This is nothing new as far as a discussion, but for me though I accept my cell phone and related costs are part of doing business, I'm always looking to see if there is a better fit or plan for my needs. We've been with and have stayed with AT&T since we launched, had both them verizon and sprint through earlier decades as a private citizen and govt. employee.

The last few weeks kept getting and seeing all this news about new plans for businesses so today while we were out stopped into a brick and mortar location and ended up walking away with our two lines that we have with unlimited talk, text and 6GB of data (mostly on the road email and internet use) for $90.00 month plus taxes of course.

My old plan which was a business plan (while this new one is a family share plan) was $130.00 plus tax.

While I know those of you with employees see this little phone bill as small potatoes I post this more for the solo operator with 1-2 lines to just remind folks to check occasionally as it could save you a few bucks.

For me though $40.00 a month ($480.00 a year) isn't going to bust me (if it does it is time to hang it up), I can sure put it to better use!

****

Justin

I hear ya. Today I called and changed my plan as well. I doubled my data and reduced my bill by $50 a month. Anyone on AT&T should definitely check out the new plans as things are getting quite competitive.

I changed mine to a smart phone with U. S. Cellular. For $75.00 a month. Now I have to get Paul W. to show me how to use it.

Sounds like I need to stop at ATT tomorrow and see what they can do for me. I am tired of paying $130 for my two phones.

Jim good luck with that!

Nate betting we had the same plan! Funny thing was a month ago I tried to tweak it down and the business care rep on the phone said I was as low as I could go!

From now on I'm going into the store to get my possibilities!

yeah Justin when you said the price I figured right away we had the same plan.

Hoping to lower my bill tomorrow.

Yep, that's how I got stuck with my phartsmone. P.J. cancelled Verizon, paid the early cancellation penalty, and now we too have AT&T.
And I think there's about ten of us. I don't open the bill because I've had heart problems!

I am in Central Florida and the smart cell phone plans may be different here. We changed from Sprint and the old push to talk Nextel phones to Verizon (best coverage in our area) with two new Motorolla smart phones. We have unlimited talk and text, but only 1 Gb of data. That works for us as we have free wifi's at home and just about everywhere else which are free to use and cuts down on our monthly data charges. We have never exceeded our 1 Gb monthly allocation. Our costs for two phones/lines with all of the taxes and fees is $160.11 per month with a two year contract.

Alot of companies are now offering no contract plans that are cheaper, but may not have the coverage in remote areas that we have with Verizon.

Dave

Our internet has always been tied to the DTV service, so our decisions on cell have always been related just to business use outside the home. At home we do take advantage of the wi-fi already here for our home to make sure out data use isn't higher than it needs to be.

When I had them check my data usage at the store it was only about 300 mb per month on average. I could have dropped down to I believe $70.00 a month with that amount of data usage but I know some months I do climb toward 1 GB so the 2GB is a good buffer with the savings.

Folks who use facebook and download more often things like pics, attachments, large emails etc... can easily overrun this kind of data, when I was using these heavily (FB mostly) I did overrun my 10GB a few times, however I don't mess with it anymore except from home.

Now if I could get DTV to lower my overall monthly between internet and tv for home all would be well!

Wish I didn't care for TV, but.....

Justin

I shut off tv for a couple years. Best time of my life.

Dave, Dave, Dave, now you'll have to depend on us to tell you that Red Green is growing his own crop of beer nuts to save money.

As a "wildlifer" I've always had granola eating hippy friends who didn't watch tv ever.... Though I know I'd likely accomplish more in life if I could switch that and the computer off, I've always enjoyed the "tube" and was always a family get together time in my home growing up, so I'll blame it on my elders lol!



Lately with starting a new venture we rarely sit down and have time to watch it, but with a DVR you can choose of course when you want to "waste" some time. We do high grade though anymore, showtime, hbo through netflix though some of the best have dropped off now (dexter, breaking bad), though vikings on the history channel is worthy.... Okay Dave now I'm spending this precious time listing the shows you don't watch, not good, not good!

Stopped in to ATT and checked on these new plans. Ended up dropping my bill down to $101.97 from $134.00

I have a tablet so I get stuck with an extra $10 charge. Either way I am happy.

Awesome! Wasn't sure this would help anyone, glad it did! Maybe that helps make up for that rat trap shipping Nate!

lol.... Thanks for reminding me Justin. Ouch!

I have been on sprint for a long time with a monthly bill of 374.00. I Just switch to there new friends and family plan and dropped it to about 250.00. The downfall with the new plans is the phones are not reduced or free. (BUT they do offer 0% for 24 months)

SSSSSooooooooooo it anyone needs a low cost option I can get you signed up with unlimited talk/text and 1 gig of data for 25-30 bucks a month
add 20.00 for unlimited data.
Bill will be in your name/address and paid by you

Hey Vinke,

Funny you should mention that, we had dinner with my in laws last night and cell phones came up. I was all excited about saving $40.00 a month and dropping to $90+ tax and my father in law says they are on sprints "republic wireless" program. The program with full internet and unlimited talk and text is $25.00 a month and the one my father in law uses which only has wi-fi in hotspots I believe was less, I'll paste a link here as I'm sure I have it wrong.

So anyone looking to save serious cash, should either get on the friends and family with Vinke or check this out for similar prices. The caveat with the republic program is they only offer one phone (moto x) so I couldn't keep my iphone if I wanted to go with that.

We subsequently had a long discussion about the many reasons I would hesitate to give up my iphone!

However now I'm thinking I might have to ditch my iphone as this kind of low price is ridiculous to pass up!

https://republicwireless.com/plans

This is where competition in the marketplace seems to really be a benefit currently.

Check it out!

I don't suppose those phone cards ( or whatever you call them ) are interchangeable anymore? I used to switch them to whatever phone I really liked and nobody knew the difference.

sims,,,,but not all careers use them.... phones need to be from same career of unlocked (unlocking is simple, call your career and tell them you are traveling abroad and they will give you the code

If my wife finds out that I'm traveling with abroad, I won't need a phone any longer.