Cell Phone Plans With The Same For Less
It's easy to miss the fact that there are alternatives to the "Big Four" wireless providers in the United States. While most people are familiar with Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T, there are many "mobile virtual network operators" who also offer cell phone service, often at lower prices than the big four. These "MVNO's" rent their cell phone bandwidth from the major services, but charge different prices. Most of these services require that you bring your own phone, so you can either find one online, or use your existing phone if it is unlocked. Here's a breakdown of just how little you could be paying for cell phone service.
Mint Mobile
Mint Mobile advertises a number of very attractive rates for both cell phone service as well as phones themeslves. They offer service as low as $15/month. How can it be so cheap? One of the ways is that Mint Mobile is super pre-paid. Here’s how it works. You pay your first three months in advance. If you select the $15/month plan, which includes 3GB a month of data, unlimited nationwide talk and text, you pay $45 up front. This promo rate can then be extended to a full 12 months at the end of the 3 month period, which you would have to pay up front. While this may sound expensive, the monthly rate is still incredibly low. If you wanted month to month service, you could pay just $10 more, for $25 a month. Mint Mobile has other service tiers with more data for higher cost, with 8GB of data for $20 a month, and 12 GB of data for $25 a month. Unlimited data is only $30 a month. All plans have unlimited calling and texting, making Mint Mobile an extremely attractive alternative to the “Big Four.” You can also get a brand new iPhone for as low as $15 a month on top of the service cost.
Ting Mobile
Ting Mobile offers one of the cheapest phone plans in town — just ten dollars a month. It includes unlimited talking and texting, with no data, making it an ideal plan for people who just want a simple phone, or elderly people who do not have smartphones. Ting is a unique provider because you can add extra lines for just ten dollars a pop, and you can share your data amongst your lines if you purchase data. Data starts at $5 per gigabyte, or you can bundle 5 gigs of data with a $10 plan to equal $25 a month. If you added an extra line for $10, you would have two phones with unlimited talk and text, 5 gigs of data to share, for just $35 a month. This again makes Ting Mobile an ideal option for senior citizens who have low-data needs and really want a phone that does phone-things first and foremost.
Hello Mobile
Hello Mobile advertises its “best deal” as a $25 per month plan with unlimited everything — unlimited talk, unlimited text, and unlimited fast data. It also decreases in price the more lines you need, for example, it becomes $40 a month for two lines, making the per line price $20. If you don’t need as much data, you can opt for the slightly cheaper $20 a month plan, which has 4 gigs of fast data instead of unlimited. And if you don’t need much data at all, their 1 gig a month basic plan is just ten bucks a month!
In Conclusion
If you want to save on your phone bill, it is plain to see that it is not hard to do so. A lot of the bigger wireless carriers attract people with the latest phones, baking the price of the expensive phone into the large monthly phone bill. If you have a phone which is “out of contract” and can be “unlocked,” you can simply keep it and bring it to one of the providers listed in this article. Most of the providers allow you to keep your existing number (though you may have to pay cancellation fees with your existing provider if you are locked into some sort of contract). And if you cannot use your existing phone, you can buy a more than decent unlocked cell phone in the $200-range, enabling you to save hundreds or perhaps even thousands on cell phone service in the long run.