My family is three - my mom, who stays within the range of a router for most of the time, and my brother and me - we both use 2-3 GB/mo, largely because we don't want to connect to the wifi at our respective workplaces for reasons. As a chronic sim card switcher, over the past 5 years, I've tried Verizon, ATT, Ting, Project Fi, Tello, Mint Mobile, and Red Pocket. Here's what I've found.
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I-want-unlimited-talk/text-and-a-lot-of-data: The undefeated champion of this field is Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile offers unlimited talk/text and three plans: 2GB for $15, 5GB for $20, or 10GB for $25. One of the great things about Mint Mobile is that they give you unlimited 2G after you use up all your data, so my brother can use more than 2GB and still have speeds sufficient for light reddit browsing. Only downside is that you have to pay it as a lump sum every year. No group plans, but from what I've seen, most group plans are hard-pressed to come anywhere near.
Red pocket comes close to Mint Mobile's prices, and they have an Ebay plan that ties Mint Mobile for 5GB at $20. This means that ebay coupons/discounts/gift cards can help you out here. I grabbed one at $16/mo during the Ebay father's day sale. If it weren't for that, I'd still be on Mint Mobile because the service is good and the customer support is great.
I-have-an-elderly-person-who-hardly-uses-the-phone: Tello is a hidden gem of an MVNO because they're one of the few to offer a truly pay-as-you-go plan. If you opt for this, you have 0 monthly fees and you just pay for minutes, texts, and data. I leveraged this by having my mom use telegram to call or text - this means that when she's home, there's no cost to call or text, and when she's out and about, she's using data, which is actually much cheaper. Before I had her use telegram, it drained about $5-10/mo, but now it's in the ballpark of $2. (Side note: if you ever want an emergency/backup phone and you have coverage, I cannot recommend Tello enough simply because it costs $0 if you don't use it and credits don't 'expire').
I-have-an-elderly-person-who-can't-use-telegram: I feel ya. US Mobile, Ting, and Tello are great for customizable super-cheap plans. Speedtalk offers 500/unlimited/500 talk/text/data for $9 (never used them though so I can't personally vouch), and Red Pocket at Ebay has a 500/500/500 for $8.25. Red Pocket also offers even smaller plans on Ebay, so they might have one that's suitable for your needs.
Thoughts on Project Fi and Ting, since I hear these mentioned a lot in this sub: both of these plans charge you as you go, and both of these plans are more powerful with groups of people, but both of them have fallen in terms of competitive pricing. I switched to Ting a while back when their prices were still very competitive, and my phone bill for the 3 of us were generally $50-60 per month (less than 1GB total), but I hated the bucket anxiety and how I would have to constantly be conscious of data usage. I felt really weird about being charged for minutes or data that I didn't use, and the price of data below 2GB was pretty meh. As our data needs went up, I switched to Project Fi. Project Fi was nice because of the flat $10/GB and the $20 for the first line and $15/line after - we ended up paying about $50-60 for 3 lines at 2GB total. (You might point out that this doesn't add up, and you're right. A neat Project Fi trick is that a data-only sim can effectively act as another line and cost $0, provided you're OK with doing all your call or text over data, so I had my mom do that to save $15/mo). When Mint Mobile came about, I hopped ship and reduced the bill to $30 for 2 lines at 2GB ea. Even Republic Wireless beats Project Fi with its $5/GB prices.
"But kutekitteh, plan hopping is so much work! My plan works fine and I'm afraid of irrational fear X." If I were to ballpark how much money I saved by constantly hopping providers over the past 5 years, it would easily be in the thousands. It helps to weigh the effort of switching providers against the money you would save over 1 year, e.g. for the few hours spent switching from Project Fi to Mint Mobile, I saved over $300 for the following year, or for the day I spent visiting my mother to unsubscribe her from the landline and install an ooma, I saved over $300 for the following year.
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I didn't put down anything for people who want unlimited data because I'm personally trying to avoid bleeding unnecessary money via data-uselifestyle creep. If there's anything you want to recommend to others or personally vouch for, feel free to comment. Hopefully people can find this helpful and be encouraged to hop ship and save money.
August 05, 2018 at 11:21PM
