I have been an AT&T customer for quite some time (since the Cingular days). We have a shared plan between two phones. I noticed that upon my wife's last phone upgrade in April, we got the discounted price on the iPhone ($200 ish vs. the list price of $700 ish), but they began charging a monthly $25 fee to help cover the cost of the phone. This was not something they explained at all up front, as we upgraded in the Apple store (not at an AT&T store).

Anyway, in total, we are paying $145/mo. for 10GB of shared data and unlimited talk and text. Before my wife's January phone upgrade, we were paying $115/mo. for same plan.

I'm sure there are better deals out there, and I'm ready to entertain a possible switch. Anyone have some wisdom to share on this topic?

Well, Sprint has the cut your bill in half promotion going. But then you have Sprint. So there's that.

I've been with big red for quite a while now, and the 6GB the wife and I go through costs about $190/month. I've been trying to find better deals, and considering T-Mo but I just can't convince myself to do it.

At TMobile, you can get two lines with unlimited talk and text and unlimited 4G LTE for $100. They'll even buy off your wife's eip for the iPhone and any contracts you have.

Cricket.

Same AT&T service. Bring your own phone. No contract. And the list price includes all taxes and fees.

T-Mobile is fairly solid too, with slightly less reliable service depending on your location. Technology and deals move way too fast in this industry for a contract to ever be worthwhile.

I think T Mobile lets you use a lot of the music apps without counting against your data plan.

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At TMobile, you can get two lines with unlimited talk and text and unlimited 4G LTE for $100. They'll even buy off your wife's eip for the iPhone and any contracts you have.

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The $100 sounds good, but that's not including the equipment installment plans on new devices with them. Just checked on two new iPhone 6's, came out to about $150 before taxes and charges.

You can use your AT&T phones and unlock them so you can use them on the tmobile network. Saves yourself a lot of money.

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At TMobile, you can get two lines with unlimited talk and text and unlimited 4G LTE for $100. They'll even buy off your wife's eip for the iPhone and any contracts you have.

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The $100 sounds good, but that's not including the equipment installment plans on new devices with them. Just checked on two new iPhone 6's, came out to about $150 before taxes and charges.

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It is basically the same with any plan. You can pay $100 with T-Mobile and pay a monthly rate when you get a new device. Or you can pay $150 with AT&T and get an upgrade every two years that "only" cost $100-200.

Have you looked into what it would cost to get out of your contract?

Not yet... thinking more along the lines when my 2 yr deal is up.

Thanks everyone for the responses. Perhaps my deal is not quite as bad as originally thought.

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Well, Sprint has the cut your bill in half promotion going. But then you have Sprint. So there's that.

I've been with big red for quite a while now, and the 6GB the wife and I go through costs about $190/month. I've been trying to find better deals, and considering T-Mo but I just can't convince myself to do it.

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I'm not sure if Sprint has gotten better, but a couple years back my son was on Sprint. It was bad. Dropped texts, calls, network not available, etc.. When we would contact them, they always blamed upgrades to their network.

We paid to get out of the contract.

I told them if they would allow me out if the contract for no charge, I might consider coming back in the future once they got their act together.

They refused.

We use cricket as well. 2 iPhones we brought over ourselves. Unlimited talk and text, 1G data (slows down from lte after that rather than charging for more).

Our bill went from $125/month to $70. We have less data this way but rarely used more than 1G anyhow and since that was share and this is 1G each it is plenty for us.

I've been happy about my switch to Cricket... 5 phones with varying plans for $140/mo

Something I've been tossing up is signing up for a 2-year contract w/ Verizon/AT&T then when thats up jumping no contract to T-Mobile/Cricket until the phones die. Rinse and repeat.

Wife and I are on Sprint right now and pay right at $150/month for our two HTC smartphones. I'm thinking about buying new phones flat-out and moving to Cricket. Our HTC's are 3 years old. Will the Samsung Galaxy S5 work for Cricket? Looks to be about $390 each at Amazon. Any other phones to check out?

S4 or S3, I believe you can get them free w/ a contract on Verizon/ATT

I had verizon ten years. Was enticed by the t mobile unlimited plan for $100. Tried it for three months. Couldn't get service almost anywhere (I live in Dallas, and made a trip to Houston for a wedding- no service either place). Switched back to verizon with a good deal and I'm very happy.

My wife and I switched to Cricket. And we're not drug dealers. Each pay $50 for unlimited everything, but it's throttled to 2 or 3G after you use 5GB. I don't know if I've been throttled yet - I don't think I use that much.

Plus: No contract. You're on the ATT network signal. Good coverage in the Hill Country and West Texas.

Drawbacks: You can bring your own phone or pay full price upfront for theirs.

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Drawbacks: You can bring your own phone or pay full price upfront for theirs.

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That is actually an advantage... if you do the math on what a contract phone actually costs you come out way ahead just buying it upfront.

From my digging, I can't find an option better than prepaid unless you're bringing 4 or more lines to the table.

Verizon prepaid - $45/month for unlimited talk/text, 1GB data, autopay gets you an additional 1GB bonus per month. There is also a $60/month plan with a higher data limit.

I no longer stream music from my phone in the car, but other than that, I haven't had any issue getting by on <2GB/month. Additional data runs $10 for 1GB, or $20 for 3GB, and rolls month-to-month, being utilized once plan data is extinguished (it does expire after 90 days, however)

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At TMobile, you can get two lines with unlimited talk and text and unlimited 4G LTE for $100. They'll even buy off your wife's eip for the iPhone and any contracts you have.

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The $100 sounds good, but that's not including the equipment installment plans on new devices with them. Just checked on two new iPhone 6's, came out to about $150 before taxes and charges.

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but after 2 years the phone cost goes away. With everyone else, you pay that forever.

That's not true. Verizon has the Edge program which essentially splits the cost of the new phone into 24 payments then you pick the plan you want and your bill is the summation of the installment plust your plan. At the end of that two year period, you own the phone outright and are just paying on your plan at that point...as long as you don't get a new phone. It's the same as buying for full price up front. I believe AT&T has a similar option.

Generally speaking, you're rarely going to come out ahead by purchasing the phone for a reduced rate. You're better off buying the phone outright at the beginning or taking advantage of the "financing" programs available. Always look to separate the cost of the phone from the service and don't let the company intermix the two.

We're moving to Cricket later this week. We figure we'll give them a go and see how it goes! Anyone want a referral? AgTag preferred.

I do.

What do you need from me?

https://mycricket.sparkrefer.com/5VegLzs

I think that should work

Another vote for Cricket. Two lines with a unltd. Talk and text with 10 gigs of data each for $110.00. Taxes included.

If you don't live in a major metropolitan area it's Verizon or AT&T depending on where you are at. I have Verizon because it's the only thing that works where I work. It's overpriced but at least I get service.

Maybe we've been lucky, but my fiance and I and my aunt are on T-Mobile in the B/CS area and rarely if ever have any problems. She's got an iPhone 5S, I've got a Note 3 and a OnePlus One (and a Lumia 5xx that's rarely used) and my aunt has whatever was the cheapest Alcatel they had, and my fiance and I both have LTE iPad Airs.

The phone that has the most problems is the Alcatel, but even that's only an occasional dropped call.

In my office, all cellular drops, but the Note has WiFi calling (as does the Lumia) so they both work perfectly well. My work-provided AT&T iPhone 6 works partially.

For four phones, two iPads using the Four Lines/$100 plan with 2.5GB high speed data each and the iPads getting the highest amount of data at LTE that any phones on our account has (every device has 2.5GB high speed, and then throttled afterward) including Jump payments for all the phones but the Lumia and the OnePlus One comes out to right about $200/month.

Switched to Cricket last week, so far so good. My ATT bill was $70-90 per month and now I'm paying $35/month all in.

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I do.

What do you need from me?

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Got the link. New phones should be here tomorrow and will sign up ASAP. Will keep ya posted!

Thanks for the great discussion. I've gotten sick of the new financing options that the big two are doing and the hidden costs that exist with both of the plans.

Where do you recommend going to purchase a phone, if you plan on switching to Cricket?

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Thanks for the great discussion. I've gotten sick of the new financing options that the big two are doing and the hidden costs that exist with both of the plans.

Where do you recommend going to purchase a phone, if you plan on switching to Cricket?

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I picked up a lightly used Galaxy S5 off of eBay for $270. You could always try one of the entry level smartphones from cricket for less than $100.

I switched my wife to Crickett last month and I'm jumping over when my ATT contract ends in September. It will be $70 for both of us versus $150 previously. I'll take that all day.

T-Mobile is the best!