Budget Smartphone?

[RachelsMommie]

So I'm thinking about upgrading from a talk/text only phone to a smart phone.

Is there a budget way to do this? I'm trying to do 2 lines for under $100/month and still get good coverage for talk/text. MetroPCS would be $95 for two lines to include a data package. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint are REALLY high.

Do people really pay $150-$200 a month for smart phones for 2 people???

Any budget ideas from the budget gurus? Besides just keep the talk/text plan I have now?

 

[gigi1976]

Not sure that I can help, I agree with you I can't stand the idea of spending that much ($150/month)on a data plan. I know a lot of people here talk about a virgin mobile plan with data, and it seems reasonable, but so many of our friends and family are with ATT that it just makes sense to stay with them without data, I mean really do I need something else to distract me from my kids at the park?

 

[descovy]

I guess if you want a big talk & text & data plan it will be expensive... but I don't pay that much thru ATT.

We share family minutes... 550 "anytime" minutes for $59 (technically we get a 21% company discount on top of that... ) We use in total about 700-900 minutes, but because mobile to mobile is unlimited (= doesn't count against 550), nights and weekends are unlimited, we never ever go over. If fact our average "anytime minutes" are only 300, and with roll over minutes... if we ever went over, we have THOUSANDS of roll-over minutes banked up.

At $59 talk (for us only $50) it is an additional $15 for data. I have an I-phone, so it has wifi. So if I am in a wifi location, I am not even using data. I get 200mb... I have only once came close to going over, and usually use 100-150mb a month... and I feel I "surf" on it a lot.

So that is $50 + $15 for data. If dh wanted a smartphone too (he doesn't because he has a company-owned Blackberry) it would be another $15. So even then, we're at $80 (okay $89 w/o discount)

I choose not to have a text plan... but could have 1000 for $10 if I wanted to. Gulp, I do have about 20-30 texts a month at 20 cents/ea... which is outrageous, and if the time comes I spend $10 on texting, I will spring for the $10/mo texting.

I text a lot less now that I have the smartphone... because I can read/send email instantaneously. Sometimes I have email/facebook IMs that resemble text conversations. My old phone was pay-as-you-go... 10 cents/minute of talk or 10 cents a text. So I used to text a lot as it was cheaper. Now that I have more talk minutes than I know what to do with, I might respond to a text with a phone call. Admittedly I changed my talk/text habits now that I had a different talk/text plan.

So back to your original question... no, you don't have to spend $150-$200/mo to have a smartphone. But if you want plenty of EVERYTHING, that is what it will cost you. Making ANYTHING budget, means you have to make compromises. (talk time? texting? just get one smartphone?)

Take WDW... you can have a "BUDGET" vacay at WDW... but staying at a deluxe with a DxDP for 10 days with 4 people with park hoppers will still cost you $5k. You can ask "How will my family go to WDW for less than $5k??? And the answer will be to give up something! Same with the phone.