Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Cutting costs

We've been with T-Mobile ever since Cliff got his first cell phone.  In order to cut costs, we recently stopped service on our land line because we were using our cell phones all the time anyhow.  
With Cliff's retirement approaching, I've been looking at more ways to make all our bills cheaper.  We had two of Cliff's sisters on our T-Mobile account, so we had them get their own account a while back.  That trimmed twenty bucks off the total, but our bill was still $84 monthly.  That's too much.  
I called customer service and asked if there was any way we could trim the bill further.  The lady told me we could cut our minutes down to 750 instead of 1,000 and that would save us $10.  OK, that would make it $74; still not acceptable, in my opinion.  
However, if I do away with my phone so that Cliff is the only one with a cell phone, we could get it down to $39 monthly with 500 minutes, or $49 if we keep 750 minutes.  
I don't talk on the phone that much anyhow, and with Cliff retired, I don't see a problem with using his cell if I need to talk to someone.  
I think that's probably the best solution.

7 comments:

  1. Hubby and I decided to cut down the phone costs, too. Then after I lost my phone three times within two years it just seemed crazy to carry a plan for me at around $39 a month, especially since I never turned the phone on unless I was calling Hubby. I gave everyone Hubby's phone number - and he could report back whatever info needed to be shared. But since I am still teaching and there are times I'm without Hubby or need to get Hubby NOW -- we got me a three month renewable plan -- we buy minimum minutes (I never use them all) and we renew every 90 days. Cost? $19. It's been great.

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  2. Pat/Texas8:25 PM

    I buy a plan from Net10. 750 minutes for $25.00 for 30 days. That is for my husband.

    My daughter has me on her family plan with Verizon that is $10/mo.

    Our land line is about to go. Sometimes we get 1 call on it a weekend.

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  3. You don't want to know what our verizon bill is. Horrible. 3 phones, unlimiting texting on two of them, free long distance, etc...We even still have a land line which comes in very handy at times, like calling Africa. I can actually hear Ashley on the land line, but not well at all on the cell phone.(even in NYC the land line has better reception).We don't get very good service inside our house; I have no desire to talk on the phone in the garage or outside. :)

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  4. I have a basic Tracfone that we picked up at WalMart several years ago. Like Milly, I buy only the minimum amount of minutes and 90 days at a time. You're allowed to roll over your minutes. I use mine about twice a year and really only carry it for emergencies.

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  5. One phone should do just fine now that you'll both be together most of the time anyway. Hope your Wednesday is a wonderful one!

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  6. We have to keep a regular line because even though we have a cell tower right up the road, we are in a dead spot.

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  7. Knowing you are pretty computer savvy, I have to recommend MagicJack. It's a tiny little box that plugs into the USB port of your computer (or laptop) and it has a regular phone jack on it. You attach a normal phone to it. It gives you a dial tone and you make all your calls over the internet. The device is $39.95 and includes a year of unlimited phone calls. You can buy a second year of calls for only $19.95. That is $19.95 for a YEAR of phone calls to anywhere in the USA, Canada, Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands. You can try it for free for 30 days to see if it works for you. The husband uses it as his work line down in his home office. He doesn't like having long conversations on his cell phone so it's perfect for him. My Dad, a notorious cheap-skate, bought one too and uses it for long distance calls. He kept his land line and local calling plan just to please my mother because she doesn't trust wireless or cell phones. Anyway, you can check it out for yourself at www.magicjack.com to see if it will work for you. I'd hate for you to be home alone, need to make an emergency call and have no phone to use at all. :D

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