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Ask HN: How do I cut down on my cell phone bill?

• lifeguard 14y ago
  Switch some or all of your phones to pre-paid tmobile. Get google voice numbers, and use them for SMS and voice calls for personal business (like calling your bank). I don't have 4 accounts like you, but I have saved hundreds of dollars this way.
  • grumps 14y ago
    So you're using some sort of SIP account to GV to avoid using minutes?
    • lifeguard 14y ago
      Yes. Mostly my friends just text each other, not talk. Google voice provides SMS and voice mail, so it saves me a lot of monies. Then I use my paid minutes to return calls if needed. For making calls where quality is not critical, I put on headphones and make SIP voice calls.
• firefoxman1 14y ago
  I use a combination of Google Voice (free) and H2O wireless ($10/month for 200 minutes). H2O uses AT&T towers, so your existing GSM phones should work fine. I give people my Voice number, which I set to forward calls but not SMS, so text messages don't use up my minutes, and when I'm in a wifi zone (pretty often) I can log in and check my text messages.
  • grumps 14y ago
    Text messages count as minutes?
    • firefoxman1 14y ago
      Well, you load up your account with $10, and you can use them on text, data, minutes, etc. It's 5c per text.
      • grumps 14y ago
        Interesting. I'm thinking about picking up the $30 / mon from T-Mobile. Although sprint is free but absolutely no signal where I live.
• pardner 14y ago
  We've very heavy voice users, so needed lots of minutes/month. We've had great luck with Boost Mobile... I particularly like their retention policy which is NOT to lock you up on a 2 yr contract, but rather, to reduce your bill after N months of on-time payments. (Started at 60/mo, and after about a year we're paying 45/mo for unlimited voice+data+text.) On the other hand their customer support sucks if you need any help beyond the self-help on their website. AFAIK they do NOT have any live support.
• dsr_ 14y ago
  If the coverage works out for you, 4 $35/month VirginMobileUSA plans. Includes data, text, and 300 minutes per line. The 1200 minute version is $45.
• FilterJoe 14y ago
  Drop the minutes and data plans to the minimum and drop your 2 regular phones. Then share your plan with other people if you can. I am sharing a family plan with my inlaws at 550 minutes for the 3 of us. I also pay $15/month for data, so incrementally my 3rd cell phone adds $25/month + fees to the monthly costs. I keep cell data turned off most of the time except when I truly need to use it (typically Pandora or mapping while driving). I typically use more than 550 minutes of phone time by myself each month as follows: In office: Google Voice (free). At home: My wife uses T-mobile@home service for $10/month. No longer available but you can use Google Voice comfortably at home with the right kind of phone router, such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/OBi202-Phone-Adapter-Router-2-Phone/dp/B007D930YO http://www.amazon.com/OBi202-Phone-Adapter-Router-2-Phone/dp... Lots of high quality cell phone use on a single day: T-mobile $2 for the day (with my old Blackberry, which gives me much higher voice quality) Our total monthly costs including fees and taxes are about $45. For that price we have unlimited domestic calling at home and in my office, I have an iPhone 4s with limited minutes and data and my wife has Virgin Mobile cell phone that she only uses for emergencies. Would only be $35/month if we got the above-referenced phone router and dropped T-mobile@home.
• patio11 14y ago
  "Hiya AT&T CSR. I'm considering canceling my two smart phones and two regular phones because I feel I'm paying too much for cell phone service. Yes, I can hold." "Hello Retention Department. Two smart phones with data plans, two regular phones, total bill $260. What can you do for me?" This will knock about a thousand bucks a year off your bill in about 5~10 minutes.
  • dgunn 14y ago
    Bingo. This works for several services. I've personally had success with this (accidentally) with my cable provider back when cable was something people used. I called to cancel and enjoyed 3 months at a very reduced rate prior to cancelling. Not bad.
• dutchrapley 14y ago
  I suppose the additional two phones are for your kids? Does your wife need a smartphone? Check out Net10. You can get an unlimited plan for $50 for a smartphone, 750 minutes for $25/mo. and 200 minutes for $15/mo. The 200 minute plan has carry over minutes. Your net total would be $105, and ~$115 by the time you include sales tax. Granted, you still have to buy the phones. You could also look at Walmart's family plan. http://www.walmart.com/cp/Family-Mobile/1076544 http://www.walmart.com/cp/Family-Mobile/1076544 That would get you down to $150 for the whole family and it's powered by T-Mobile. FYI, I'm not offering this simply as a suggestion. I did this back in 2009. I was looking to move away from Sprint (poor coverage where I moved to) to a regional carrier. They wanted $60 per live for activation. I was told they'd only charge for one but I ended up still getting billed for all three. They wouldn't honor the discount the sales person offered me saying the offer wasn't approved by a manager. Fed up with the state of wireless companies at the time, I originally moved to Tracfone and later to Net10 when Net10 came out with monthly plans (both owned by the same company). Only this past August did I finally upgrade to Android. While my phone is no frills (800 MHz processor and 3.2 pixel camera), it keeps my calendar and contacts in sync, which makes life easier.
• deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
• srehnborg 14y ago
  When is your contract up? Check out Republic Wireless - www.republicwireless.com for a cheaper option. It's $19 a month for unlimited data/talk/text. Runs over wi-fi when you're around wi-fi or cell towers when you're not. That will save you quite a bit per month.
• runjake 14y ago
  An option might be heading to StraightTalk (www.straighttalk.com). Plan Costs would break down as follows: 2 Smartphone @ $45/line = $90 2 dumbphones @$30/line = $60 Total = $150/month These figures don't factor in ETFs. Your existing AT&T phones will work without unlocking. StraightTalk is an MVNO that operates on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks. You can pick which network.
• robflynn 14y ago
  I switched my girlfriend and myself to StraightTalk plans. $49.xx (post tax)/mo for unlimited everything. Bought two sims and popped them into our iPhones.
• eibrahim 14y ago
  OP here: I called AT&T to cancel and got $130 off my monthly bill and about $140 in refund. This should keep me going until October when I can cancel and move to T-mobile which has the BEST prices I found for 2 smart phone + 2 basic phones. Thanks everyone.