Is your cell phone dragging you down?

[devilc]

I see this so often where I work and amongst my friends -- people who struggle to make ends meet and yet the majority of them have a smartphone (with a dataplan).

A friend of mine who has 2 part time jobs and no health insurance recently had a medical emergency that landed her in the hospital for two days and she's dreading that bill. But, she's got a Samsung Galaxy SIII and a phone bill of over $100/month for it.

If you want to free up some money, ask yourself, is that smartphone a want or a need?

1) Is your phone your sole source of Internet connectivity? (Did you ditch your previous ISP when you got this phone? Or is this the first time you've had your own Internet connectivity?)
2) Do your job's work duties require you to have a smart phone? (And if so, is there a way to get your employer -- if you're not a temp or a freelancer -- to pay for it or subsidize it?)

If you said "no" to either of those, then, sorry, it's a want. There was life before Twitter, Facebook, etc.

It might not be cool, but a pay as you go feature phone with a plan that lets you call and text really is all you need, and many of these can be had for out of pocket cash of under $75, with calling plans of about $15/mo.

If what you really use your smartphone for is entertainment while standing in line or while in transit? Get an iPod Touch or a small tablet and load it up with books, music, videos, and games. It will pay for itself in 4 months, tops.

And the extra $50-75 of cash you can throw at bills or put into your eFund is a very good thing.

Comments

[zana16]

I like this message, but I've never seen a non-smartphone plan that included texting for less than $40/month. Could you give me some examples? I have not gotten on the smartphone bus and would love to find cheaper options.

[foxfirefey]

Lots of the third party providers can get pretty darn cheap compared to the big ones. I have a smartphone with texting AND some data for around $30-something a month, for instance, on Ting. Don't have a smartphone and only use it lightly and you can get down to about $18 a month. It isn't the fastest or most reliable connection, but works well enough. I did have to buy the phone, but I got a $180 refurbed phone.

When I was still on AT&T, I had a prepaid plan that had texting and something like 500 or 900 minutes a month for $25 a month--and a phone I got on sale at a drugstore that cost $10. If you do a lot of phone calling where you have access to the internet, instead of on the go, you can have Skype with unlimited minutes in the US and a phone number for $9 a month.

[zana16]

Awesome, thanks. I'll look into it.

[indywind]

I have a couple years old Nokia nonsmart phone that cost $30 new, and a prepaid plan from TMobile: calls at ~ $.10/minute and texts at $.10/each. It typically costs me ~ $100/year for all my use.
(ETA: I just remembered having recently read that they are restructuring their payment plans, so the option I have may no longer be available to new customers, and eventually perhaps not even existing customers. then I will have to repeat the process by which I found them in the first place: finding out whioh providers have good coverage in my area, which have prepaid plans, then comparing rates and probable costs for my typical pattern of use.)

I do my internetting at free wifi spots, of which there are many in my town (if only few in walking distance from my house in the working-class part of town), on break at work, or at the homes of friends/relations who have internet. I can't imagine paying $100/month for phone/internet, for myself.

[zana16]

I actually have the TMobile prepaid $.10/minute plan as well, but I guess I must talk and text a lot more than you! It comes out to $35-$50 per month depending on usage for me.

[indywind]

::nods::
My typical super low usage, with occasional marked increases, is a major reason why I chose a prepay-per-use plan over a monthly billed contract. Why pay $30 most months for an average 20 minutes of use, when a contract I could get for that price wouldn't cover the occasions when I use 1000+ minutes in a month. Someone else with more consistent moderate or high usage would probably find pay-by-month contract a better deal.

Everybody's different. I can't say what's the best specific solution for anybody else, but it does make a huge difference to seek a solution that fits one's own situation rather than defaulting to what's popular or most-aggressively promoted.