Yeah that's what I was worried about. Seems like the only real benefit then is the ability to switch providers at any point in time vs 2 year lock in. So you'd have to be willing to pay a $15 per month or so premium for the ability to switch at any time?
Yeah, there are some cheaper options, but switching is a hassle, especially if you want to keep your number. $14 for 400Gb is an order of magnitude cheaper.
Yesterday I saw a discount with an extremely cheap 3-year plan (under 30$ and no data limit, iirc). The price didn't offer confidence that the service would be available for all three years.
Not only is it $35/mo, but I can top-up the account for several months at a time, so that I simply don't have to worry about it.
My one complaint is that my provider still "warns" me every month that my plan is about to expire, even if there are multiple pre-paid months to go. They really need to fix that.
Which has the added bonus of not tying you down to a contract.
That's basically what I'm doing. Right now I've got a family plan with 2 phones and unlimited internet on each for $100. Doesn't make sense to do anything else.
Of course they made it easy, but not really giving me an option. You can't buy the discounted phone on a family plan, ONLY that one individual plan. And you only get the full discount as a new subscriber. Odd.
T-Mobile plans are actually about $20 cheaper without a contract. (They're pretty quiet about this.) Also, there's value in being able to switch carriers without penalty at any time if, say, you decide to get a different phone a year from now.
I have been extremely satisfied with the service from my MVNO. I am subscribed to the bottom-tier plan, with 500MiB/mo of data. I currently pay the bill monthly through electronic BillPay.
If I ever go over my data cap in a month, I will be automatically upgraded to the next tier plan. Here's the catch: my current plan is grandfathered, and no longer available to switch back. Once I "accidentally" upgrade, I'll be stuck there.
No big deal, right? It's another $5/mo. Well, guess how much the AutoPay discount is?
I use T-mobile now, so I suppose switching wouldn't be to much of an issue in terms of coverage. I'm currently grandfathered in on an old pay-as-you-go plan that gave 100 minutes a month (I don't talk on the phone much), unlimited texts, and "unlimited data" (5GB then basically nothing). However T-Mobile makes it increasingly hard to stay with that plan, like eliminating the ability to refresh your plan earlier than 30 days, and for the few times I use it as a phone the service is spotty-- full signal, data works fine, but it might take a few minutes for a call to connect, sometimes failing and requiring multiple attempts. Mint might be an improvement.
I've always gone with the no-contract plans. I pay $35/month for the same phone and unlimited service that one of my family members is paying $100/month for. Really I don't see the point of the contract plans.
Why not pay the $175 to be free of the oppression forever? If you switch from AT&T 3G + tethering and use 5G a month, that will be $75 a month. Sprint will be $60. If you have more than 12 months left, the ETF pays for itself. And even if not, at least you don't have to deal with AT&T anymore.
(Although, in my experience, all phone companies are a pain to deal with. Luckily, I don't have problems very often.)
Yeah "$35" until they tack on the device fee of $20/month. Which means your cheapest plan, even if you own the phone, is $55.
I'll stick with my inferior $30/mo Virgin Mobile service, I suppose. I got my hopes up thinking Verizon had changed, but $55 at a minimum is just too much when I don't use a lot of data. The main reason I was considering a switch was coverage.
AFAIK, my plan options will be the same price whether I have a contract or not
The "Even More Plus" from T-Mobile are contract-free and $20/month cheaper than their on-contract equivalents. You save $480 over 2 years, well above the difference in purchase price, and have no ETF issues if you need to cancel.
if I choose not to use T-Mobile, won't I be stuck with edge?
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