Once upon a time, three little piggys went out and decided to go mobile. Because they were a family, they purchased a family plan: three phones and 400 minutes for $69.99 $77.64 a month. The big bad wolf was laughing all the way to the bank.
Recently, those three piggys switched to prepaid: 1000 minutes per phone for one year. Each line costs only $100 per year, or $8 per month. They will save $53 a month.
What is the moral of this fable?
1. You can have mobile service with minimal cost.
2. If you use your mobile phone infrequently, drop the monthly plan and switch to prepaid. Even families should eschew the family plan in favor of individual prepaid plans. If you or your family use more than 10 hours of talk time each month though, don’t go prepaid.
3. Individuals with a landline: port the number to a prepaid mobile.
This service is called T-Mobile to Go. It is a painless switch for T-Mobile and Cingular customers.
For customers of other carriers like Verizon, your existing mobile may or may not be compatible with T-Mobile’s GSM network. If it is not, you can get a new phone. Alternatively, with your existing phone, you can use a prepaid service on the Verizon CDMA network called Page Plus Cellular.
There are other prepaid providers, but these two are first and second for value. Don’t make the same mistake as those piggys.
Check your phone number transfer eligibility. Check your coverage. Buy refills on eBay, they’re cheaper.
4. Families with a landline that also have broadband internet: switch from the local phone company to Sunrocket internet phone service. It’s $10 a month. Check for Sunrocket deals on slickdeals.net.
