How much is your cell phone bill? Do you do mo. pay for each phone?

[4HOLIDAYS]

I am hoping to get an idea of what people are currently paying. We are about $220/mo, includes the taxes,fees...I am told this is an old grandfathered in plan? It is self DH and 2DS(18,20).

We have Sprint-4 phones-unlimited data. 3 of our 4 phones have finished the 24 mo contract-got them for free 2 yrs ago with the black friday deals. (free with 24 mo renew of contract) 1- my DH traded his in last yr plus about $150 for the 6Sedge and 24 mo renew.

I have been scanning the ads that have come out and it looks like no more free-only do the payments and get a GC rom the store. Since our contract is up on the 3 and DH's is in a couple months, we could look to switch carriers. I just can't see adding $30/phone/month on top of $220! To buy outright we are looking at about $550 for the galaxy S7, or similar phone. I am OK with keeping mine for another yr or so but my 2 ds would like the next new one but will be fine for now if we keep them. The problem is at some point we will need new ones, they always start having issues with pics, speakers, cracks...something. This way we kept the plan on the same schedule.

What do all of you do? What are you paying? We really use the data up, and it needs to be at the HD faster streaming, not low def.

Thanks for ANY suggestions ans information. I told DH I would ck with all of you-I think I always get the best info here over random google searches!

 

[cvjw]

We purchased our phones outright, so no payments on the monthly bill. Use Verizon

4 iPhones - 3 6's and 1 7
$20 each line monthly access - $80
16 gigs of data each month - $72 (original price is $90, but we get a 20% discount thru employer)
taxes/fees $14

about $160 per month

 

[Albort]

AT&T, pay $135 for 3 lines, unlimited talk and text, 6GB of shared data. all our phones are off monthly contracts.

First things first is to start out with what carrier is good in your area. then you can delve more into it...

 

[Bree]

With AT&T you can get a phone for a monthly payment, but there is an option to pay it off early or make extra payments on it. That's what we did when we upgraded DH phone and added two more lines for the kids in 2014. Now we just buy outright, but not three at a time LOL!!!!

 

[havaneselover]

Straight talk. I paid $440 last December for 12 months of service (unlimited text and talk, 5 gb/month of data). I bought a used iPhone 6 on eBay.

 

[Alesia]

My daughter and I use Tracfone. I pay $30 every 3 months for mine and $20 every 3 months for hers. So, less than $17 per month total.

 

[abcboys]

We have tracfone also. There are 5 of us. 4 smartphones and 1 dumbphone. For 3 phones we pay $25/every 2 months each. One is $10/month and one is $20/every 3 months. So I guess about $56/month for the 5 of us. We still have a home phone also. I think about getting a plan sometime with unlimited but imagine it would cost a lot more than we are paying now.

 

[bjscheel]

DD18 and I have iPhones on Tracfone, one year card for $120 each + occasional more data for DD, but this definitely won't work for heavy data users.

DH and DD15 are on Verizon (moved DD15 there when Tracfone deleted all her minutes and couldn't get new minutes added). At the moment it is $20 for DD's line and I think $75 for DH's for 2GB shared data. When he gets off contract in April, it will be $55 for DH's for a total of $75 for the two of them. We buy phones outright- DH gets new phones from Verizon and so far the girls and I have bought used on eBay or gotten his hand me downs. His last new phone was still subsidized (still cost a few hundred), so we haven't had to pay full price for one yet.

I plan to move DD18 and I to his Verizon plan after we've used more of our Tracfone minutes up. Looks like if we bump to 4GB shared data and 4 lines, it will be $130. DH and DD15 are getting along with 1GB each and I have it on safety mode so if they go beyond, it doesn't cause an overage, just gets slow.

Do you know how much data you actually use in a month? If it's A LOT, giving up grandfathered-in Unlimited could be a bad idea as I don't know if it's available anymore. If you can get along with Verizon's XL plan it is 16GB shared, plus 2GB per line for $90/month + $20/line + cost of phone, so for a family of 4, $170 plus phones.

 

[IDigDug]

We had AT&T for years with a grandfathered plan which was about $130 for 2 lines. We switched to Cricket almost a year ago. Our bill is $110/month for 3 phones with unlimited talk/text. One phone has 10gb data and the other 2 have 2.5gb. They offer a stacking discount each time you add a line, so when we add our next line it will be $10 more (talk/text + 2.5 gb) and after that we can add a 5th line for free. Data is offered in allotments of 1gb, 2.5gb, 8gb, 10gb and unlimited.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

We pay about $160 a month for two iPhones. Still paying on my husbands but mine is paid. I think we get 10 GB? I might be wrong on that. If you're looking into saving some money on your phone bill a good idea is to look into paying it on a credit card every month (if you use them) and then paying the card off so you can get cash back. Right now my amex is offering 10% back on your cell bill if you pay it on there. We pay in full each month so we decided to do that (it's for the next three months) and we fill get about $50 back. That'll pay for our carriage ride at POFQ next visit!

 

[kristenrice]

We used to have the Sprint unlimited data plan with unlimited text and 1500 shared talk minutes, but all celluar-to-cellular calls were not included in our minute usage. We had 4 phones (me, DH, sister, and the "home" phone) and then we also had 2 tablets, each with only 2GB/mo of data for the kids, and my sister added the ability to use her phone as a hotspot with 2GB/month. The total bill was $270/month.

I was in the Sprint store one day, getting an issue with DD's tablet fixed, and I casually asked the manager what it would cost for me to activate our 2 old iPhone 4S's that the girls (ages 11 and 13) were using as iPods. He told me that he would take a look at my plan and see what he could do. He called me back a few hours later. He told me that he could change us to a LIMITED data plan with 20GB of shared data across all devices, along with unlimited talk/text, AND activate the 2 phones and we would only be paying $220/month. Since I use a LOT of data (or at least I thought I did since I am constantly streaming Netflix and Pandora), I didn't think 20GB would be enough. He said that he went back over the past year and our AVERAGE data usage was 9GB/month, with the highest being 12GB. I reminded him that I would be adding two pre-teen girls to that so it would probably go WAY up. He said that there was a promo going on which would give an additional 2GB of shared data PER DEVICE for as long as we have the plan. That means with 6 phones and 2 tablets, we would get 36GB of shared data per month. I was a little scared to dump the unlimited data plan, but I did....and I am so glad I did! The manager said that he would "arrange" it so that we actually ended up with 40GB/month which was basically the 2GB bonus for the maximum (10) devices allowed on our plan. We have only gone over the 20GB twice and we've never even hit 30. The kids use their phones and tablets quite a bit, but they have already been programmed to keep their cellular turned off and stick to wi-fi...I have to remind them that it is OK to use it. On top of that, since our data plan is now capped, we can use any of our phones as hotspots, which is awesome because I have an iPad with no cellular on it. Now, I can use my iPad wherever I want simply by using my phone as the hotspot. We are getting so much more and still saving $50 a month. I couldn't be happier!

 

[ThisIsJason]

Project Fi. $95 is what were are billed but the credits it is normally $65 a month (2 phones).

Unlimited calling and texting worldwide, and unlimited usage internationally as well. 3GB of data per phone (don't use much anyway). I on average use less than 1GB a month so I get a credit for the other 2GB for the following month, and my wife on average uses just about 2GB and gets a credit for the other 1GB.

If you don't use a ton of data it is great, also only works with Nexus/Pixel phones.

 

[cglaura]

Virgin Mobile $35/month ($37.99 w/ tax) - Unlimited talk, txt, streaming music and 4g speed up to 5gb data. After 5gb throttle down to 2g speed, but no extra charges. I don't use alot of data though, last month I only used about 20%. I've never come close to 5gb.

I bought my phone on HSN during a sale. Even though it is an old model (Galaxy S2..yes it is that old!), I haven't replaced it yet because it works great and does what I need it to do.

They also have a Unlimited everything 10gb plan for $45/month.

 

[usnuzuloose]

We only have one cell phone, for the business. We pay 140, which includes the ipad. We get unlimited data for the phone as husband gets many calls, texts, has to send pictures. So we have the land line at home for use as I don't go further than the store. We have AT&T

 

[clori]

I have a family plan on tmobile with 5 lines. The plan we are on is comes to $140 per month for five lines which includes unlimited call/text and 10gb data per line though we get unlimited data until Feb 2019. All 5 phones were either free or paid for so it is about $165 a month with taxes.

 

[angierae]

We have a five line (now four, since my MIL passed away) plan with Verizon. Since we have some obscene amount of data (12G? 15G?) we get a $25 per line credit each month to cover the monthly payment on the phones, so essentially our phones are free.

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

I went and talk to sprint and best buy phone center. We average about 25G of data per month, with the 18 yo being about 12-14G himself. The plan is $209 plus tax and fees=$242/month. That is the old 1500 min/mo w/unlimited data. The cost of each new phone on the payment plan would be $22/mo for 24/months(or pay off early) so and extra $66. I know they give the GC and VR headset but that is still a huge monthly amount to me.

I am going to ck some of the carriers and plans that are suggested here. I am hounding my kids for the next week to try and stay on wifi. We have to pay comcast an extra $30/mo for unlimited data (going up to $50/mo as of Jan 1) and see if I keep on them we can't get to lower data usage. I'd be happy to get the deal kristenrice got and just bring the bill down any way I can, they did have a 40G plan but it was way more.

Thanks for all the replies-you are all such a help!

 

[crystaldawn]

We have four lines (bought our phones outright) and use cricket wireless and pay $100 total per month. This is half of what we were paying on AT&t. Unlimited talk and txt and we each have 2.5 gb of data and if we want to pay for an additional gb we can. But frankly the only one who ever goes over is my college student and I figure that if his data slows down it isn't the end of the world.

 

[tvguy]

Just renewed ours. Finally got our adult children off our plan.
$20 a month per line, $15 a month for 2gb data, so $35 per phone with Verizon for DW and I.
Son stayed with Verizon with the same program and cost as us.
DW and I have Samsung Galaxy S4s, work perfectly so kept them
DS has a Samsung Galaxy S5, works perfectly so kept it. Well all three bought new Samsung batteries for $7 per battery.

DD bought a Google phone and went with Fi. $400 for the phone, $20 a month for the line, $15 a month for 2 Gb of data.

Our data history going back several years showed none of us ever used much more than 1GB of data per line, so 2GB is more than enough. But the 2 place we are at the most ....home and work...have WiFi, so very little.
DW and I do use GPS on the phones on trips, but last few trips were to places that still have absolutely no cell service from any provider. Thank goodness I still have the Tom Tom GPS I bought 7 years ago.

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

We pay $295 through AT&T with 4 smart phones. We share 20G of data. Dh, Ds and I all have new phones, where we are paying for them through the monthly payment. DD got one of our old iphone5's.