How to Save Hundreds on Your Cell Phone Bill

There is no doubt that in the 21^st century cell phones are one of the most disruptive technologies humans have managed to invent. How disruptive? There are nearly 330,000,000 cell phones in use in the United States alone, a statistic that gets even crazier when you consider there aren’t even that many Americans in the United States! But as powerful as the technology is it has a pretty major downside: cell phone plans are costly.

The American model of cell phone coverage worked, for many years, in stark contrast to the rest of the world. You sign a multi-year long distance contract and buy the phones allowed on that cell phone provider’s network, often for a subsidized cost. Man, remember when AT&T was the only place where you could get an iPhone? Meanwhile, in the rest of the world you buy the phone you like then get cell coverage month-to-month at the rate you can afford from whoever is willing to offer you the best deal. You pay the phone’s full price but the competition in the coverage market more than makes up for that cost in savings.

For years we had a backwoods cell market in the United States: restricted access to phones, long contracts locking you in to rates and providers, and no competition keeping those rates high. Then a funny thing happened: AT&T tried to buy T-Mobile and the government said, “No.” When that deal fell through T-Mobile hit upon a new business model best described as, “Man, fuck those other guys.” Soon they were offering long distance plans at half what the other big companies were, with the option to have whichever phone you like, and without a contract! The era of discount cell providers had begun and now we live in an era where if you’re paying more than $50 each month for your cell plan (particularly if you have a contract) you’re getting robbed.

The Competition

Today we’re going to compare the best discount options in the marketplace to show you just how much you could be saving on your cell phone plan. We’ll be contrasting those plans to the monthly plans offered by the big four: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. Here’s the breakdown of the plans available by company.

Provider	1G Plan	2G Plan	3G Plan	Savings
Verizon	$50	$65	$65	$0
AT&T Wireless	$55	$55	$75	$0
T-Mobile	$50	$50	$65	$0
Sprint	$40	$50	$70	$0
Cricket Wireless	$35	$35	$50	$5-$30
Republic Wireless	$25	$40	$55	$10-$25
Ting Wireless	As low as $25	As low as $35	As low as $50	$15-$30
Google Fi	$30	$40	$50	$25 or more
Virgin Mobile	$35	$45	$45	$15-$20
Boost Mobile	$30	$30	$40	$20-$25

Cricket Wireless

Let’s kick things off with a company whose quality I can speak to directly: Cricket Wireless, my cell provider. My iPhone 6s gets flawless 4G LTE coverage for just $35/month on the 2G plan when you set up an auto-pay account. There was no activation fee (although I did have to order a sim card for $9), and I was able to set the account up myself automatically. When I found myself in the market for a new cell plan I knew I wanted one that allowed me to bring my phone without charging me, didn’t have a contract, and offered low rates with great coverage. Cricket nailed it, and I’ve been pretty impressed so far. I was also shocked to find out how little data I use in a month, something I was nervous about in the switch because I was moving from an unlimited data plan. I was shocked to discover that thanks to my Wi-Fi networks at home and work I used less than 2 gigabytes of data each month on my phone. In fact, the average American uses less than 2 gigabytes of data each month.

I made the switch and am loving it. Plus, readers of the Bill Stark Blog can unlock a special offer of $25/off your first bill when you switch to Cricket here. Or, if you prefer, you can check out Cricket Wireless using a non-referral link here. Cricket’s business model was so potentially disruptive that AT&T actually bought them meaning you’re on one of the top networks in the country at a lower rate than the folks burning money on the full AT&T plan. It also means they use the GSM standard meaning practically any GSM compatible phone can be used on their network (or you can buy a new one from them).

Republic Wireless

Republic Wireless offers a lot of flexibility in their cell phone plans with data plans as low as 1 gigabyte/month and unlimited talk and text. But they’ve taken a new approach to unused data: they reimburse you for what you don’t use. That’s a novel approach to the old paradigm of “rollover” minutes which let you build up an “emergency fund” of left over data from month to month but which didn’t put more money in your pocket. They estimate users will save $8-$24/month on top of their savings from low rates thanks to this additional refund.

On Republic’s reimbursement plan a gigabyte of unused data nets you $15 in savings. For the average American using 1.8 gigabytes of data each month that’d be a savings of about $3 each month meaning their already low prices go even lower! A few cell phone companies are shifting to this model which makes Republic a good choice for those of us who don’t need the full amount of data from our plan each month. The real question is how do they accomplish this level of savings? Republic uses Android phones on Sprint’s MDMA network to offer VoIP calling. That means your primary means of calling someone is going over the internet, which costs less than when Republic pays Sprint to use its cellular network. If you’re not in an area with a wireless network? Than you switch over to a cellular network and carry on your merry way. One downside: their options for phones are more limited than many of the other options on this list.

Check out Republic Wireless here.

Ting

Unlike many other providers, Ting Wireless takes a highly itemized approach to charging you for cellular service. They operate either on Sprint’s CDMA network or T-Mobile’s GSM network and their price breakdown works something like this:

·         A $6/month fee for each phone on the plan

·         A nationwide minutes program for phone calls that ranges from $0-$35+

·         A global messages charge of $0-$35+

·         A data charge from $0-$29+ with the first gigabyte at $19 and the second at $29

Ting’s highly specific fee structure lets you sculpt the plan that works for you the best. Is your phone an internet browsing machine that occasionally sends text messages? Pay $6 for the phone, $0 for cell minutes, $3 for up to 100 texts, and $29 for your data usage of 2 gigabytes. You wind up with a plan that costs $38, and you’re only paying for the feature you use. Have family members on your plan? Expand it however you need to include them and pay for the types of usage you need as a family.

Get started on Ting with a special offer for Bill Stark Blog readers here and take $25 off your bill.  You can check out Ting with a non-referral link here.

Google’s Project Fi

A new kid on the block, Google has entered the world of providing cellular coverage with what they’re calling “Projet Fi.” Like Republic Wireless it offers you the chance to be reimbursed for cell data that you don’t use each month. It also offers great options for international data usage and using your phone as a Wi-FI hotspot. How does pricing break down? You pay $20/month for the “Fi Basics” plan each month which features unlimited talk and text in the States, plus unlimited international texts, Wi-Fi hotspot capability, and data in 120+ countries. Then you add $10 for each gigabyte of data you want access to. When you don’t use a portion of that data? Google reimburses you at a rate of about $.01/megabyte. That means the standard American user who clocks in at 1.8 gigabytes of used data per month on a 2 gigabyte plan would save an extra $2/month on Project Fi.

Now there are a few downsides to Google’s plans on Project Fi. First, it’s currently an invite-only opportunity. Much like a software beta you’ve got to be selected to participate. Additionally it’s only available on a limited selection of cell phones: the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, and Nexus 6. They’re piggybacking on Sprint and T-Mobile’s wireless network, so your coverage is pretty solid, but early access coverage is only available in select neighborhoods even if you make it into the beta.

Could Project Fi be right for you? Find out here.

Virgin Mobile

Before I was with Cricket I was with Virgin Mobile and my overall satisfaction was relatively solid. Their coverage was pretty good, their customer service was good, but I had some issues with their billing and an update to their service at one point that wiped out all of my saved messages on my voicemail inbox (including the last one from my grandmother before she passed away). When it came time to upgrade our phones I found Cricket, but I can still recommend Virgin if you’re on one of the expensive cell plans from the big providers.

Their rates of $35/1 gigabyte, $45/3 gigabytes, or $55/8 gigabytes are competitive but not better than some of the other options here. Like Cricket, Virgin’s model was poised to be disruptive to the cell phone market so Sprint bought them up meaning your network is reliable. It also means Virgin relies on the CDMA standard for cellular communications. You can bring most any phone to a plan on Virgin (provided it works on CDMA), and their prepaid plans mean no contracts. Pay for the service you want or need, and switch elsewhere whenever you want!

Find out more from the Virgin website here.

Boost Mobile

Another subsidiary of Sprint, Boost Mobile offers prepaid plans using CDMA. You pay for the plan you need with two ways of garnering extra savings: if you’re on an autopay setup you’ll get a $5 discount each month and when you make on-time payments you’ll “grow” the amount of data you have access to. Someone on the 2 gigabytes plan who makes on-time payments can grow their access to up to 5 gigabytes of data, all for the same $30/month. That’s a pretty good deal and for those of you who are above average cell data users Boost is the plan for you to get a low cost data plan that grows to fit your needs over time.

In addition to the two extra savings options Boost Mobile also provides unlimited music streaming without data charges and the ability to use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Their options on phones are also pretty flexible, though they can run out of stock (one of the reasons I went with Cricket was because Boost was out of 32 gigabyte iPhones; your mileage may vary). Like most of the other carriers mentioned here Boost’s prepaid plans mean no contracts so you can buy the service you want as long as you want, then switch to someone else if they offer a better deal (just make sure you know the difference between a CDMA and GSM carrier).

Get started with Boost here.

Why you can afford to switch

These are the half dozen cell phone providers who can offer you the same features at lower rates compared to the big providers. Get started upgrading your monthly cell phone bill to a lower cost carrier and start saving yourself hundreds of dollars a year.