How many of us are paying exorbitant amounts of money on our cellphone bills? I was one of those people and then I did my own research. I was tired of paying that much money. I still wanted certain features like dependable Wifi, unlimited talk and text, and a sturdy phone. I was able to cut my cell phone bill from $150 a month to $180 per year. That is a big change and I want to share with you how I did it.
Go Prepaid!
The first thing I did was quit the contracts and went prepaid. Some companies offer prepaid options, such as Verizon and T-Mobile, and I found them to still cost close to the same amount as a contracted plan. I started looking at non-traditional companies that have emerged in the prepaid service game. I ended up choosing Boost Mobile for about two years. I was able to purchase a phone at around $150 and my service was $35 a month for my talk and text and 3GB of data. I am not a heavy data user so this was perfect. After two years though, I wanted to see if I could save even more. Now I am with Mint Mobile and I pay $180 a year for service (I pay the full year up front) and I have the same features as Boost. There are other plans that you can opt for and the highest is at $300 for a year which includes 12GB of data each month. You can also purchase additional data as you need it.
Check To See If Your Phone Is Unlocked
We hear a lot about unlocked phones but if you don’t know what it is, it can get confusing fast. GSM (Global System for Mobile) unlocked phones mean that the hardware is not bound to a specific carrier. Some prepaid companies do not accept unlocked phones and others do. If you need an unlocked phone, you can often get them fairly cheap. My ZTE smartphone was $65 on Amazon and it works just as well as any Samsung I drool over. Next, you have to get a sim card from the phone service you want to work with. These aren’t typically that expensive, often no more than $50. If you have a sim card in your current phone and unsure if it’s unlocked, usually you can use it with any carrier that uses a sim card. The great thing about these sim cards is that if your phone breaks, you can move your sim card and still have all your information.
Be Realistic About Your Needs And Wants
Pay only for what you are going to use. If you check your data and you aren’t using much, why are you paying for unlimited? If you are so responsible with your phone that you never break it, why are you paying for insurance? At the same time, if you travel a lot and don’t have access to a lot of free Wifi areas, then your data does become important. Write down your needs and your wants, wants being things you don’t have to have, but would be nice to have. Find those with a company that you like the pricing model and go with that. If they have some extra perks that you want, that will make it even more enticing.
Read More:
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