New phone carriers

~ NWA-non

Yes, carriers – plural.

We had been with T-Mobile for about 12 years. Our monthly bill, for a family plan of two, had averaged out to around $75/month for the past couple of years. Not bad. We were grandfathered into an old plan and didn’t quite think much about it.

But starting this year, T-Mobile dropped the corporate discount we used to get. Monthly bill jumped to $84. Just a $9 increase, still it got me thinking if other comparable options were out there with a lower cost.

After a bit of research and a lot of procrastinating, we finally pulled the trigger to switch in August.

W went with Google FI. You pay $20 for unlimited calls and texts, and $10/GB of data used. One month cost was $32. This is post paid with users only paying for the amount of data they use. Coverage is quite possibly even superior to Verizon as Google FI uses combination of any available network and wi-fi spots. Can keep old number.

M went with Mint Mobile. This is a prepaid MVNO operating on the T-Mobile network. They have “free” unlimited talk and text on all of their plans. You “only” pay for data. Paid upfront $66 for 6 month, with 8 GB of 4G LTE data every month. That works out to $11 a month. This is a promotional offer that anyone can avail. Regular priced plans start at $15/month for 12 months, for 3 GB of data every month; and other combinations of number of months and data limits – all prepaid. Coverage is same as T-Mobile. Can keep old number.

By switching we have effectively cut our phone bill in half, with same or better coverage. Boom.

Published by NWA-non

On our way to increasing our net worth, one month at a time.

2 thoughts on “New phone carriers”

  1. Any reason you have chosen 2 different plans? When I left the big carriers years ago, I switched 2 or 3 times until I found the one that worked best. In my area, T-Mobile coverage is shoddy at best.

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    1. Mostly to hedge our risks. We’ve read good things about Google FI but it could get expensive based on usage. Mint Mobile was a hit-or-miss, but much cheaper. Since nowadays there is nothing special in “family plans” to stick to a single carrier we thought to explore different options.

      T-Mobile coverage isn’t the best nationwide but it works out fine for us.

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