Cell Phones

[westjones]

We have three cell phones and my Verizon bill is $144 a month. That is with on iPhone and two regular phones.

What are the rest of you paying? This just seems like so much to pay for cell phones. My DD does pay the $30 a month service for her iPhone because we said we would only pay for a phone + texting.

Are there better deals out there?
Thanks!

[disneysteve]

We have 5 phones on AT&T, 3 are iPhones. Our bill is $187. That does include a discount through DW's employer.

Definitely check if any of you are eligible for an employer discount. It is a rarely mentioned perk at many companies.

[westjones]

I guess what I am asking....is this a typical cell phone bill for a family with 3 phones? I have no idea what other people are paying and it just seems to keep going up and up.

I wish they would let you have the iPhone without the data plan since most of the time my DD uses the internet she is at home or some place that has free WiFi.

Does anyone offer that?????? iPhone with no data plan so you can just use it like an iPod where there is free Wifi, but you can call and text?

[westjones]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

We have 5 phones on AT&T, 3 are iPhones. Our bill is $187. That does include a discount through DW's employer.

Definitely check if any of you are eligible for an employer discount. It is a rarely mentioned perk at many companies.

Oh good point. We do have a discount with Verizon because of my DH's employer. I don't know if AT&T offers that to us. We have AT&T cable/internet and home phone. Maybe we would get a discount because of that.

Thanks!

[okw2012]

Originally Posted by westjones

We have three cell phones and my Verizon bill is $144 a month. That is with on iPhone and two regular phones.

What are the rest of you paying? This just seems like so much to pay for cell phones. My DD does pay the $30 a month service for her iPhone because we said we would only pay for a phone + texting.

Are there better deals out there?
Thanks!

My advice if you think you are paying too much is to complain! I had been with the same phone company, paying 62$ for two phones (a dollar per day per phone, but these are not smart phones), and thought I was paying too much. I called customer service and told them I was on the verge of cancelling my contract and switching to a competitor. They reduced my monthly fee by 23$ to 39$ on the spot! I've done the same thing for my Cable contract, my house and car insurance, my land line, and it has worked every time! It is always worth it to try to negociate the price down, not just when buying a house or a car.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by westjones

I guess what I am asking....is this a typical cell phone bill for a family with 3 phones? I have no idea what other people are paying and it just seems to keep going up and up.

I wish they would let you have the iPhone without the data plan since most of the time my DD uses the internet she is at home or some place that has free WiFi.

Does anyone offer that?????? iPhone with no data plan so you can just use it like an iPod where there is free Wifi, but you can call and text?

What do you mean that it keeps "going up and up"? We have a set price as per our contract. The price doesn't change unless we add services to the plan.

Your price is probably pretty typical. At least with AT&T, adding phones to a family plan is cheap ($10/month) so the first phone is the costly one. Each additional phone doesn't bump up the price that much (unless you add data and other things).

I don't think anyone offers an iPhone without data. Why not just get her a regular phone and an iPod touch? It would probably be cheaper in the long run.

[westjones]

Well my DD bought her own iPhone and is paying for the service. But it seems like it is getting harder and harder to get nice 'regular' phones. They used to offer many choices, now they don't. And I guess it just seems like our cost has gone up, but I suppose it is hard to tell with my DD's iPhone added on and she is paying the $30.

I guess I thought maybe someone would offer to let you have in iPhone without the data (my one DD had the Droid for awhile without data, but now we can't do that, and she doesn't use the Droid any more).

Like I said...I have no idea how much others are paying. I suppose after college when they get jobs we won't have to pay for their phone anymore and that will help since we really don't need on except for emergency. I don't like talking on the cell phone. I prefer the old fashion home line.

[dfchelbay]

Originally Posted by westjones

We have three cell phones and my Verizon bill is $144 a month. That is with on iPhone and two regular phones.

What are the rest of you paying? This just seems like so much to pay for cell phones. My DD does pay the $30 a month service for her iPhone because we said we would only pay for a phone + texting.

Are there better deals out there?
Thanks!

This is the reason we left AT&T. Each Iphone was costing nearly $100 a month. Now, we pay $25 per month for our Iphones. That's $50 total for two Iphones with Virgin Mobile. I've gotten better reception too with Virgin Mobile than I ever got with AT&T. The Iphone is exactly the same too. In my opinion, it's even better than AT&T. With AT&T, I would hit dead cell areas, not get some texts, etc. Do not have these problems at all the Virgin Mobile. They run off the Sprint network too, so I know I'll have coverage pretty much wherever I go in the country.

[westjones]

BTW, she did have in iPod Touch....but really wanted an iPhone. She is paying the extra $30.....but I guess the problem I have with Verizon is the lack of options when it comes to the regular phones. I want a keyboard for texting and there are so few that have that. And well.......I guess I feel like they are trying to 'push' us towards getting a data plan because the nicer phones with key boards seem to all need a data plan.

I love my "Alias" from Verizon, but they don't offer it any more and I have had it since 2008 and figure I will need a new one some day because the battery is not holding the charge like it used to, and the one thing I don't like is after about 30 texts I have to delete them all because the memory is full.

[westjones]

Originally Posted by dfchelbay

This is the reason we left AT&T. Each Iphone was costing nearly $100 a month. Now, we pay $25 per month for our Iphones. That's $50 total for two Iphones with Virgin Mobile. I've gotten better reception too with Virgin Mobile than I ever got with AT&T. The Iphone is exactly the same too. In my opinion, it's even better than AT&T. With AT&T, I would hit dead cell areas, not get some texts, etc. Do not have these problems at all the Virgin Mobile. They run off the Sprint network too, so I know I'll have coverage pretty much wherever I go in the country.

Do you have a 'pay as you go' plan with Virgin Mobile for your iPhones? Or do you have a 2 year contract? My DH has a plan old basic Virgin Mobile phone that he only pays $5 a month for....but he only uses it for emergencies and with this 'plan' you don't get many minutes or texts. But he never uses them all because he rarely uses his phone.

[LJSquishy]

After taxes, we pay about $150/mo for two smartphones (Droids) with Verizon, and that includes a small employee discount. We have whatever the cheapest family plan is, two data plans, and two small texting plans ($10/mo each). We still have the old "truly unlimited data" limit rather than the newer 2gb limit that comes with plans now.

We would love to lower our bill, but we do not have a house phone and use our cell phones constantly to access the internet when we are out running errands. Other carriers just don't have the quality of service that Verizon has, speaking coverage-wise, so we don't want to change carriers. My husband's brother & his wife have AT&T and have had so many issues with coverage and disconnecting.

We're talking about paying outright for iPhone 5s when they come out (eventually, we don't need new phones right now) rather than extend our contract because I'm sure prices will be even higher.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by dfchelbay

This is the reason we left AT&T. Each Iphone was costing nearly $100 a month.

Why was it costing you so much? On a family plan, adding a line is $10 and the data plans start at $15. Add in some taxes and you are still nowhere near $100/month. Even if you are grandfathered in with unlimited data at $30, that's still only about $50/month with tax.

[WeLuvDiznee]

We also have Verizon.We have 2 iPhones,a Droid,& a Samsung Sensation. We have the Family share plan,- we share min.& data.Our bill is $257.00 monthly! It's crazy,and I'm always looking for a better deal.

[dznygurl]

We have AT&T with 5 phones (3 are iPhones) and pay $217 per month. My DH and I have the $15 data plans and teens have $25 plans.

[dfchelbay]

Originally Posted by westjones

Do you have a 'pay as you go' plan with Virgin Mobile for your iPhones? Or do you have a 2 year contract? My DH has a plan old basic Virgin Mobile phone that he only pays $5 a month for....but he only uses it for emergencies and with this 'plan' you don't get many minutes or texts. But he never uses them all because he rarely uses his phone.

No contract. I pay $25 per month for my minutes, and unlimited texts and data.