Part I: Me and Cricket
I thought I had a great phone plan with Cricket Wireless until four months ago when my cell and internet service completely stopped working in my neighborhood. I don't know what happened. I've called Cricket more than several times to get to the bottom of it, but their phone and in-store customer service reps aren't technicians so they can never tell me what's happening. They have a script of steps they make me go through each time, and I'm just sick of it by now, since they haven't been able to tell me anything at all. They constantly assure me the cell tower in my neighborhood IS working. But my only conclusion is that it's not, since the service does generally work elsewhere. And when I signed up for the plan in June of 2014, the service worked fine. Now, it's totally out, but just in my immediate neighborhood. I have to drive about two minutes out of my home's vicinity for the bars to be completely full. Once away, I can talk just fine. That's one aspect that has been keeping me from from completely changing service providers. Plus, I can still access my internet from WiFi (I just haven't figured out how to make calls on WiFi using my own number... which, I shouldn't have to do, since I'm paying for phone service...)
Another thing is, I haven't switched plans yet because well, ironically enough, as soon as my cell service stopped working, I became unemployed. That means, when I need to take a phone screen with a job prospect, I need to drive two minutes out of my neighborhood for phone service, which means I can't take spur of the moment phone calls and need to plan all correspondence well in advance. (Thanks, Cricket, for adding one more obstacle to an already stressful process...) I'm paying $35 a month because that's the only thing I can afford right now on Unemployment insurance. And that was a great plan before, well, it just stopped serving me. So I'm dealing with this wonky setup of driving out of my neighborhood to take job interviews because I that's the situation I can afford.
Part II: My Husband and His Immediate Family Plan
I happen to have a significant other. Which might give me some options here. Typically, my husband and I have never shared finances, and it's worked that way. I've always been financially independent and so has he. That's part of the reason why we never jumped into a phone plan together.
Another reason is that for seven years, he's been on his immediate family's phone plan. And they could never add me, because with his parents and his siblings, they filled the extra line quota. But this month, his mother is switching gears, and he'll need to pick his own plan. That's fine for him. He has an income. It was just a setup of convenience that was never changed. Until now.
Part III: Couple togetherness?
So, now that I'm unemployed, and now that he has an opportunity to be a big boy (I like to make fun of him because I haven't been on my parent's plan since I was a teenager. But, I understand...), I'm wondering if it's time to explore a couples' phone plan. It would have been nice for me to stay on Cricket, because I'm all about the no contract. Plus, the price was really great for the data plan, since I did use my internet mostly on WiFi, and barely needed to use the phone to talk (until now.) But Cricket seems like it's pretty much a dead option since I'm paying more in gas money anyway now.
So, that's a lot of context for you. Any suggestions on what might be a good plan fit for us? Other solutions welcome, too.
March 07, 2017 at 10:29AM
