way-calling
Full replacement insurance on 1 phone
2 yr agreement, $150 cancellation fee
Got 2 Sanyo 8100 camera phones for $79.99 each
We pay $65/month. We have never crossed our limit. The service is great. Reception is excellent.
 
I think many people here are overlooking one of the biggest things of all, quality of wireless service! I personally would rather pay a little more and not get cut out every 5 seconds, than pay less and have the problem stated. Also, coverage area MATTERS! Roaming charges are expensive unless it is included in your plan. I know for sure it depends on where you live, so I'm not going to tell you one particular service. My g/f used to use AT&T. We got cut off so many times that she stopped using her phone, but was still paying the bill. Later on, we got a family share plan for $60 together at Verizon. Their service is much better here on the central coast. My g/f lives in San Jose.

Anyway, my point is cheap isn't always better. Most services will give you a try-out period so make sure you take advantage of that. Make test calls wherever you think you're going to use your phone.
 
There have been a few times when I have not been able to use my service because I'm either out in the middle of nowhere or I'm in the mountains. That pisses me off. But all the other times, I don't mind paying less and being able to use my phone about 95% of the time. Sprint doesn't have as good of coverage as Verizon, from what I can tell. People I'm with sometimes on vacation have signals the whole time with Verizon and I can't get anything on my phone.

I wonder with all the talk of possible mobile voip, if quality of service would be considerably better than cellular service.? I hope that's the direction voip takes, so we don't have to fight with these cell companies forever.
 
i'll switch back to voip when mobile voip is available. as it is now, i am cancelling my voip service through att which was $33.52 after fees and such. i just got my first cell phone. mrs gaelan has had one for a while, and she decided to upgrade to a family plan and they sent out another phone for free (well you sign your life away for 2 years). anyways, it seems cingular's unlimited mobile to mobile minutes has been key to lowering our minute usage, since most of the people we call use cingular.

the deal we had was $39.99 + $19.99 (my line) for 450 anytimes w/rollover and free roaming, unlimited nights and wknds and mobile to mobile, vmx, and some other crap...add that to our $33.52 for voip and it was about $100/month.

now we will have $69.99 + $9.99 (my line) for 1100 anytime minutes w/rollover and free roaming, unlimited nights and wknds and mobile to mobile, vmx, and some other crap...now our telephone total should be about $15/month cheaper.

i still think it is too much for telephone service, but what i think doesn't really matter in the real world.

anybody have any pros/cons about using cell phones in place of a land line?
 
Ours is about 55-60 bucks [plus taxes] for two phones, shared minutes--we get 500 anytime, 5000 N/W, and we're at about 3600 Rollover minutes. Basically more minutes than we'll ever use, and it's cheaper than two separate accounts. Free roaming, long distance, three-way, voicemail, etc. We're not interested in the 'extras' like SMS [I have a two way text pager through work I use for this], ringtones, games, pictures, etc.

Coverage area does matter: If a provider could give me good, solid, service at and in my home, I'd go with them in a minute. And possibly drop the landline.

Going cell-only: Some satellite tv providers, Tivo units, or home alarm systems require a land line to be hooked to their hardware.
Also, in many communities the Enhanced 911 doesn't work with cell phones [how often do you call 911? not often, but when you need to, you want it to work.] Then again, I've also heard that any 'working' [ie, connected] phone line *has* to allow you to call 911. Maybe it's just the 'basic' 911, where you have to tell them where you are.
Also, not sure about this, but I heard someone say they needed a land phone number to apply for credit or start an account at a bank.

Check your landline bill--there's a lot of crap you can cancel. You don't need that 3.00/month 'inside wiring insurance', and how often do you actually use call waiting? If you are paying for voicemail, go to Walmart and get a tendollar answering machine, you're set.
Ask for the cheapest plan they have--we went 'all basic' and our phone bill is like 12 bucks a month before the taxes/fees [which are a whole other level of BS].
Shop around for long distance: I tryto use the cell for LD, but it's not an option at home. I *will not* pay a monthly fee to 'access' long distance. I'm with Big Red Wire.com, and while they just went up, I think it's now something like 5.1 cents a minute with no monthly fee and no monthly minimum. My LD bill last month was like 16 cents. I had some telemarketer call, pushing their plan, and once I told him what I was paying, he said, "Oh, I can't beat that, thanks for your time and have a good day." : )

We tried Packet8's VoIP, and while the concept was quite cool, the service was lacking--after about 10-15 minutes, the calls started dropping. And of course I'm not paying the 40 bucks a month Vonage wants [Packet8 was 19.99/mo. unlimited local and continental long distance.]

Anyone read the comic strip Zits? There was a plot last week or so, where Jeremy racked up a 400$ cell phone bill doing all the short messaging.
 
I pay $45 a month for 600 anytimes minutes, unlimited text messages, and free nights and weekends. I go throug T-Mobile.
 
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