Light Usage Cellphone User? Save Money!

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First of all, if you are still in contract with your cell company, you may have to suck it up until your contract expires, because they will charge you a termination fee (which MAY be pro-rated based on how many months are left in your contract but it depends on your cell provider and on the state where you live). You may do the math, though, and find it's worthwhile to go ahead and cancel. I was lucky in that my contract had long expired -- after paying $40/mo for 2 years, they just put me on a month-to-month extension.

I started checking websites: Alltel, Cingular, Net10, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, TracFone, VerizonWireless, and VirginMobile.

My conclusion: There were no contracts available that offered lower monthly payments in return for fewer minutes. If you just want 100 or 150 monthly minutes, knowing you won't use any more, you are outta luck when it comes to phone contracts.

Why would I want to pay for TWICE the number of minutes that I'll ever conceivably use? That's throwing money away!

So, the only other alternative was a "Pay as You Go" plan. All cellphone providers have them, but they are gimmicky. There are a couple of major drawbacks to these plans:

1. You may not be able to keep your current phone. (Not a big problem for me; mine was way out of date anyway.)
2. You buy a block of minutes, and the minutes have an expiration date. $25 worth of minutes will expire in x number of days, like 30 or 60 days, unless you buy another new card before the expiration date, in which case the leftover minutes roll over. But remember, the goal here is to minimize your leftover minutes and only buy what you're going to use. Smaller blocks of minutes expire faster (and sometimes cost more per minute).
3. Some providers charge a fee for every day that you use your cellphone. So, it's not just 15c or 25c per minute but that PLUS 75c or $1 per day you use the phone.
4. Some providers charge you extra for roaming.
5. Other non-talk functions like text messaging and ringtones will be extra, too. (I don't do anything but talk, so this was a non-issue for me.)

So, my next job was to sift through all the available plans and decide which one would minimize my cost. This was very time-consuming and I don't want to bore you with it, but what I decided on after all that analysis was T-Mobile to Go.

The details: Phones start at $50 after rebate (more on this later) and include your first 60 minutes of talk time. Buy a $100 card and it will include 1,000 minutes, for a cost of 10c a minute. When you buy a $100 card, the minutes don't expire for one year. Roaming is FREE.

So under the T-Mobile To Go plan, I would buy the phone for $50, wait a month (to use up the included 60 minute phone card), then buy a $100 card that would last 12 months. In other words, $150 buys me a new phone plus 13 months of service.

Under my old contract, I'd pay $40 a month times 13 months = $520. Without a new phone.

$150 vs. $520 means a cost savings of 71%.

And I'll have plenty of minutes in case one month I use more than my typical 60 minutes of time (remember, the one year card is for 1,000 minutes...60 minutes x 12 months is 720 minutes that I use on average; I'll have plenty of extra minutes for higher usage months).

You'd think a 71% savings would be enough for me, but oh, no. I had to find a way to make the deal even sweeter.

Amazon.com sells T-Mobile to Go phones and cards of minutes. I often earn free Amazon GCs from my rewards programs. :) In addition, the T-Mobile to Go phones are cheaper on Amazon than they are if you buy them from T-Mobile's own site!

The Nokia 6010 that is $49.99 after reate on T-Mobile's site is just $39.99 after rebate on Amazon! And the Samsung x495 flip-phone that's $99.99 on T-Mobile's site is just $89.99 on Amazon! Shipping is free from either source.

There's no discount on the minutes when you buy them from Amazon, but again, I can use the Amazon GCs I get from my rewards programs to bring the cost down on those.

AND...last but not least...T-Mobile will allow you to keep your current cellphone number! When you get your new phone, there's a number to call to activate your service. Choose the option to speak to a real person, and they'll take it from there.

Bye-bye, contract! Hello new phone and big savings! :)