Edit: As I was writing up this post, Verizon actually came out with their own no-contract phone plans. This is another obvious indicator of which way things are heading, and how big an impact T-mobile's strategy as one of the "Big 4" carriers offering no contract plans has had on the industry. I looked at these new Verizon plans and while the prices have slightly improved they still don't compare to Cricket or T-mobile.
One of my plans for this blog is to share my own experiences in the hopes that they help someone else who's interested in trying the same thing. One area this could be effective is with finances. I tend to enjoy researching things, especially when it comes to finding ways to save a bit of money. I think the term "frugal" sounds like "cheap" to some people so instead I'll say that I like to eliminate waste in my spending habits.
If you are like many adults I know, the cost of a monthly cellphone bill seems outrageous and yet we continue to put up with it for any number of reasons. You've probably seen the commercial from T-mobile or Sprint about cutting your bill in half but there is a lot of fine print & many may figure the coverage is terrible or there is some other catch. So it's still not uncommon to hear about people paying $70-80 for a single line. My wife & I were in a similar boat for a long time, paying $130/month total between us (and this was after a 15% discount). It didn't seem right to be paying that much but I just figured I had to grin & bear it. But this past May my 2-year contract was coming to an end and since I was unhappy with my phone & what I was paying I began to research like mad.
One of the most helpful resources was the community at reddit.com/r/nocontract which eventually convinced me that a no-contract cellphone plan was the way to go. I was then eventually able to convince my wife of the same. Many of best no-contract plans use T-mobile or AT&T's coverage & in my wife's opinion, the high cost of Verizon was worth it because we had coverage nearly everywhere. I argued that we wouldn't notice that much of a difference, especially because we lived in a big city and don't travel all that much. I eventually won her over & then it just became a matter of picking the plan. Eventually we settled on a Cricket Wireless plan for my wife that gives her 2.5 GB of high speed data for $35/month. I personally switched to a T-mobile plan that gave me 5 GB of high speed data for $30/month. The caveat here is that it is limited to 100 minutes of talk time per month, but I figured I didn't really make phone calls all that often. And beyond that, with services like Google Voice, I could make calls via an app using wifi or my data plan and save those minutes.
I should point out that it becomes complicated when you are trying to figure out the real cost of service because of the way the carriers bake the cost of the phone into the plan. It seems like a great deal every two years when you can upgrade your phone for free or cheap, but that's why the monthly bill is so high. So in our case, as you will see below, I had to factor in the amount I'd being paying upfront for a phone (which I would then bring to the no-contract plan). But when you run the numbers it's still cheaper to pay for the phone upfront as long as you keep it for a year (and the savings are even higher if you keep the phone for 2 years or more).
With the help of an Google spreadsheet I was able to breakdown all the costs associated with owning a phone in order to make an apples to apples comparison. The top two grids show the plan we were on at the time vs the scenario that we ended up going with. As you can see the savings really start to kick in during the second year since by that time you have recouped most of the upfront cost of your phone. I have also included a third grid for your own calculations. For basic functionality all you'd need to do is create a copy of the spreadsheet and then update the yellow cells based on your situation and the other cells will then update automatically. But if you are going more in-depth you could do things like add a "1.5 Year Cost" column or additional family members.
Phone Plan Comparison Spreadsheet
The subreddit I mentioned before is definitely much wider in scope than this write-up so I'd recommend heading over there if you want to get a comprehensive look at all your options. I simply wanted to try and document my own experience going from 2-year frustration to contract-free bliss. Finally, if you do decide to go with Cricket, please consider signing up using either my referral link (or head over to this subreddit to benefit one of the active & helpful reddit users- this is what I used when I signed up) and each party will get a $25 account credit.
One of my plans for this blog is to share my own experiences in the hopes that they help someone else who's interested in trying the same thing. One area this could be effective is with finances. I tend to enjoy researching things, especially when it comes to finding ways to save a bit of money. I think the term "frugal" sounds like "cheap" to some people so instead I'll say that I like to eliminate waste in my spending habits.
If you are like many adults I know, the cost of a monthly cellphone bill seems outrageous and yet we continue to put up with it for any number of reasons. You've probably seen the commercial from T-mobile or Sprint about cutting your bill in half but there is a lot of fine print & many may figure the coverage is terrible or there is some other catch. So it's still not uncommon to hear about people paying $70-80 for a single line. My wife & I were in a similar boat for a long time, paying $130/month total between us (and this was after a 15% discount). It didn't seem right to be paying that much but I just figured I had to grin & bear it. But this past May my 2-year contract was coming to an end and since I was unhappy with my phone & what I was paying I began to research like mad.
One of the most helpful resources was the community at reddit.com/r/nocontract which eventually convinced me that a no-contract cellphone plan was the way to go. I was then eventually able to convince my wife of the same. Many of best no-contract plans use T-mobile or AT&T's coverage & in my wife's opinion, the high cost of Verizon was worth it because we had coverage nearly everywhere. I argued that we wouldn't notice that much of a difference, especially because we lived in a big city and don't travel all that much. I eventually won her over & then it just became a matter of picking the plan. Eventually we settled on a Cricket Wireless plan for my wife that gives her 2.5 GB of high speed data for $35/month. I personally switched to a T-mobile plan that gave me 5 GB of high speed data for $30/month. The caveat here is that it is limited to 100 minutes of talk time per month, but I figured I didn't really make phone calls all that often. And beyond that, with services like Google Voice, I could make calls via an app using wifi or my data plan and save those minutes.
I should point out that it becomes complicated when you are trying to figure out the real cost of service because of the way the carriers bake the cost of the phone into the plan. It seems like a great deal every two years when you can upgrade your phone for free or cheap, but that's why the monthly bill is so high. So in our case, as you will see below, I had to factor in the amount I'd being paying upfront for a phone (which I would then bring to the no-contract plan). But when you run the numbers it's still cheaper to pay for the phone upfront as long as you keep it for a year (and the savings are even higher if you keep the phone for 2 years or more).
With the help of an Google spreadsheet I was able to breakdown all the costs associated with owning a phone in order to make an apples to apples comparison. The top two grids show the plan we were on at the time vs the scenario that we ended up going with. As you can see the savings really start to kick in during the second year since by that time you have recouped most of the upfront cost of your phone. I have also included a third grid for your own calculations. For basic functionality all you'd need to do is create a copy of the spreadsheet and then update the yellow cells based on your situation and the other cells will then update automatically. But if you are going more in-depth you could do things like add a "1.5 Year Cost" column or additional family members.
Phone Plan Comparison Spreadsheet
The subreddit I mentioned before is definitely much wider in scope than this write-up so I'd recommend heading over there if you want to get a comprehensive look at all your options. I simply wanted to try and document my own experience going from 2-year frustration to contract-free bliss. Finally, if you do decide to go with Cricket, please consider signing up using either my referral link (or head over to this subreddit to benefit one of the active & helpful reddit users- this is what I used when I signed up) and each party will get a $25 account credit.
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