At Komando.com, we're always helping you save some money. Sometimes we save you money by suggesting tech purchases that you don't need to make or telling you when it's cheaper to buy online.We also like to tell you about free stuff that tech companies are giving away, especially when almost no one else knows about them. Today, we're talking about getting freebies from your cellphone company.
When you think about how your cell provider locks you into two-year contracts for a couple of hundred dollars a month, who doesn't want some free stuff in return? If you look deep into the contract you signed, or read your company's data plan offerings, you'll start finding free stuff you might not be taking advantage of.
We're talking about good stuff, too, such as streaming NFL, Major League Baseball and NBA games. There are perks like free international calls and texting, plus free texting while you're on a plane.
A lot of cellphone companies offer free streaming TV and free storage in the cloud. But only if you know where to look for it. We've done the work for you, so keep reading to see the best freebies for each of the major carriers!
1. AT&T
Every AT&T subscriber gets free stuff, but the juiciest freebies come with its Mobile Share Value Plans. That's a pretty broad mix-and-match plan starting around $40 a month for a bare bones 3GB deal for one phone, up to $260 a month for a 10GB family package with four smartphones.If you're a Mobile Share customer, you get free stuff like a monthly rollover deal where the data you don't use rolls over for one more month. You also get free international texting.
But the biggest freebie, if having extra storage is something you find enticing, is 50GB of storage on AT&T's cloud. What that means is simple: You can securely save loads and loads of photos, videos, music and files online.
There's more. For all AT&T cellphone customers, there's an especially cool feature if you find it annoying to ask your barista for the coffee shop Wi-Fi password. At Starbucks and retailers like The Home Depot, AT&T customers just walk in and are automatically connected to their Wi-Fi. No password, no hassle.
Bonus: AT&T and DirecTV recently merged. This new mega company is offering a pretty great deal to save you cash. For a limited time, for $200 a month, AT&T customers can get DirecTV, a 10GB data package with unlimited talk and text on four phones. Many customers will save $120 a year or more over separate phone and TV bills. Plus, for customers who switch to AT&T, the new company is offering $500 toward the purchase of new phones.
2. Sprint
Sprint offers freebies to subscribers of its All-In package, which is a standard deal. Starting at about $80 a month for each smartphone, like Apple's iPhone 6 (16GB), All-In customers get sports packages and free streaming TV.All Sprint data customers get free Sprint TV. Using the app, you can stream TV networks like Fox News and TV shows such as "American Dad" and "Access Hollywood."
NASCAR Mobile is also free with any Sprint data plan, which gives you up-close NASCAR action. So up close, in fact, that you'll hear live radio coverage of races, and you'll hear and see drivers inside their cars during races.
For sports fans, Sprint's unlimited data plans like All-In offer more free stuff. Namely, NBA Game Time packages that give you free radio coverage of every NBA game. It shows you stats from the game and you can watch highlights from the games while the players are still on the court.
Bonus: Sprint will pay off your current cellphone contract, if you switch to it. Contact Sprint for specific details.
3. T-Mobile
If you do any traveling to Canada or Mexico, or if you have friends or family in the U.S., Canada or Mexico, T-Mobile has an enticing offer: Free calls, texts and data throughout North America. Plus, your data plan follows you into those countries, so you can use it just like you're home.Continent-wide plans are rare, so this freebie starting with T-Mobile's $50 a month 1GB plan is intriguing. But it's not T-Mobile's only free stuff.
Other freebies include free in-flight texting on Gogo-enabled phones, and a few non-Gogo phones. That way you can keep tabs on what's going on at home 35,000 feet below.
T-Mobile's Data Stash deal includes free data rollover for one month out. This freebie has a small catch, which is that it's free for 4G LTE customers, which adds $10 a month to your bill.
Also with 4G LTE, however, you get an MLB At Bat subscription is free. That includes watching MLB.TV's game of the day and highlights from other games.
Still, free music may be T-Mobile's most enticing perk. Without eating any of your data plan, T-Mobile lets you stream free music from Apple Music, iHeartRadio, Rhapsody and other music services.
Plus, if you have T-Mobile's Unlimited LTE Plan, which starts at $80 a month for the first phone, T-Mobile throws in a great freebie: Rhapsody's commercial-free online radio app UnRadio.
4. Verizon
Verizon offers more free stuff than NFL football games. But if you're an NFL fan, with the season just about to get underway, Verizon's free stuff starts and ends with the NFL.It includes live highlights from NFL games on Thursday nights, Saturday nights and Sunday nights. Plus, it includes 24/7 access to watch NFL Network shows and games.
Verizon's free stuff also includes the IndyCar app, which airs live radio broadcasts of IndyCar races. Plus, you can hear and see what's going on in the car, and you can listen to the pit crews.
To really enjoy these perks, Verizon plans starting at $60 a month work best. But lower cost deals are available, too.
Bonus: Verizon recently ditched its two-year contracts in favor of charging you more to buy phones. You can ultimately save money if you hold onto your phones after they're paid off.
