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It's good that they factor in the ETF you'd have to pay to switch carriers.
It's good that they factor in the ETF you'd have to pay to switch carriers.
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I tried to use BillShrink, but it said I'm already getting the best deal. The cheapest plan they showed me was $20/month higher than what I pay now, for a smaller number of minutes than my current package, and they only have 4 carriers (not including my carrier). Also, I'm sure including taxes and fees would make it much more difficult for them to calculate, but that shit adds up. It's hard to compare plans without knowing how much additional that stuff will cost.
Overall, meh. Maybe it works better for other people.
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How much does everyone pay for their cellphones? Mine comes to around $37-$38...
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@MostlyHarmless: Ha! Ha! I laugh at you and your puny phone bills. Here in Sao Paulo, I pay $US 161 per month for my 400 minute iPhone plan, on top of $US 610 for the iPhone itself.
Or, there's a $US 500 per month plan that's unlimited and I get a new phone (iPhone, BB Storm, or HTC Touch Diamond) every two years.
Ha! Ha!
@MostlyHarmless: We pay about $105 each month for two phones, unlimited text and data, and 1500 minutes with free nights, weekends, and unlimited mobile to mobile. That's on Sprint with my employer's discount that saves us probably $20 or so.
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@MostlyHarmless: $64 a month after taxes and an employer discount for the lowest number of minutes and unlimited text/pic/video messaging for my phone. I'll check billshrink later and see if they can do me better.
$54.10/mo for 1 line (Samsung Behold phone - new and I like it) 1000 anytime minutes, unlimited text/msms, umlimited T-mobile calling, unlimited nights and weekends (after 9pm)
I probably don't need the $7 worth of unlimited T-mobile calling, but I figure it saves my ass when I (RARELY!!) go over my minutes... emergencies, travelling, etc. The overage fees are a nightmare, ya know?
@sniplover: Yeah, I know very well about overage fees. In my second month in USA - as a grad student, no less - i got hit with a $198 cell phone bill. The base charge was $40. Did not have nights and weekends free plan (because i was informed - wrongly - that those were only in network). So I got a call from the university telecom office, strongly recommending that I review my plan.
Though since then, I have not been hit with those fees, thankfully.
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@MostlyHarmless: I pay $43.50 or something close to that. I don't talk on the phone, but I make a lot of texts. Basically my phone is used to text only and occasionally call when I have to.
@MostlyHarmless: $43.00/month, unlimited text, I dunno how many minutes because I never talk. But I have a normal phone, not a cool phone.
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@MostlyHarmless: About $500/mo. I have a total of 5 lines, unlimted sms, data packages on 3 phones (1 iPhone in there), some ungodly number of minutes, the ATT international discount packages on two phones (both for calling to an international phone and from another country) plus the international calls at the reduced rates (still ridiculous. And the phone insurance on two as well.
It's disgusting.
I pay $37 for 400 nationwide minutes, with unlimited nights and weekends. No text messaging plans, since I dont text much. Might get one if I befriend some texty folks, but looks unlikely. I also dont have a land line either, so I think it is fairly reasonable.
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@MostlyHarmless: About $115 after taxes/fees ... need to have unlimited voice from Verizon (my boss pays for part of it since I use it as my primary work line)
Switching to Sprint next month for the Pre or one of the new Android phones... the bill will be the same but I'll get unlimited data and text in addition to voice!
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@MostlyHarmless: I'm at $45ish. Texting costs me $0.05 per (I don't text) and the plan only gives me 200 minutes. Long distance (last time I checked) is $0.19/min.
My plan fails at life. I'm dropping it next week for a pay-as-you-go plan for $100 or so a year, and leaving my phone off most of the time.
@MostlyHarmless: Mine is $30 for 500 minutes, unlimited N&W after 6PM. Text is $.10 but I had it turned off.
I am on the Sprint Sero plan. I have been out of contract for a year or more buy not upgrading my phone. I don't want to get a phone or switch carriers to keep myself contract free. Ironic that the thing that is keeping me with Sprint is the fact that I don't have a contract. They tried to force me into one by taking away my free after 6 discount, but I threatened to cancel and they relented.
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@MostlyHarmless: About $170 a month for both of us to have smartphones with the lowest amount of minutes, unlimited data and texting.
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@pecan 3.14159265: Same as you. $150 for two phones with 1400 minutes between them and unlimited data/texting on the Big V. No landline at home and cant live without an internet capable handset.
@pecan 3.14159265: Now that I look at it, I'm like \"I pay how much?!\" but we don't have a landline, and I really, really like having internet on my phone. It's the data plan that the major cost. I would have paid for text regardless. AT&T doesn't have a family data plan for the iPhone.
@pecan 3.14159265: unlockit.co.nz and download the APN for Cingular Wireless, then switch to the $10.00 data plan using your old phone. $40 saved between 2 lines.
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@pecan 3.14159265: I pay a bit over $200 for the least amount of minutes needed, 5 lines, and unlimited text/multimedia messaging on the 5 lines. None of the lines uses data or internet (because AT&T doesn't offer a family plan for data only the messaging plan is available for family). But according to BillShrink I've got the best deal to fit my needs. And like you, I don't have a house phone and my internet is $20 a month w/ the cable company and there's tons of wireless hotspots if I'm out and about with the laptop so I don't need to use my phone.
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@MostlyHarmless: $58 after a discount from my employer. Unlimited text messaging, nights and weekends (but nights start at 9, yuck), plus a $2 charge for a ringback tone.
This is a good tool if you haven't done any research into what you want. For most people, they have to find the coverage maps that tell them where they'll get the best reception. This knocks out one or two carriers, IMO. I don't think there are very many areas in which all of the big four carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint) work well equally. So once you figure out which ones work the best, you survey their deals. Unless you've never had a cell phone before, you have a good idea of how many minutes you need, who is on that particular carrier (free mobile to mobile) and what kind of phone you want.
For me, there was a verizon plan that looked better, but I couldn't figure out how to actually GET the plan from verizon, as it wasn't on their website and BillShrink was confusing.
For $70 a month on Sprint, I get: 950 anytime minutes. Nights before 7pm. Unlimited Nights, Weekends, Texts, Data. Free Roaming on Verizon networks.
Too great of a deal. And I got my Palm Pre too!
Didn't work even slightly for me: 2 lines with unlimited data for our unlocked iPhones (non-3G but what can you do?), 400 texts each, and 1000 shared minutes (we average about 700-800) for about $94 a month after taxes with T-Mobile.
Granted I wouldn't expect the \"oh, you want unlimited data? Use this proxy and ask for this plan\" tricks but it seems pretty comparable to just trolling the sites looking at the plans.
I'm at $150.00 per month. Need to check around.
@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: Yikes. I know situations differ for every family and it sounds like you need a lot of premium services. I'd probably have a heart attack if I had to spend that much on phone service though.
Really, does everybody here chose their carrier on price alone?
I've tried other companies and my signal is always less reliable than Verizon. In my area, NYC. If I moved to other areas, I might go with, say, AT&T.
@nocturnal99: Not exactly. I chose AT&T because even though the coverage isn't as spectacular as Verizon, I wanted a smartphone (and more specifically, an iPhone) and Verizon's smartphones suck. Also, I had been having ridiculously terrible customer service with Verizon and desperately wanted to get out of dealing with them.
So I get a few dropped calls here and there, but I love my phone, and I have had really good customer service with AT&T the few times I've called to ask questions.
@nocturnal99: True, but your question was \"does everybody here choose their carrier on price alone\" - Sprint is cheaper, and offers coverage comparable to AT&T, I think, but had no phones I wanted. Verizon isn't GSM, so that was useless to us as far as international calling was concerned. So my determination was not only that I wanted an iPhone, but there weren't any other phones that I wanted to get. Not even the Blackberry could sway me, and I really liked the Blackberry Curve I played with in the store. It was red and shiny and everything. but it would have cost the same as an iPhone.
I pay $450 for 10 lines on AT&T, $390-$420 for 9 lines on Sprint. $200 for 5 lines on Alltel/Verizon.
I have discounts, perks and other things out the wazoo. Unlimited everything on Sprint with all blackberries using very old grandfathered features and plans.
1400 minutes on AT&T on one group, 2100 minutes on the other group.
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T-Mobile has been using Bill Shrink in their ads for ages now. Don't we remember all of those ads for a \"mobile makeover\" with CZJ?
I have a Tracfone that I don't use all that much. Less than $100 a year. Half the time it's not even turned on. Mostly it's for emergencies and for my wife and I to keep in touch during the day, a convenience.
I hate what cell phones are doing to American culture, and I would be happy to give mine up in exchange for banning them all except for 911 calls.
Put in my needs and whatnot and Billshrink came back with... the exact plan I am already on with my same carrier. The only cheaper option was for age 65 or older folks, which I am not.
So I feel good that I already have the best deal, but sad that there's nothing better. Oh well. I have already decided to switch to a prepaid plan when my contract is up in December.
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Billshrink's not bad, but it doesn't include prepaid plans, which can really save you money.
Your parent organization actually had a blog posting about this a while back.
@NeverLetMeDown: i agree about prepaid phones. I pay anywhere from $6-10/month for my prepaid phone since i'm an infrequent cell phone user.
@NeverLetMeDown: +1
Billshrink couldn't really save me much money, but a prepaid plan is cutting my cell phone expenses by more than half.