Say you are looking to get your first cellphone, or change carriers, or just want a cheaper plan.....well, I can help you with this....
Step 1: Selecting Your Phone
This part could easily be one of the cheapest or most expensive part. There are lots of phones for free on the AT&T network on contract....then there are phones that cost $500+ without a contract. Pick a phone that suits what you need. If you just want to make phone calls, then don't worry with getting an Android, Blackberry, or iPhone. These phones require a minimum of $15/month for internet on contract plans. If you text alot and prefer a full keyboard, there are phones out there that don't require data plans, that will have this feature. A few phones by Pantech have full keyboards but do not require the minimum $15/month data plans. You can find a few of these phones on AT&T website when selecting your phone. Pantech Laser & Pantech Link do not require the data plan and feature the full QWERTY keyboard for texting.
Step 2: Pick your Plan
This is where more of your money gets eaten up than you realize. I personally would recommend going pre-paid but we will get to that later on and why I prefer it. Again, if you are JUST going to talk on your phone. Voice plans on contract go for $39.99/month for 450 daytime minutes and 5000 Night/Weekend minutes. If all or most of your family and friends is on AT&T network, then you shouldn't have to worry about using your minutes up because all calls from AT&T to AT&T network don't count against your minutes, even on this $39.99/month plan. Be careful though.....people *WILL* text you. No matter how many times you say you don't like text, or don't pay for unlimited text, someone *WILL* end up texting you. These texts are now 30 cents per message! Now, say you pick a free phone on 2 year contract for $39.99/month. In 2 years, you're total amount spent (excluding those texts you will end up getting!!!) comes out to $959.76 plus taxes....so, I would add another $96-$100 on taxes for a grand total of $1,055.76 to $1,059.76. BUT...these contracts are dependent on your credit! If you have less than what AT&T requires for no deposit, then you could very well be paying HUNDREDS for a deposit! (My credit sucks and I tried to buy an iPhone and they wanted $700 deposit!)...BEWARE!
Now, if you are looking for texting as well. Add $20/month to your plan! AT&T NO LONGER OFFERS 1000/texts for $10/month!!! You have pay by text at 30 cents each, or $20/month for unlimited! This is where I say it is cheaper to go pre-paid than contract!!! You will see a HUGE difference! If you get the basic GoPhone from WalMart, its $20 and comes with $5 (I believe) in credit for your account. So right out of the box, you are good for 50 minutes (10 cents/minute) of calling. Texts on pre-paid are 20 cents a message so $5 will get you 25 texts! On a contract, $5 would only be ~16 texts!! ALSO, Pre-paid DOES have the $5/200 messages AND the $10/1000 messages plan! As well as the $20/unlimited plan! If you get the $39.99/month voice plan add the $20/month for texting for a total of $59.99/month for 2 years for a total of $1,439.76 before taxes. I would estimate about $140 to $180 in taxes for a Grand Total of about $1,579.76 to $1,619.76 (and this is if you get a FREE phone!). Pre-paid offers a $20 phone.and get this...$50/month unlimited minutes/texts/MOBILE WEB....yes, you browse mobile web on $50/month PRE-PAID. So, let's do the math here. $20 for the phone plus $50/month for 2 years (to match the contract) runs about $1,220! Taxes not included....*IF* you were to buy a smart-phone, say (for example) an iPhone. AT&T will say it's NOT supported and will refuse you customer service when you call (or at least they do for me...)
Let's do contract rate on smart-phones. Smartphones will run you about $50-$300 depending on what phone you get. Let's say you go cheap and get an iPhone 3GS for $50. Get the cheapest minutes at $39.99/month. Add the MINIMUM $15/month data plan (200MB). That's $54.99/month..that doesn't include texting. Let's add that in too! $20/month plus $54.99 = $74.99/month!! that's still only getting you 450 minutes, 5000 N/W minutes and unlimited AT&T to AT&T! for 2 years w/o texting, you are lookin at $1,319.76 for the contract, plus taxes there. Plus $50 for the phone....I'd estimate around $130-$160 for taxes for a Grand Total of $1,449.76 to $1,479.76 for 2 years plus $50 (and that's buying a cheap 3GS and not the 32GB iPhone 4 that is $299!)....NOW, let's add $20/month on top of that for text! So, 450 minutes, 5000 N/W minutes, unlimited AT&T to AT&T, 200MB of data, and unlimited text....$1,799.76 plus taxes I would estimate around $180-$220 for a Grand Total of $1,979.76 to $2,019.76!! This isn't even including the phone and any deposit you may have to pay!! Again, this is MINIMUM minutes AND data!! They will eat you alive on overage on both of these!!!
MY Conclusion!
If you want the best advice I can give you on what to do for a phone, go buy a $20 GoPhone just to get the SIM card.....then fork out the $200-$500 for an Android phone or an iPhone on craigslist....you can probably find them cheaper depending on where you live. I have seen iPhone 3GS for $150 where I live. I have seen Android phones for $60! Blackberry will not suffice for this information. Using an Android or iPhone, download a program called Line2 by Toktumi. This will give you 7 days free (unless it's changed since I signed up, it used to be a MONTH free when I first got it!) to try out this app, which I know you will love! Line2 gives you a phone number for texting and for calls incoming and out-going! yes, it works just like a cellphone! The DOWNSIDE, it doesn't do photo messages! Activate your iPhone or Android phone with the SIM card included with your $20 GoPhone.....DO NOT ACTIVATE THE SIM WITH THE INCLUDED PHONE!! YOU WILL BE LOCKED IN FOR 6 MONTHS!! Now that you have an active phone. Go buy a $15 card and a $25 card. Use the $25 card to add 500MB Data package to your phone. If you DO need photo messages, use the $15 card to buy either 200 messages or 1000 messages. If you do more than 1000 PHOTO messages in a month, you need a new hobby!! So, with the Line2 app, again, you can make UNLIMITED calls and receive UNLIMITED calls for $9.95/month!!! NO TAXES! If you pay for a YEAR in advance, you only pay $99.95! That's getting 2 months FREE at an already LOW price! $9.95/month will get you UNLIMITED incoming/outgoing minutes AND text messages! So,. my advice, pay the $99.95 for the YEAR. Depending on how much data you use (and remember, ALL iPhones and Androids have Wifi! So if you already have Wifi at home or work, then you are NOT using your data package! Plus TONS of places provide free Wifi, such as McDonalds, B&N, Starbucks, hotels, etc...)....Pretty much, you are going to be covered with Wifi unless you don't have it at home or you are in your car! (PLEASE: DO NOT TEXT & DRIVE!)....On Pre-paid phones, you can dial *777*3# and see how much data you have left. You should know within a month or two how much data you are using. Unless you are doing streaming media from YouTube, Xfinity, XM radio or whatever content you are streaming....you shouldn't go over your data! Besides, like I said, the only time you are really going to be using the 3G data is when you are in your car or out of a Wifi area! IF you are you using MORE than 500MB of 3G data a month, you are really going overboard IMO...You have to add at LEAST $5/month in your data before the end of the month (AT&T will send you a free text message to let you know in advance when your data is up)...$5/month will buy 10MB....of data...that doesn't sound like much, but on Line2, your text will use MAYBE 3kb per text. $5 (10MB) will buy you at LEAST 3,413 texts!! Minutes do not use much data either....I have talked on 3G for an over an hour and barely went thru 15MB! What I do is, buy 500MB for $25. Then every month add $5 for the next 4 to 5 months! So for about $50, I have internet for about half the year! So, estimate about $100/YEAR on my data! (on contract, it's a MINIMUM of $180 for a year!!)...of course, I do have Wifi pretty much everywhere I am except driving! Also, if you do need photo messages, buy cards as needed. As long as you don't let it go over your 30 days of service, any unused messages will carry over (this works for data as well!). So, let's break this down....
GoPhone: $20 (needed for SIM)
$15 & $25 card (only get the $15 one if you need photo messages, otherwise don't buy it!) $25-$40
iPhone/Android off Craigslist: Avg of $250
Line2 app download: FREE
Line2 Service: $9.95/month or $99/year
Considering I would be buying $25 cards TWICE a year and adding $5/month to my data to keep it active and carry over about 10 times, you're looking at (and they don't sell $5 cards...) so I would get 4 X $25 cards, apply the first $25 on 500MB data package, then $5/month for 5 months (that's the 2nd $25 card), then apply the 3rd $25/ card on 500MB, then $5/month for 5 months (the 4th $25 card)....so, $100 for my data....I don't do photo messages since I can get photos using e-Mail or Yahoo IM using the data package!
$100/year for data x 2 years = $200 (plus sales tax and $1 9-1-1 fee on each card, they may even sell $100 cards, not sure)
$99.95/year for Line2 x 2 years = $199.90
iPhone/Android off Craigslist for avg price of $250
TOTAL: $649.90 (and only $200 of that has sales tax and 9-1-1 fees)
YES, $649.90 for TWO years of UNLIMITED minutes, UNLIMITED text and pretty decent amount of internet....I have been doing this for going on 2 years myself....it's REALLY worth it!
VERDICT: Pre-paid with an expensive Smart-Phone is the BEST route for goin on AT&T!!!
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