Do you really need your cell phone plan?
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I was talking to my friend the other day about bringing down their household costs, and he mentioned that their family cell phone plan cost $90 a month. This is just for he and his wife. They are on a network plan where they can talk to other members of their family for free (ie. their parents, sisters, brothers, etc.). However, I was still amazed at the cost.
My husband and I each have a cell phone from Virgin Mobile, and they are pay-as-you-go phones. At a minimum, it costs us $160 a year to keep these phones in service, and last year we spent $200 total. For our needs, I think that this is pretty reasonable.
What do we use them for? When we travel, we tend to use the phones to contact family and friends. Traveling is the only time that we really spend time on the cell phones. Other than that, we both travel with them in the car (in case of an emergency), and we occasionally call each other. Replacement phones are usually $10 or less since neither of us need any of the latest phones.
I honestly don’t think that the added “convenience” is worth the cost of a cell phone. I understand that there are people who need them for work, but other than that I am not sure of why someone would pay the extra money. I am still amazed by the number of parents I see who are ignoring their children while babbling on their phone - what kind of message does that send?
What about you - what is your cell phone life like? Why? Would you consider simplifying when your current plan is up?
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4 Responses to “Do you really need your cell phone plan?”
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I’ve found that it’s a lot cheaper for me to have a cell phone instead of a home phone - of course, I’m still on my parent’s family plan, so it’s significantly cheaper than the typical cell phone. I splurged and got a Blackberry, but I use it all the time. It has GPS, so I don’t get lost anymore; the internet in case I need to check Red Sox scores; my e-mail so I don’t miss anything; a camera just in case (with a flash) and I can call my family and most of my friends for free since we have service with the same company. I’ve used 200 minutes since the beginning of March. I pay $60 a month, so if I use 400 minutes, that’s only $0.15 a minute - that doesn’t even include the many text messages that I send each month!
Julie’s last blog post..Financial Meltdowns
We have a Verizon plan that’s the same cost ($90) and we use the Navigator and the mobile internet features a lot. I think for what we get, we are getting a great price. It’s like our land line. Most of our family and friends are on the same network as well so the costs are the same. We travel quite a bit, too, and the fact that we don’t have to pay long-distance charges while we’re within the US if communicated with fellow Verizon users. I think we’re way too dependent on our cellphones to downgrade to a lower priced plan. But if it were the other way, for sure we’ll go lower. Sometimes people get too lazy to check what they’re paying for and if they’re getting value that they keep with what they’re paying.
Joy’s last blog post..How We Take Food Photos II: That Nifty Gray Card For White Balance
I mainly use my cell phone to talk to my wife. I hate phones and I hate talking on them. If two people contact me, one through email and one through phone, I will get back to the email first and put off the phone call as long as I can.
I have a pay-as-you-go plan because the other plans give me minutes I will never use. I can see moving up soon so I can write posts from the phone, but it will be a while.
10 years ago nobody could contact you when you left home and now it has somehow become a necessity. Strange, very strange.
Stephan Miller’s last blog post..First Things First
Thanks for all the comments!
Julie - I have a friend who has a Blackberry, and I can totally understand why you find it so useful! If I were a big cell phone person, I think that having one for personal use would be nice - I didn’t even know that you can get GPS with these things (I feel old).
Joy - I appreciate your comment - you bring up a really great point about getting a good value for your money. My friends who do use cell phones more also talk about how great the Verizon service and family plan are - I’ll have to keep this in mind for when my little one gets older (of course, who knows what they’ll have by then!).
Stephan - My husband is the same way! I do enjoy talking on the phone (at home) to my mom, gramama, and friends, but it has to be when I am ready to (not when I’m on the road or in the store). Trying to get my husband on the phone, even with family, is like pulling teeth! Trying to get either of us by cell phone is near impossible, unless we are traveling.