This is more budget related, versus B&I. There are 3 iPhones and 1 Samsung Galaxy on my cellphone bill, plus one LTE iPad. I have an unlimited plan through Verizon and pay close to $325/mo with 3 phones and the iPad paid for. I'm done with this chit.

Any of y'all use or have moved towards cheaper phones and network providers? Pre-paid or otherwise. I'd love to keep our iPhones, but I'm not married to them either if it meant real savings.

I use Ting, but it's not unlimited. We have wifi at home, and I don't stream stuff when I'm not on wifi.

Dang, I pay $94 for 2 iPhones on ATT. We share a rollover 6gb plan, talk/text unlimited.

Have you tried just calling and getting current prices? Last time I did that, our bill went down, AND we got twice as much data.

We pay $205 with taxes and fees on ATT for 4 devices (sharing 32 GB data) w/ unlimited talk & text.

Sounds like you're getting hosed.

Wife and I share 4 GB data with rollover for $88 a month on Verizon. We own our iphones so those aren't on the bill at all.

Just to add to this, we use MetroPCS, which runs on the T-Mobile network. I have 3 iphones on the plan, (mine, my daughters, and my ex-wife's). For all three and unlimited everything, it runs $90 a month.

You can start a business account with 5 lines on AT&T. I pay $253 for 6 lines unlimited.

jtraggie99 said:

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Just to add to this, we use MetroPCS, which runs on the T-Mobile network. I have 3 iphones on the plan, (mine, my daughters, and my ex-wife's). For all three and unlimited everything, it runs $90 a month.

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This is important information. OP, who owns the phones you are paying for? It can make a big difference.

I am on Cricket with 2 lines for $70. It is 5GB per line, but no hotspot without bumping up to unlimited, then the hotspot add-on feature and adding $30/month per line, and am throttled to 8Mbps data speed. Additional lines would be $20 each I believe. I am looking at AT&T's prepaid option since it looks like I can get the same price with 8GB of data on each line, no speed throttling until after the 8GB and the hotspot would be included in that price.

I'm paying just under $200 with AT&T for two Iphones (paid for). It's unlimited. I was just thinking I want to try and get it down.

I'm on T-Mobile with 6 lines (unlimited data & "free" Netflix) for $190 which includes taxes.

That's not including costs for upgrading to new phones which I usually buy through special deals through Costco.


In looking at this months bills, 3 of the lines used between 19-37 GB of data, 2 of us were between 4-9 GB, and 1 at less than 1 GB. In the rare month that someone uses less than 2 GB on a line, we get $10 month per month discount. Rarely happens.

monte jr said:

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I'm paying just under $200 with AT&T for two Iphones (paid for). It's unlimited. I was just thinking I want to try and get it down.

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I'm on three iphones w/ unlimited data/talk/text and its around $200, so ya, you should call and check on that.

Wife and I used to be on a cheaper plan with a data limit, but it just wasn't worth it because we would go over every month. More power to those of you who are on your phones less than we are (that's a good thing).

Don't y'all have wifi at home? How the heck can you use more than a few Gigs a month?

Iowaggie said:

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I'm on T-Mobile with 6 lines (unlimited data & "free" Netflix) for $190 which includes taxes.

That's not including costs for upgrading to new phones which I usually buy through special deals through Costco.


In looking at this months bills, 3 of the lines used between 19-37 GB of data, 2 of us were between 4-9 GB, and 1 at less than 1 GB. In the rare month that someone uses less than 2 GB on a line, we get $10 month per month discount. Rarely happens.

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I pay $106 for 3 unlimited lines, all with hotspots.

Each additional line will be $10 per month.

T-Mobile has a fantastic military discount. If you served and have your discharge papers, you can get a 50% discount.

My wife and I switched to cricket about two years ago and have been super happy with it. Same coverage as ATT. No dropped calls and no data overages. $70 per month (including al taxes and fees) for 5 GB of data each. I believe that you can do four lines of unlimited for $100 per month

We love it and the only difference we have noticed is that it says cricket in the top left corner and the bill is cheaper.

Feel free to pm for a referral code if you decide to switch (we each get $25 off I believe)

With insurance, etc, I pay $380 for 4 phones and 1 iPad on unlimited Verizon. I've tried others, but nobody comes close to the signal on Verizon.

project fi

Virgin Mobile. $30/month for "unlimited" (it slows down after 10GB). No random fees or taxes (comes out to ~$33 and has been there for years). Its a steal but only a good option in big cities (Dallas/Houston).

I have a tracfone smartfone, and use it sparingly. Pay $100 a YEAR for service and 1200 min+texts+12MB data.

Use wi-fi at home and make most calls using Google hangouts when I have WiFi available. Hardly ever use minutes or data.

Oh, and GET OFF MY LAWN! /old guy.

I'm with insulator_king.

I've been using a Tracfone smartphone for about 3 years now. Cost -- $125/YEAR, which includes 1500 minutes of talk + 1.5 GB data + 1500 texts.

Plus, unused minutes/data/text roll over from year to year. I've probably got more minutes of talk stockpiled than I'll ever use.

And, when I get tired of a phone, I go on QVC and buy a new one, which comes with a year of Tracfone service, and 1500 minutes/data/text, all for about $140, and all the minutes from the old phone roll over to it.

Maybe I'm not sporting the latest, greatest iPhone XX. Don't need it. Don't care. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I am hoping to switch from ATT to Fi if they ever ship our damn Pixel 3's.

insulator_king said:

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I have a tracfone smartfone, and use it sparingly. Pay $100 a YEAR for service and 1200 min+texts+12MB data.

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Is that usage per year?

So you can talk on the phone for 3 min. a day and watch like1 five minute youtube video a year lol. Is this plan from 1995?

In the last few years, I've gone from Cricket, to Fi, back to Cricket, to AT&T (for international travel - which was a nightmare) and back to Cricket.

I noticed no difference in coverage/quality around town when on Cricket vs AT&T. Fi had terrible coverage where I live (Rockwall) - at least for me.

AT&T was a nightmare mostly because when we moved over, they set up 2 accounts instead of 1 with both of our phones. Then they got that merged and we went abroad and everyone else in the group got the typical "do you want international data/voice" text while I had to spend 1 hour on the phone, via wifi, at Heathrow to finally get it working....

Our AT&T bill was around $140 for the 2 of us - for the same thing, Cricket was $100. We've now actually dropped down even less cause we work from the house and don't need much data.

I know they aren't for everyone and there are situations where others are better, but I definitely recommend checking them out. Use the previous poster's referral code if you do - you'll both get a few bucks back.

4 lines with T mobile for $128.

Don't know how much data (around 2GB per person per month?), but it is enough since we use so much wifi.

T Mobile service sucks in some parts of the hill country, but I was paying $300 with verizon before I fired them.

If you own your phones or are willing to buy new ones (don't know about conversions of hardware between what companies), AT&T's best deal (which they rarely advertise) is their prepaid plan. My wife and I recently switched to this, after a multi-line discount, and an automatic payment plan (ie, a debit card on file) we pay less than $75/month inclusive of all taxes and fees (first line is 40, second line is 35, but you get a $5 discount for combining the two lines onto one payment plan, and a $5 discount for putting a debit card on file and automatically paying).
The plan is unlimited talk and text, with 6gb high speed data per line per month, BUT data is unlimited, only HIGH SPEED data is limited to 6gb
Basically, I think you can get each additional line for $30/month after the multiline discount.

I wish I could get out with less than 15g for myself. The whole family uses 30+ combined each month.

Was with cricket and loved it. Changed to Mint about six months ago and it's been good to good-ish. Prepay every six months. Comes out to around $15 a month. 6 GB unlimited text talk.

The catch is the quality of calls. 95% of the time it's awesome. Other days I'll get a missed call msg and realize the damn thing never rang in the first place. This usually only happens when in deep buildings or open road in the country. No dissimilar to my Sprint experience to be honest..

Not sure how it works exactly. Something about piggybacking off of other network lines. I just know that it's cheap AF, data and text is spot on, use your own phone and I actually only talk to someone maybe once or twice a week. So it works very well with me.

ETA: I consider myself in my trial phase of it mostly so though even though I do generally recommend Mint for those who don't live and die by their phones, I DO also highly recommend Cricket. They are legit and I have far more time with them overall. Enough to give a full account of their service.

i just got off of Project Fi. went to AT&T prepaid. Fi was cool at first. but, their service is terrible in the hill country.

We have three iPhones and share 4 gigs of data. We pay $165/month.

sprintermike said:

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If you own your phones or are willing to buy new ones (don't know about conversions of hardware between what companies), AT&T's best deal (which they rarely advertise) is their prepaid plan. My wife and I recently switched to this, after a multi-line discount, and an automatic payment plan (ie, a debit card on file) we pay less than $75/month inclusive of all taxes and fees (first line is 40, second line is 35, but you get a $5 discount for combining the two lines onto one payment plan, and a $5 discount for putting a debit card on file and automatically paying).
The plan is unlimited talk and text, with 6gb high speed data per line per month, BUT data is unlimited, only HIGH SPEED data is limited to 6gb
Basically, I think you can get each additional line for $30/month after the multiline discount.

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I'm pretty sure all att plans are now unlimited, with a cap on high speed. Ours changed about 8 months ago.

We basically have what you described, the 6gb plan, but it's rollover data. Our bill is $90.

We use less than 6gb, so our rollover has grown a bit. The random times we do a road trip, kids can hotspot off of my phone for their ipads, and we have enough to do high speed the whole time.

Furlock Bones said:

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i just got off of Project Fi. went to AT&T prepaid. Fi was cool at first. but, their service is terrible in the hill country.

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Are the prices for AT&T after tax? Just curious if the $70 for two lines will be the same all-in price as Cricket. Also, is there rollover on the prepaid plans?