Cell phone help pls and tyty ( Be Gentle )

[of2dbeach]

We got our cell phone bill from ATT the stupid thing was $426.67 for 4 phones!! I sat there in shock. I called them and found out we were charged for things we didnt use like Family map. She was kind enough to take them off and refund us the money in the amount of $86.83 so now the bill is at $339.84. now fast forward My phone has alot of junk on it. I read my emails on it because my sons teacher sends me things and he needs an immediate responce ( My son is 18 Autistic/ Epileptic ) so this is how we have been doing things which has been ok but now hubbys work has slowed and we cant afford a gazzilion dollars for the phones. I know I need to cut back and I will do so. Question is would another carrier be better to go at this point. My issue is we have had other carriers but we are out in the country and reception is spotty with other carriers. Att seems the best so far.With my sons issues I feel better knowing I can get/ rec calls almost anywhere even in an elevator in the mall. I dont want to sound like a spoiled brat but it does worry me not to get a call if he seizes. I know others have issues with there kids also. Any help is appreciated, but pls dont be too hard on me I cried alot today as it is ;(
This might need to be moved to the Disabilites thread but I dont know how to do so. Thanks for caring and reading !! ~Tonya ~

 

[mommyof3princess27]

I have ATT too and I like them BUT we dont have internet service cuz its alot of money

 

[riley2008]

Lose the phones with the data plans. 4 phones with unlimited Family Talk and Text shouldn't run you but maybe $100/month. (I'm sure someone will have the exact numbers.) Get rid of your smart phones. It'll save $$$$.

We have ATT and 4 phones. Three are just talk and text phones. We have a $30/month unlimited family text plan. Only DH's has a data plan. We run about $140/month.

 

[tlenzendorf]

Do you have a data plan for your phone? If not I'd get one set up if you HAVE to email throughout the day, you can get 200mb for $15/month. Then if you go over they'll bump it up another 200mb for $15. Also if possible if you have wi-fi available on your phone I'd start checking when you go into stores to see if they have free wi-fi available. That keeps my date usage down.

 

[cornflake]

Keep in mind if you switch carriers, you'll need all new phones.

Did you discuss what plans you have with the rep and why the bills were so high? What about unlimited data or a family plan or etc.?

That bill though, (the $339) is significantly less than $100 per phone which, if they're all smart phones, is not a bad deal. How about stepping back from smart phones, if you can't afford them? You can get regular phones so you can get calls and text, and kill the data plans, which run like $30 per phone. Sell the smart phones on ebay and most carriers have non smart phones close to free with a plan renewal. Call and ask.

 

[DawnM]

I would stick with ATT if you can't get service with the other providers.

We have Sprint. 3 phones, 1500 minutes, unlimited texting, unlimited data. We pay $160/mo including tax. Mine is currently the only one with a smart phone, but will be adding another smart phone in April for an additional $10/mo.

We had a cheaper plan with talk only, but in November of last year I bit the bullet and moved to the 21st Century! I have an iphone now and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

Dawn

 

[bettymae1121]

t-mobile has a pre-paid plan that's $30 a month for 100 minutes of talk, unlimited text and unlimited data (they do throttle you after 5mb of data though, but DH says that's a lot unless your streaming netflix movies to your smart phone). If you did that on all four phones that's only $120 a month plus tax, less if you don't need that plan on all four and can go a cheaper route with some of them. I've never had issues with t-mobile coverage but I don't go out into really rual areas much, either.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

You can compare you current plan with other plans at billshrink.com. You may be able to lower your rate with ATT by right-sizing you plan for your specific use. The key is looking at past usage and getting the right number of talk and text minutes and right amount of data.

We have 2 iPhones with ATT, grandfathered in unlimited data, limited texting and only 550 shared talk minutes and with my college discount, we pay about $120 per month. Best of luck to you -- Suzanne

 

[of2dbeach]

3 are smart phones . When we got them we could afford them. Can I just get rid of the junk on them and use them like a reg cell phone till we get back on our feet again? I didnt think about it but if I switch carriers I have to buy phones again and I dont want to do that either.Thanks for everyone being so nice to me. I am reading everything and will show my Husband the ideas tonight. I have always relied on my Husbands income because I cant find work for only a few hours a day then if my DS seizes I have to leave and bosses frown on that. I am trying to get a job in the School Board here.. fingers crossed it works!

 

[rentayenta]

We have 5 iPhones, all with data plans, and pay $239 a month including taxes. 2 of the 5 have the 2048 MB and the other 3 have the 200 MB. We get 15% off the first line only as DH is a Call AT&T, plan on spending a good hour on the phone, and see what they can do for you. I was getting all sorts of unsolicited charges, lost my marbles, got the charges reversed, lowered our minutes per their suggestion, and that's been our consistent bill. Good luck!

 

[tlenzendorf]

Unfortunately with smart phones now they MAKE you have a data plan. The minimum plan for us is the $15/month/phone plan. Can you get some free/cheap AT&T phones and deactivate 2 of your smart phones for now? Keep yours with a plan so you can still email? Your bill just seems so high I'm curious what all you have. We have 2 smart phones with 200mb of data for $30/month(total together) and 1 regular phone without data on a family plan that includes unlimited texting($30/month total) for all 3 phones and our bill is $137.

 

[jeanelle]

I just went through this with our plan. We have ATT and have 4 phones on a family plan. 3 of the phones are smart phones. What I did is really look at the minute usage for the last few months. We found that since we had added the free Mobile to Any Mobile (this goes along with the family messaging plan but you have to ask for it), our minute usage plummeted. I ended up lowering our minutes from 1400 a month to 700 a month and still plan to bank some minutes every month.

Also I went through the data plans on each of the cell phone. I found by turning on the wi-fi on my phone, I lowered my usage enough to drop down to the $15/month plan. The other 2 phones were grandfathered into the $30/unlimited plan so we kept those. Also look and see if you are signed up for any services you don't need/want. I dropped World calling on one phone because we don't need it anymore. I also dropped the insurance on one phone that was so old that it didn't make sense.

I ended up saving like $45 a month on our cell bill. It isn't a lot but every little bit helps in this economy!

Jeanelle

 

[mbf]

I agree with everything that has been said. Call and tell the CSR what your situation is (including your son's issues). Very often they will help you figure out how to get your bill down.

I know how you feel with the AT&T. It is the most reliable service where I am as well. Verizon is ok too but more expensive for what we use the phone for. We cannot get any reception here with Sprint or TMobile or else I would definitely use them.

We have 4 phones in the family. Only one is a Smart Phone (mine). So 4 phones, unlimited messaging for everyone, 700 Minutes a month (I think that is the number, the lowest you can have with 4 phones), Roadside Assistance for my oldest, 200GB of data for my iPhone, comes to about $160 a month. Still more than I would like but not as bad as if we all had Smartphones. My friend pays $250/month for 4 phones with unlimited (grandfathered in ) data. And that is with a pretty big discount. Her nephew works for ATT and says there is a Family Data plan in the works but the ETA is not yet known.

 

[SandrA9810]

First off, what is your minute usage?
Secondly, texting plan?
Third, data plan?

4 lines should be around a $150 a month on the lowest minute plan. If you have a higher minute plan (say 1500) and drop to a 700 minute plan. Your roll over minutes will drop to 700 minutes.
Secondly, make sure there is family texting. It's now $30 a month and includes mobile to any mobile calling for free. The old family texting (unlimited) is $20, but does not include the any mobile calling.
Thirdly, are all phones grandfathered in on the unlimited data plan? It seems important for your phone to have it, but the other lines do not need it. You can drop to the $15 plan for the other lines. Check your recent bills to see your average usage of data for each line.
You also said that you travel out of the country a lot. Are you on that plan all the time? I used my phone to make a few international calls once. I didn't need the plan all the time, but it was way cheaper per minute. So I added the international plan for about 2 weeks, paid a pro-rated amount and then turned it off. All the calls I made during that time were charged based on the plan. Only use it when you know you need it.

If you would like to drop the data plan temporarily, you can pick up a couple $15 phones from most any retail store that sells the Go-Phone. Put your sim card in it, and the data plan will come off. If you do this, you will loose your grandfather status. So you need to make sure you can drop to the lower capped plan. There's so many places that have wi-fi now, it's every where. Just make sure you turn off the searching when you're travelling. But if you stop in a store, you can turn it on. Searching can kill your battery pretty fast. I always disconnect from the internet when I'm not browsing.

There is hope. And get rid of all the junk on the phones, any apps that costed you money. And put a block on the phones to prevent purchases of apps.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

We have 4 phones on AT&T & our bill right now is $189 no discounts. 3 are iphones with 200mb data plan 1 is a dumbphone. Unlimited family texting & 700 min a month. Maybe you just need to readjust your plans because that bill is outrageous.

 

[bumbershoot]

Getting new phones will involve paying the fee for each phone to be, uh, started...gracious, we just put MIL on our plan I should KNOW this fee...it was something like $36, though. And you'll do it for each.

If you're checking your email, and your email is automatically coming through with each email that comes in, you are *constantly* using data. If you do not have a plan that allows for this, you are getting charged for each bit you use, and that's going to add up. You must get on a data plan that allows you to basically be online 24/7, because that's what you're doing if your email is automatically coming to you.

If you don't know how to get the apps off your phone, take it to an ATT store and ask for help.

Be sure the whole family knows to NOT put those things on there, to not randomly click around on the internet, to not buy things.


If you're on a plan, those are usually 2 years long, and changing now will cause fees. So I don't recommend just quitting ATT without fully knowing what you will be responsible for. And if other carriers have spottier coverage, then you're not doing yourself any favors by switching.

If your son has a seizure, is someone calling you from HIS phone? Or are you being called by a school phone, etc? Does HE need the phone? Or is it just you that needs the phone? (I can't get calls IN an elevator, I'm jealous! our phones cut out once you enter the elevator)


Your son's teacher emails you and needs immediate responses...wouldn't it be easier for him to just CALL you?

 

[Colleen27]

We're with MetroPCS and love them for their flat-rate billing. We pay $115/mo for one "dumb" phone, one web-enabled but not quite smart phone, and one Android, and that's unlimited minutes, texts, and data on all three... Any paid apps, roaming, or other fee-based services (none of which we've ever used/needed/wanted) have to be pre-paid via a deposit to your account so there is NO potential for overage and the kids can't accidentally or carelessly run up surprise bills on us.

We live out in the country but close enough to the Detroit area that service is good. You have to get way out there, like 1.5-2hrs from the metro area and off all major expressways before you start to have service issues, and we've only run into that a time or two when one of the kids had a sporting event in towns an hour from nowhere. It would probably be worth looking at a coverage map to see if it would be an option for you.

 

[bridget]

We have AT&T and pay $154 a month for 4 phones

3 iPhones with $15 data plan
1 phone has $5 texting (the others do not)
1 phone is a dumb phone.

I believe you can change the data plan and the texting plans at any time.
We use wifi at home and have never gone over the 200 mb.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

We have 2 smart phones and an internet card for DH's laptop and we pay $239 a month. He has the unlimited data (grandfathered in) for $30 a month. I have the 2gb data for $25 a month. We have unlimited texting for $30 a month. DH and I both have roadside assistance and smart phone insurance. I think our minute plan is 700 but we have THOUSANDS of rollover minutes we will never use. Now that we have unlimited mobile to any mobile we could probably even go down to a 300 or 400 minute plan but we haven't checked into it.

 

[HeatherC]

I am thinking of switching to RedPocket Mobile. They have some plans that are $30 a month and a pay as you go option that is as little as $10 a month. But...you need a phone that is unlocked and is a GSM phone. Sounds like most ATT phones are, so you could probably keep your phone and just put their SIM card in it.

I finally have realized that paying $130 a month so we can basically text is ridiculous and have been looking for other alternatives.

I have a friend who is using RedPocket with a Blackberry and is paying only $10 a month. That would be perfect for me since I only use the phone to keep in touch with the kids via texting.

Their site is goredpocket.com I believe.

Good luck to you!