<p>my college soph and HS sr D are both asking for iphones for Xmas. They currently both have decent android phones with a pay as you go $25/mth plan from ATT which I believe is a good deal(I also have that plan)…Unlimited texts and 250 minutes. They want Iphones, but I’m having a hard to with why they actually need them. Campuses have WIFI, so why would a data plan be necessary?</p>
<p>Anyway, to my frugal ccers…what is the cheapest plan to go with for our 2 kids and myself if they were to get Iphones? I would not need an Iphone. I can’t see myself paying $50-60 a mth for a phone plan, I think that’s crazy and unnecessary.</p>
<p>If the T-Mobile signal is good in your/their area, then T-Mo is probably going to be the least expensive way to go. </p>
<p>Through Wal-Mart, there is a plan that is $35/month for unlimited text and data, but rather limited talk minutes. For most kids (and many adults) this is optimal because they don’t actually talk on the phone.</p>
<p>For a family plan, T-Mobile offers an arrangement where the first phone is $50, the second is $30, and the subsequent phones are $10. This gives unlimited talk and text to all lines, plus 0.5 GB of high-speed data (which is not a bad amount if wi-fi is available). You can add more data on a line-by-line basis for not much more. So it could wind up being a reasonable price (as little as $100 for four phones if none add data). </p>
<p>However, I must reveal that we made the jump to T-Mobile to try it out and the signal just wasn’t anywhere we spend time. No signal at all in my office, poor signal in our home, no signal in the homes of my daughter’s friends and on the back-roads route that she would travel to get there…so a safety issue. </p>
<p>We had to go back to Verizon.</p>
<p>Another option to look into is Virgin Mobile, which uses the Sprint service. They have very reasonably-priced pay-as-you-go options. However, most family plans are not going to be pay-as-you-go. T-Mobile is, but most are not.</p>
<p>When our kids graduated from college & S started flying a lot for his job, he requested and we made the jump to unlimited data family plan (he uses his phone’s data plan when he travels and isn’t around a hotspot.</p>
<p>We pay about $227 a month for 4 phone lines. It’s a bit more than the $200 we paid on Verizon, but now we have 1500 shared minutes for talking per month, unlimited talking with any cell phone and unlimited data and messaging. It makes the kids happy and there is no throttling of data, which is what S was looking for. We let him select the phones and plan. We have iPhone 5, which we all got when they were having a WalMart sale for $128. We got BestBuy to match the price. We also got a $100 rebate for being new customers and a AAA waived activation fee (otherwise $35 apiece).</p>
<p>With the Verizon plan, we didn’t have any data, but had 700 minutes talking to share and unlimited texting. for the extra $27, we like the data. I did explore the pre-paid plans that had unlimited data, but ultimately,we opted to go with Sprint monthly contract and have been mostly happy.</p>
<p>I use data plan more than voice minute. I use google maps a lot. It also comes handy when traveling if wifi is not available. I look up gas station before returning a rental car, or a restaurant. It also allows you to iMessage or Facetime when wifi is not available.</p>
<p>I had to switch from T-Mobile to Verison went my son went to college as coverage where he is was terrible with TM. </p>
<p>I pay $127/month with Verizon for 2 phones (H has a phone from work.) Kid’s phone has data but it’s no longer unlimited. However, wifi is all over campus so he has never reached limit. We share 500 minutes but never come close to using them. I pay an addition $17 on my plan (including tax) for my home phone.</p>
<p>Thankfully TM works great for us. 3 phones, 1000 min each and unlimited texting & data < $175 per month. We had Verizon before this, but it was crazy expensive even with DH’s 19% off work discount.</p>
<p>Hmmm… your current deal sounds pretty good. Unlimited text is key. It’s good you are thinking long and hard before committing to high monthly payments. </p>
<p>I will admit that both kids get a lot of use out of their smartphones (droids, not iphones). DH and have smartphones too, but we leverage the power and features as much as the kids. I think our Verizon bill is about $230/month with tax (unavoidable) and a corporate discount on primary phone. </p>
<p>Now that DD is graduated and working, she gives us $50/month tward the phone bill.</p>
<p>We have Sprint with 3 iphones, 1 android and 1 old phone (mine). It’s about $277/month which I think is crazy high but we do have unlimited text, talk and data. If you’re a data junkie, Sprint is the plan for you. You do get a “free” upgrade every two years, but you have to sign a contract for the next 2 years to do that. You can share upgrades around your family which makes mine very popular since I don’t care about upgrading so often.</p>
<p>For this free upgrade you still pay an upgrade fee (which can be waived if you have a credit union account as long as you provide them with the number and sign another one of those 2 year contracts) and some other fee. D1 just got the new iphone and it was $422 or so with all the fees. I think it’s a rip off but I’m not a data junkie. </p>
<p>I’m trying to protect my upgrade since I might be leaving Sprint and I don’t want to find out that my phone number has a 2-year contract that someone else in the family signed. It’s not the company it used to be.</p>
<p>Wow! Did he get the one with the most memory? Otherwise prices were supposed to start at $199 for the 5S and $99 for the 5C. Whoops, my mistake, those reduced prices are with a new or renewed 2 year contract, I think.</p>
<p>When we got our iPhone 5 from BestBuy on a new Sprint family plan, we weren’t required to get insurance.</p>
<p>Virgin Mobile using Sprint network offers them from $549 as its lowest price for the 5S.</p>
<p>We have 5 phones on Sprint family plan for about $250/month. S1, D1, and I have androids, H and D2 have regular, but with data. 700 shared mins, unlimited text and data. S1, D1, and I are thinking of upgrading to the iphone when the contract ends next summer.</p>
<p>H said today maybe he might like an iphone. From a guy who didn’t want a phone 2 years ago…He wants to be able to look up the weather/radar faster.</p>
<p>One caveat about reception. One summer a few years back, our two kids lived in 5 different apartments. They couldn’t get ANY TMobile reception in any of those 5 places–that’s when we switched to Verizon and the bill climbed but at least we could communicate with our kids. I have heard (but not verified) that they have improved their number of towers and reception. I have had some wonky reception with some of my friends and relatives that are still with TMobile, so am not sure about whether the reception problem has been fixed.</p>
<p>Before we got the iPhone 5 in December, H was on a pay as you go pre-paid plan and routinely rolled over his minutes because he didn’t even consume 1000 minutes/year. He couldn’t take his phone into his work building; now that he’s retired, he’s loving the apps and just fooling around with the phone. He loves the weather info and updates, as well as the “Verge” app. Though we generally connect with wifi, it’s nice having unlimited data. We may add another phone to our plan as well, which we were told is just another $30.</p>
<p>With trying Sprint, we’ve now been on all the major carriers–AT&T, TMobile, Verizon & now Sprint. They’ve all worked out pretty OK for us. Have considered switching to a pre-paid carrier, but so far have stuck with the major companies so far.</p>
<p>Have also done pre-paid with TMobile and a local company. It works OK, but you have to keep remembering to refill.</p>
<p>I pay about $199 with Sprint for three phones (1 Galaxy s4 and 2 Galaxy s3), unlimited data and text and 1500 minutes (free nights and weekends). We never get close to reaching those 1500.</p>
<p>Yea, our Sprint plan doesn’t count time that you speak with anyone that you are speaking to on a cell phone as minutes and doesn’t count nights and weekends. We have never approached any of our limits with the 1500 minutes. Our kids hardly talk and if they do, it’s mostly to cell phones–us or friends. We mostly call cell phones as well, or if we plan a long call, we call from our dinosaur landline.</p>
<p>We had TMobile for ~5-6 years and really liked it although the coverage was not optimal. In May of 2012 they stopped being able to run off AT&T towers (so they said) and coverage became much worse. AT &T is the <em>only</em> service that works, so here we are. We were much happier with TMobile as a company and it’s much cheaper.</p>
<p>Pay $251 for 5 phones; 3 iphones and 2 semi-smart phones with html? data. Iphones have 3 gb of data which we never come close to using. Ditto for 700 minutes/month. Unlimited texting which I would never give up.</p>
<p>TMobile recently revamped their family plans so that there is no contract. If you have phones you are happy with, their prices can’t be beat. </p>
<p>We have 5 phones: unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data–though there is a limit on the amount of data that is available at the 4G speeds, AND free mobile hotspot for $110/month. </p>
<p>Two new 5S Iphones would require $200 down payment and an additional $46/month for 2 years. Still cheaper than other plans though and you’re not tethered to a contract.</p>
<p>We have run into a few weak spots reception wise with TMobile, but Android phones now all come with Wifi calling which makes poor reception a non issue. Iphones need to add that app.</p>
<p>Gee, that’s a LOT lower than the $185 I was quoted for just 4 phones, unlimited text, data and phone at Tmobile on Friday. I wonder why the huge difference in price. That’s really a BIG difference (yours is about 1/2 and comes with the hotspot). Hmmm. Confusing!</p>
<p>HI mom: was that with new phones? We aren’t making any payments on phones on our plan. </p>
<p>I just went to their site and checked: Yep $110 for the 5 phone family plan.</p>
<p>And, actually, we are really only paying $100/month. We were long time customers and somehow (I can’t remember the specifics now) when we changed plans I talked them into a $10/month credit for 3 years.</p>