I just took an old cell phone and added T-Mobile pay-as-you-go service to it for my son, rather than getting a “family” wireless plan, because my husband and I both have blackberries provided by our employer. True, the blackberry is good for e-mail and not much else (facebook and twitter, and some very rudimentary and slow web surfing if I’m waiting somewhere and want to pass the time), but I’m just not ready to fork over the cash for “real” smartphones and personal mobile phone service.
T-mobile advertises $100 for four lines. Add at least $10 per line to go beyond the minimum data allotment, and another $15 for the international calls my husband needs. Then add the extra taxes. And that’s before actually buying the phones themselves.
And the other providers are worse — trying to untangle how much the necessary add-ons cost and figure out exactly how they’re building the cost of the phone into the plan left me rather irritated the other day when I tried to research it. I have to admit I like T-mobile’s approach of unbundling the phone and the service, though, just as I liked the JC Penny “everyday low prices” attempt but it failed miserably, I suspect that your typical American gets sucked into the excitement of a “free phone” every two years without trying to process the difference.
So I gave up: work-provided service for us, and $3 per month for 30 minutes or 30 texts, and 10 cents per minute/text thereafter for the kid is good enough for now, since he really just needs the ability to call for a ride home.
What do you penny-pinch on?
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