Easy Ways to Lower Your Cell Phone Bill
Tired of high cell phone bills? Learn effective strategies to lower your cell phone bill and keep your service reliable. Start saving now!
Between unlimited calls, text, data, and the cost of the phone, a phone plan can cost you $100 or more a month. Luckily, there are less expensive alternatives that can provide you with the same service! Your cell phone bill is actually one of the easiest monthly expenses to lower, yet people tend to pay ridiculous amounts. Today, I want to offer easy ways to lower your cell phone bill. We have used all of these strategies to keep our cell phone bill cheaper than $75 a month for 2 people. Some months, we even spent less than $50 a month!
Lose the Contracts
Most of the larger carriers also require you to sign a contract for two years or more. There are other carriers, though, that don’t have this requirement. You can just pay month-to-month and switch carriers whenever you like.
Even though the larger companies entice you into a contract with a good price on an expensive phone or other benefits, a contract is usually not the best way to save on your phone bill.
Consider these downsides of a contract:
- You’re stuck with this phone service provider for a while. It’s expensive to get out of your contract before the time is up, even if you want out because you don’t feel like they live up to the service they promised.
- There are usually less pricey options available. The rate you get when you sign the contract might look good at the time, but next month you might find a better one elsewhere.
- Most contracts include a Smartphone, which you end up paying for in small monthly installments. Your Smartphone will be outdated by the time you’re done paying for it – if not before then.
Look Into Secondary Companies
You can save a lot by avoiding the largest phone providers and choosing a smaller company instead. These cellphone service providers use the networks created by larger companies, which means the quality of the service is the same.
- Mint Mobile
- Lyca Mobile
- MobileX
- Cricket Wireless
- Boost Mobile
- Spectrum Mobile
- Straight Talk
- Visible (I can not recommend them. I had a $1000 phone ordered through my account-as did many others-and getting my phone back was a nightmare).
Be sure to check Rakuten to get money back from certain cell phone providers!
Shop Around or Buy Secondhand Phones
Brand new phones from well-known manufacturers can cost as much as $500 or more, but if you shop around, you can find less costly phones with similar features. When we need new phones, we will shop around to the companies I listed above. We see what the deals are for their phones and compare.
If anything, we will buy used phones from eBay. Bringing your own phone can offer more flexibility and save you more money.
Switch It Up
Don’t be afraid to shop around frequently for a cheaper company. During certain times of year, many companies will offer incentives to get you to switch with them. Most of these companies have minimum requirements, like staying with them for a certain amount of months. It’s still less than a contract and after that, you’re free to go somewhere else. I have done this numerous times through the years and been able to always keep my same phone number.
More Ways to Save
Data is one of the most expensive elements of a cellphone plan. You can reduce the amount of data you use by using your own Wi-Fi when you’re at home and by being mindful of the apps you install on your phone. Some apps, such as social networking apps, will automatically check for updates every few minutes, which will increase the amount of data you use.
Don’t pay for data you’re not using! Unless it’s the same price to have unlimited data, if you’re not using it, you don’t need it. I am a stay-at-home mom, therefore, I am generally always on Wi-fi. I don’t need unlimited data. 10GB is a month is plenty and I rarely ever even use that much.
Team Up to Lower Your Cell Phone Bill
Join friends or family plans to lower your cell phone bills. Normally, the more people you have on one account, the cheaper each line is. You can easily group yourself with others and divide the costs. Most companies will even allow you to pay individually per line, making it even easier to join a group plan.
Go Paperless or Auto Pay
Generally, companies will offer you an incentive to go paperless or auto pay. This ensures they get paid every month and saves their company money from having to send out paper bills. It’s usually not a huge amount. We save $5 every month for auto-pay, but that’s an extra $60 a year and we don’t have to remember to pay a bill on time.
Call to Lower Your Cell Phone Bill
There have been many times when we had a promotional price on a phone plan. When our bill was set to go up, calling and asking for a lower price was sufficient. They were usually able to give us a different deal, even if it wasn’t as good as the original. It was still guaranteed to save us money. If they were unable to lower our bill or it wasn’t as low as we wanted, we’d follow the other advice I mentioned and shop around for a new carrier with better promotions.
Find Discounts
My parents get a special discount from being with Verizon for so long. There were times where I got a special discount for being with my employer or being a student during college. When we had Cricket, I was able to buy discounted gift cards through Target. It saved me a few dollars each month, but it was extremely easy to buy online gift cards and apply them to my bill every month.
We also have money back rewards for using our credit or debit cards. Every month, we get different rewards we can activate. The money back depends on the month and the company. Currently, if I were to use my debit card to pay for Tracfone, I’d be getting 25% back right into my bank account. I have also seen offers for Cricket and Boost Mobile through my bank. Again, you can also get a perfect back through Rakuten!
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