I don’t know about you, but for a long time my cellular bill was outrageous. For what I was paying, I Instead, I was treated to AT&T’s “no bars in more places” coverage (not that any of the other carriers are more consistent between my office, home and other places I travel). While that situation is slowly improving, the cost isn’t.
Once you add up the voice minutes, text minutes, cellular data, service fees, the cost of the phone – it’s just too much. And as you add more phones and upgrade to 4G cellular, it only gets worse.
Sure you can get a basic phone with a basic plan – and for some people that works – although it’s still way more than it should be. But you shouldn’t have to forego a smartphone or fast on-the-go Internet if you really want them.
Fortunately, I know a few tricks to shave money off your cellular bill – and one “money saver” to avoid.
Free messaging
I’ll admit that for most people, this secret isn’t as useful as it used to be. And that’s a good thing!
Originally, the idea was that you could drop your carrier’s $10 or $20 a month texting plan and use a free messaging app like Apple’s iMessage, TextFree, WhatsApp or TextPlus instead.
These apps send messages using your phone’s cellular plan or over Wi-Fi. Given that text messages use so little data, these apps effectively give you free, unlimited texting to anywhere in the world.
The last time I talked about these, I pointed out that 17.6 billion texts are sent a year versus 19 billion messages using messaging apps. Obviously, people were tired of carriers overcharging for texting plans.
Since then the cellular carriers have taken notice. Unlimited text messaging is included in just about every plan you can buy – as it should be.
Of course, that’s still U.S. texting. International texting is still going to cost you extra, unless you use a messaging app. However, that’s changing, too.
On March 23, T-Mobile is upgrading its plans with unlimited international texting and data in 120+ countries. I’m sure the other carriers will eventually follow suit.
While this is good for consumers, it does mean you can’t quickly lower your bill by ditching texting. But it does mean you can drop your cellular plan entirely or switch to a no-data pre-paid plan and still have unlimited free messaging over Wi-Fi.
If you don’t travel much, or want to turn your iPad or old smartphone into a low-cost messaging center, it’s the perfect way to do it. Learn more surprising uses for old smartphones and tablets.
Next up: More on reducing your data use and switching to pre-paid plans.
When you’re choosing a cellular plan a big decision is the amount of data. Are you going to go for a few hundred megabytes, a gigabyte, two gigabytes or 10 gigabytes? The more data you get, the higher the cost.
First, you need to see how much data you’re really going to use. Most smartphones have data monitors built in under Settings. Or you can grab a third-party data monitoring app.
Most people will find that two to three gigabytes is enough. However, with a little creative management, you can probably drop that even further.
Grab the free app Onavo Extend. It compresses your cellular data, so can get up to five times more use out of your current plan.
We all know that we should try to connect to a Wi-Fi network before doing things like downloading or updating apps, transferring photos, streaming music or watching movies. Don’t we?
You can usually find free Wi-Fi wherever you are – click here to learn how.
In fact, using the messaging apps I mentioned above, along with calling apps like Skype and Viber, you can drop your cellular plan entirely and just use Wi-Fi.
Just be careful when using public Wi-Fi that you aren’t giving hackers information they shouldn’t have. Learn all about staying safe on public Wi-Fi.
Keep reading for the last money-saving tip – and a tactic you shouldn’t try to save money.
Take the long view
As odd as it sounds, sometimes you have to spend money now to save money in the long run. That’s the case with pre-paid and no-contract cellular plans.
You have to pay more upfront for the phone, but the longer you keep your phone, the more you save over a two-year contract. It isn’t for everyone, but you should definitely research it.
Click here to see my breakdown of the amount you can save with no-contract cellular plans.
Something to avoid
Cellular carriers know you want to save money, so they introduce new plan wrinkles that appear to save you money, but do the exact opposite.
One of those things is early-upgrader options like Verizon Edge, AT&T Next and T-Mobile Jump. They sound like a good deal at first glance – you can upgrade early without paying the full amount of a new phone, but it doesn’t quite add up under close scrutiny.
expected to be able to communicate with other planets.
