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Cutting backWe have a family plan-4 dumbphones, unlimited texting for all, shared minutes, NO data usage. After my husband's company discount and added taxes/fees/padding we pay about $125 a month. It works for us. Oh, there are times we could use a bit of data but it's not a priority at all.
These new plans do exactly what I've been watching for - they're jacking the price of basic phone plans so high they want customers to say "it's only $10 more for a smartphone!" Indeed it is. And if we want unlimited texting, most of which is for family and close non-VZW friends, we'll be forced into a $70 a month plan. Right now that's pre-discount $59.99.
When we're forced off our plans and the kids are on their own, we're looking more and more at prepaid. VZW needs to rethink these really sick plans FAST. Their sole purpose is to drive customers into big plans they don't want, don't need and then charge them through the nose for data. |
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Verizon (and AT&T to follow) have clearly made a decision to place feature phone users in the MVNO space because the margins aren't there, not ARPU AND the more they can show 2G/3G voice users not on their network, the faster they can get to VoLTE. Now keep in mind once that transition happens you will still get the same lame plan, except they will probably start charging you for VoLTE data and texting. The master plan. Charge more for a commodity. VoLTE is like landline -> VOIP (it cost them nothing and they charge $$$).
You can take said phones and activate them on Pageplus. Depending upon your usage it is probably cheaper to stay on PAYG and buy regular pins and if you have enough text usage go for the $11 plan (2000 texts). If you have teens and they go wild, $15 gives you unlimited texts. If you buy the $80 pins voice is only 0.04/minute and you can use it for the text deduction at the same time, and for casual web (WAP and the like). By buying the $80 card, it will last one year, so you will only have to buy new cards when you need them which is WAY more economical then a contract with a use/lose mentality. If you have a user w/ high voice and text, there are plans for that, just for that phone.
So take theoretical 300 min/user/month (like VM $35 plan)
300 min = $12 (0.04)
Power text (2000) -> $11
$23*4 = $92 (and if you use 5% disc ) = $87.40 (no taxes)
So right there this is a 50% savings.
A good example is my brother. He was on verizon family plan, 2 feature phones 450 min which ran him $59/month and he had some kyocera phone that cost verizon nothing. Termination fee was $175 (which is way more than the phone cost). So when I brought this up to him, he had 12 months left on a 2 year (verizon termination fee was $175 up until the day you die), so to get out would have been $350. In any case that is $708 for the year MINIMUM, and $350 to get out. Now I sat his wife down and told her, it was INSANE to use the cell phone when at home, because duh it was a sunk cost and "free". Ok, that cut out is $80 bills when she chatted in her living room. So the min oppy cost is $358 (so if he can do it for $358 for the year he is ahead). So he talks max 100 min a month, and neither text, OMG. So foolishly he spent the next 12 months on Verizon paralyzed to pay a termination fee and spend over $900 for the priv, much to Verizon's fancy. So when he got done, I said buy the $80 card and use as necessary. So he has been on PPC for 1 year, and he still has $55 left on the card ($25 spent FOR THE YEAR), and her's cost $120. So $145 for the YEAR versus $900, AND those unused $$$ carry over when he refills.
The gotcha is that there is no M2M so air time is air time, but if you integrate this with google voice (like I do) you can simultaneously ring a land line and cell. If you pick up landline, no incoming cost. It took me 5 minutes to educate my wife on this.
If you happen to have a heavy voice user/text $30 gets you 100MB/1200min/3000 texts.
Also if your needs change, you can change the plan every month if you want--you are not locked in.
If you have someone that wants more data, then put them on VM for $35 and let them go to town.
If there are no family plans, you can maximize EACH line and do what's best for you. Since there is no M2M you are free to do as you wish.
Also, if you do get a mild smartphone (used off of ebay/cl of course), you can dispense w/ the text portion and just PAYG for data which is much cheaper than the text plans--but you need to watch anything heavy. That would be very dangerous for kids... |
