More Cell Phone Frugality

My last few posts were designed to help you cut your monthly cell phone bill. This one is a little different, as within it I consider other ways to be frugal or to save money in the realm of cell phones.

When your contract ends (or a few months before with some providers), you are given the option of renewing the contract which will enable you to get new phones. Everyone gets excited at that time of year, because it means you can trade in that trashy phone that wasn't even cool two years ago, for the coolest phone of the day. If you choose to upgrade, consider upgrading through a dealer rather than through the service provider! Through Wirefly AT&T customers can upgrade and get a Blackjack, Razr (pink, blue, black WITH free bluetooth headset), or a Samsung Sync, and many other phones free after rebates. Through AT&T these phones would cost $100, $50, and $50, respectively. There are some special terms though, check the site for those details.

If you are starting a new contract, sites such as Wirefly, Letstalk.com, Amazon, and others will give you an even better deal for getting the phones through them. You can also consider local dealers, as the face to face contact sometimes helps you to get the deal you want.

Finally, should you keep a cell phone contract, or should you try to get out of the contract and then just pay month to month? Here's my reasoned opinion. If you pay month to month, you are eventually going to need to replace your cell phone anyways. We all use the phones a lot, and they wear out. To keep paying month to month, you would have to buy an unlocked cell phone, which would mean you would pay $100 or more per phone. If instead you upgrade, and renew your contract, you can get the phone for free, and keep paying the same rate per month anyways. Basically, wireless providers charge such high monthly rates, because within your two year contract you are paying for the phone. If they give you a $250 phone for free, that means that just over $10 per month of your service plan is going to pay for the phone. If you provide your own phone in order to stay out of contract, that means you are still paying for a new phone (since that $10 per month is built into the contract price), but you aren't getting that phone. Therefore, unless you are wanting to go month to month for a few months until you change companies, or have some other reason, it seems to me to make sense to stay in a cell phone contract.

I hope these ideas help you be more frugal with setting up, upgrading, or choosing cell phone service!
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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill - #4TMTM - Too Many Text Messages

Teens today use text messaging like our generation used instant messenger and e-mail. Text messages are sent, saying "God is so Good. If you love God, forward this on to ten friends and the person who sent it to you. If you don't love God, you don't have to do anything." When I receive forwarded e-mails like this, I immediately delete them, before even reading them. If my life doesn't show people that I love God, don't want people to have cancer, value their friendship, etc., etc., then sending them an e-mail that says such won't convince them. So I find chain letters and mass forwards through e-mail to be useless wastes of my time. Many people are now sending these through text messages though! Now no one sends them to me, but if you have a teenager in your home, you probably have come to realize why they send/receive so MANY text messages!

A friend recently called me concerned about his text messages. A friend of his had begun texting him massively, running up a $200 bill in text messages! Not too difficult at $.15 per message - each way! Allow me to take a moment to say, that charging for text messages was a brilliant move on part of the wireless providers! I know it takes some of their bandwidth to move these messages, but there is no way receiving a message with "Hey! :)" in it is worth 15 cents to me! So, if your cell phone bill is massive, and you've already cut the frills, check the usage section to see how the text messages are treating you. At 15 cents to send and receive they add up quickly. Even if you can curb your own sending, you pay any time someone sends a message to you. If you send or receive more than 33 text messages a month on average, you ought to be considering a text message plan. For $4.99 (the cost of 32.6 text messages) you can get a starter plan from AT&T that allows up to 200 text messages (sent & received combined). Additional text messages then drop to 10 cents each! If you send/receive more than 300 text messages a month, you ought to be using the "Messaging Unlimited" plan from AT&T that allows you to send/receive unlimited text messages to anyone on any wireless carrier. If you have a family plan, and two of your teens have a problem, though, you have to get the family plan at $29.99/month to cover all of your lines with unlimited texting.

So, for an individual plan, to have unlimited texting, you'll spend $20/month, or $240 per year. Is there another way to handle TMTM? Yes...ask your wireless provider to disable this option on your lines. You won't ever be able to send/receive text messages, but neither will you pay $240 a year for your friends to be able to send you those annoying little forwards!

If you want to cut your cell phone bill, take care of TMTM (too many text messages)!

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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill - #3Cut the Frills

Many cell phone users today have an extremely large bill, which can be cut if some of the frills are cut. Wireless service providers sell all kinds of extra 'services,' knowing that the profit-margins from these extra services is much larger then the main wireless service.

As an AT&T customer, let me focus on their extra services, though I'm sure most wireless providers have similar services.

• AT&T Mobile Backup - gives you the ability to back up your phone numbers so that if your phone is lost/stolen or you upgrade you will not loose numbers. Price? $1.99/month ($24/year)
  
• Roadside Assistance - Towing, jump starts, flat tire changes, fuel delivery for when you run out of gas, lockout assistance, and key replacement services provided up to 4 times per year and up to $50 per event. Great service, but the price? $2.99/month ($36/year) This is like paying by the month for 1 service call every 1.5 years.
  
• TeleNav GPS Router - If your phone is GPS enabled, receive live routes and directions over the phone. Price? $9.99/month ($120/year)
• Enhanced Voice Mail - Increases maximum voice mail length by 1 minute (like I want that!), enables you to store 40 instead of 20 voice mails, gives an extra 7 days storage time, etc. Price? $1.99/month ($24/year)
• Voice Dial - Dial *8 or *08, and then speak the name you want to dial, and AT&T will automatically dial that person so that you don't have to look up the number while driving. Price? $4.99/month ($60/year) - and many phones include voice dial abilities!
• Push to Talk - Makes it possible to use the PTT (walkie-talkie like functionality) of some cell phones. Requires PTT phones on both ends. This makes the communication almost instantaneous. Price? $9.99/month or $19.99/month for family plans ($120, 240/year) Quite expensive when you could just wait the few seconds for the calls to connect.
• Early Nights and Weekends - Extends the period of 'night' calls that are unlimited to 7pm to 7am instead of 9pm to 6 am. Price? $8.99/month or $16.99/month for family plans ($108, 204/year). You have to be making a lot of calls in those three hours of the day.
• Data Connect Plans - Connect your smartphone ($9.99/month for 5MB or $19.99/mo for unlimited data) or PDA ($24.99/mo for 10MB or $39.99/mo for unlimited data) to the internet. Price? Between $120 and $480 per year. Quite expensive considering my DSL is about $20 per month, and I'm going to have that anyways!

There are a lot of options above, and a lot more available. My point here, is that all of these things are great, and may at times be helpful, but are for most of us unnecessary frills. I would love to be able to surf the internet and check my e-mail from my smartphone. But it just isn't worth $20 a month to me! Especially when I know it will be slower and more difficult to navigate than the computer. It is a convenience, a frill.

If you want to cut your cell phone bill, cut the frills, many of which you might not even be using!

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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill - #2Cut the Minutes

Many cell phone users are afraid of getting too few minutes, and end up with many more minutes a month than they need. If you have had a cell phone for several months you should be able to look over past bills, and determine how many minutes you actually need. Cutting the anytime minutes will cut your cost. In keeping with the first Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill post, I'll be comparing family plans.


AT&T, Nextel/Sprint, and Verizon Wireless have the following family rate plans:

• 700 Minutes: 69.99 (9.99 each additional line); .45 for each additional minute
• 1400 Minutes: 89.99 (9.99 each additional line); .40 for each additional minute
• 2100 Minutes: 109.99 (9.99 each additional line); .35 for each additional minutes
• 3000 Minutes: 149.99 (9.99 each additional line); .25 for each additional minute
• There are other higher plans. Sprint/Nextel has a different method of calculating additional minutes - if you go over every block of 30 minutes is $5, up to 300 additional minutes, and then .20/minute.

Alltel has similar rate plans, but more minutes at each price level. Click here to see Alltel's family rate plans. With all of these companies, the plans now being sold include free nights and weekends and free mobile-to-mobile calling.

With the high cost of additional minutes, you can't afford to be going over your monthly allotment. But if you generally use 600 minutes per month, and are paying for 1400, you could cut your bill, saving $240 a year!

I'm a AT&T customer, and I am very glad to have rollover minutes. Rollover minutes make it possible to have a much smaller minute package. We have our 5 lines on 550 shared minutes per month. We currently have over 1,000 rollover minutes. Some months we go over, and use up those rollover minutes. Other months we go under, and build rollover minutes. If you have an AT&T account, use this system to your advantage. You can change plans as often as you like, without extending your contract. Anytime you switch, though, you can only keep the number of rollover minutes that are alloted per month in the plan you are switching to. SO....let's assume you generally use about 1,000 minutes per month. You have several options:

1. Get the 700 minute plan, and pay the extra minutes, adding up to about $204.99 per month. $2,459.88 per year.
   
2. Get the 1400 minute plan, and pay $89.99 per month, building your rollover minutes that you will never use. $1,079.88 per year.
   
3. Most people go with option 2 without considering option 3! This is a little more complicated. Switch back and forth between the 700 and 1400 minute plans, using your rollover minutes. Below is a possible scenario for the 1,000 minute user. The cost will average $78.56 per month. $959.88 per year. It's a little more trouble, but I believe it is worth saving $120 per year!
   

• Go with the 1400 minute plan for one month, you will build 400 rollover minutes.
• Switch to the 700 minute plan for one month (leaving 100 rollover minutes).
• Switch to the 1400 minute plan for a month, adding 400 rollover minutes (to make 500).
• Switch to the 700 minute plan, using your rollover minutes for a month (leaving 200).
• Switch to the 1400 minute plan for a month, adding 400 rollover minutes (to make 600).
• Switch to the 700 minute plan, using your rollover minutes for two months (leaving 0).
• Start over

Due to the rollover minute option, I believe AT&T to have the best plan options. If you have AT&T, utilize those rollover minutes to save you money! And no matter who your carrier is, be sure you have a large enough package that you won't be spending hundreds of dollars for extra minutes, but a small enough package that you aren't paying for many many minutes a year that you never use.

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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill - #1Multiple Lines

Let me give you a glimpse of my cell phone bill for several months in the past: 10-05: $50.03; 5-06: $88.78; 10-06: $97.04; 7-07: $108.97. It was cheaper each time it changed. No that’s not a typo, it was CHEAPER each change. The first bill was when I had an individual cell phone plan, the cheapest Cingular individual plan for 39.99 per month, with all the taxes worked up to about $50. By May of 2006 I had three lines on the plan, so the $88.78 breaks down to about $29.59 per line. By October 2006, I had four lines on the plan, so the $97.04 breaks down to $24.26 per line. Last months bill represented five lines, at $21.80 per line. As most of you know, we’re a young married couple, with no children. So why do we have five lines? Frugality.

In December 2005, my father and younger brother finished their contract with another cell phone company. They asked if they could join on to my cell phone plan. I agreed, and we split the bill three ways, each paying for our text message usage. By July 2006, Stacey and I were married, and so we needed a phone for her. We added her onto the bill. Some time after that, my parents decided to get another line as a gift for my sister. Each time we added a line, we made each line cheaper. We are now at the maximum number of lines that AT&T wireless will allow on one family plan bill, and we are saving a lot of money to do it this way. My part of the cell phone bill each month is around $40 for two lines! Let’s say that we had all kept our cell phone plans separate from one another.

• My payments from December 2005 up to last month would be: ($50 x 8) + ($70 x 7) = $890.
• If my father and younger brother had gotten a new contract together, their payments in this time would be: ($70 x 15) = $1,050.
• An individual line for my sister would have cost: ($50 x 5) = $250.
• All together, as a group, this would add up to: $2,190

Instead, we joined the lines together. So:

• Stacey and I have paid about: ($30 x 8) + ($40 x 7) = $520
• My father has paid: ($30 x 10) + ($40 x 5) = 500
• My brother has paid about ($30 x 15) = $450
• For a grand total of: $1,470
  

We have each saved money - I have saved $370 in just less than two years, my father has saved $275, and my brother has saved $300 over what he would have paid to have an individual contract for all of this time.

You can really save some money by getting together with close family members and joining lines on cell phone plans. There are of course some catches that you need to recognize:

• The bill will be attached to ONE person’s social security number and credit. I am legally responsible for all five of these lines and the usage on them. This is fine with me because I can completely trust all of the individuals on this plan. Entering into a 2 year contract with extra people you can’t completely and totally trust would be a mistake, though, and probably end up costing you much extra in the long run (just watch the People's Court to see some examples!).
  
• It takes a little work for one person each month to get the figures straight. I spend a few minutes after each bill comes out calculating how much each person owes, and send them an e-mail showing how much they owe for the cell phone that month.
• The payment has to be worked out in a way that will work for everyone. Each month we pay our parts online with credit cards. This makes it simple for the whole bill to be paid, and at the same time for no one to be paying more than a month at a time.
  

If you can work out the details, and have some people you can completely trust not to ruin your credit, combining lines can be a great way of saving money on the cell phone bill!

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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?

Some companies estimate that 1 in 4 cell phones will be lost, stolen, or broken within the year. Due to the fear of loosing a $300-500 phone, many people choose to purchase cell phone insurance through their wireless provider or the company they purchase the phone through. The question: Is it REALLY worth it? Consider some of the facts below, crunch the numbers, and you will see that no, it generally is not.

Cost of Premiums - The premiums differ between providers. Insurance through AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, and Alltel is provided by the third-party company Asurion, and costs $4.99 per month. Sprint/Nextel also uses Asurion, but charges $4 per month. NCOA coverage (which is what Wirefly.com sells) costs $50 for 12 months ($4.17/mo).

Cost of Premiums + the Deductible in case of Use - If the phone is lost/damaged/stolen, the deductible for any plan based on Asurion is $50. NCOA does not charge a deductible. If you have insurance through AT&T and lose the phone one time in a two year period, you will pay $169.76 for the insurance plan which replaced your phone ($4.99 x 24 + $50).

Cost of Replacing Your Phone Without Insurance - This is hard to nail down, as the price of phones is constantly changing, and every model has a different price. Keep in mind, however, that the insurance company has the choice to "repair or replace" your phone. Also, if they replace your phone, they can replace it with a REFURBISHED (used) model instead of a new one. AND if they don't have your specific model in stock, they can just give you a 'similar' model, which may not have all of the features of the phone you purchased. However, consider the cost of purchasing a new phone through such sites as Cellularblowout.com. The Motorola L6 is $105; Motorola Razr $125; LG Chocolate is $170; if you just need a phone, the Motorola v180 is $65. This ought to show how foolish cell phone insurance can be. Even through Wirefly, you would pay $100 over two years, and have very little protection for your investment! Remember, the prices above are for NEW phones, you will be given a REFURBISHED phone. Compare it this way. A new Samsung Blackjack costs $330, but REFURBISHED on eBay, the phone goes for around $200.

Generally, cell phone insurance just does not make sense. As an MSNBC article points out, "insurance might make sense for some people — those who are prone to drop their phone, get it wet or somehow disable it. “It might be useful if you happen to work on building skyscrapers and you tend to drop your phone 30 or 40 stories,” . . . . It could also come in handy if you’re buying a high-end PDA phone that would cost you $500 or $600 to replace.” However, remember that the service is not available for some phones, and is more expensive on high end phones for which coverage is available.

Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It? Generally, NO
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Note: If you have had cell phone insurance through Asurion (sold by Cingular/AT&T, Sprint/Nextel, Verizon, and Alltel among others), and had to file a claim with them due to a lost/stolen/broken phone, and received a refurbished phone, you may be eligible to receive some compensation as part of a class action lawsuit settlement. Check here for more information.
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All Cell Phone Frugality Posts in this Series: Cell Phone Insurance: Is It REALLY Worth It?; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #1: Multiple Lines; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #2: Cutting the Minutes; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #3: Cut the Frills; Cutting Your Cell Phone Bill #4: TMTM - Too Many Text Messages; More Cell Phone Frugality
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To Be Patient is To Be Frugal

Many times the way to frugality is PATIENCE. Many times if we are patient, we can purchase items at a discount or avoid extra fees by being patient. At these times, to be patient is to be frugal. Remember that frugality is a mindset, and as we become more and more frugal in our mindset or attitude, we will save more money in a variety of ways.

One of my hobbies is video games, though I'm not a serious gamer by any means. My favorite game on the Xbox is Halo 2, though I don't play very regularly. About a month ago, I started playing Halo 2 on live again more frequently. For those of you unfamiliar with Xbox Live services, one function of the service is to make content available for download. With Halo 2, new maps become available for download periodically. These new maps generally cost $4 for a set of two. Until you download the new maps, you can only play about half of the game types, excluding my favorites. Last month I was really tempted to pay the $4 and just have the maps so I could play whatever I wanted. I withheld though, knowing that the Halo website promised they would be free for download in early July, as the former map releases had become free a couple of months after release. Patiently I waited, and last night my patience paid off! I downloaded the two maps for free! Just $4? I know. But frugality is a mindset.

When your cellphone plan comes up for renewal, what do you do? Do you run out and buy the latest phone that you've been watching on TV? Do you buy whatever your phone provider has on sale? Or, do you look around, see what's out there, and use some patience. Cingular/AT&T has different phones on sale all of the time. To buy whatever you want as soon as you are eligible for an upgrade is not frugal, for if you wait the phone you want will be on sale at some time in the next few months, saving you sometimes as much as $50 or more. The new Apple iPhone is $499 or $599 right now (4GB, 8GB, resp.). As history is a good indication, in a year it will be much cheaper. The LG Chocolate dropped 52% in its first year, the Samsung SGH-D520 31% in a year. To be patient is to be frugal.

High school students, when you take the ACT, you can get your scores online in just about 2 1/2 weeks instead of waiting the 4-8 weeks it will take to get them in the mail. But it will cost you an extra $8. That's 27% of what it cost to take the test!!!

When you order checks, or other items, do you select "Rush" Delivery and a quicker shipping method? On 2 boxes of checks through Checks Unlimited, I can choose standard delivery for $5.30 and receive my checks in 10-14 business days, OR I can choose to Rush the order for $5.95 and cut 2 business days off that time in plant, and then choose overnight delivery so that I get my checks in 3 business days for a total of $31.20, an extra $25.90 to save 7 days! That's a lot when the checks themselves cost $27.90. To be patient is to be frugal.

Frugality is a mindset, and one part of that mindset is patience. To be patient is to be frugal.