I currently pay $25 a month for phone service.
This gets me unlimited talk and text. I don’t have a data plan, which is fine by me. No data means that I can’t be tempted to get on the internet, something that would be difficult with my phone’s browser anyway.
I wish I could offer you the $25/month plan, but T-Mobile doesn’t offer it anymore. These days, the cheapest unlimited plan they offer is $40 prepaid, which actually isn’t bad when compared to their standard price of $70 for a single line.
The cheapest monthly phone plans
For reference, here are the cheapest plans I was able to find on the major carriers:
T-Mobile: $40/month (prepaid)
Verizon: $30/month (prepaid)
Sprint: $40/month (prepaid not available)
AT&T: $30/month (prepaid)
What we can learn here are as follows:
- Plans are on the whole cheaper when they are “prepaid”, meaning, no-contract, month to month billing.
- The more data you want, the more expensive the plan is
For that last point, see this chart:
But while I’m all about saving money and lowering my monthly bills, I have to be honest, I really don’t care too much on whether my phone bill is $25 or $40, or even $80. I pay more than that in car insurance each month. Maybe this would have significantly affected my situation a decade or so ago, but not now.
Saving money is great, but it’s not really about the money. So what is it about then?
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