Save by Sharing â€“ AT&T & Me

Posted on | December 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment

One of my most annoying expenditures is paying for a cell phone. For some reason Iâ€™ve never gotten past the fact that mobility costs so much more than a land line. I mean how in the world can â€œairâ€ cost more than copper strung on poles or in the ground.

Well it canâ€™t, but there you go â€“ donâ€™t get me started.

First, the cell was merely handy, but somewhere along the way it became indispensable. The sensible thing would be to get rid of either the land line or cell, but because each provides features the other canâ€™t, Iâ€™m stuck with both.

cell phone plans - friends and family But this post is not intended as a rant but rather to describe a way I found to save some serious bucks, so let me get on with it.

Until recently I was paying for 3 separate cell phones. Mine, one for my wife, and one for my younger son â€“ donâ€™t ask! Each was set up at different times on different plans that seemed to make sense at the time.

But over time the dynamics changed, and our existing plans became outdated. Features like free nights and weekends, free mobile to mobile, unlimited text messaging, etc., meant we just didnâ€™t need all those anytime minutes anymore. I had thousands of rollover minutes that were just expiring after 12 months.

Upon investigating alternatives, I found this family package thing where you can share minutes. The one Iâ€™ll describe happens to be from AT&T but most of the other guys have similar deals.

The key thing is you can have up to 4 phones all sharing the same bucket of anytime minutes. I picked a plan with 550 anytime minutes because when analyzing our usage, the 3 of us were just under that. They also have plans with more minutes if you need them. With rollover minutes, we will accumulate extra for heavier talk times.Â

Also, you can transfer an existing number or just get a new one. On one of ours we transferred service, and for the other, just got a new phone since it was time. Besides, it was free!

The first phone costs $50 and each extra line costs $10. I also got unlimited text messaging for $20. With all the absurd taxes and fees, the total monthly bill comes to around $110.

Previous phone bills were $75, $85, and $50 for a total monthly cost of $210.Â Â Â

Thus my savings is about an even $100 a month. Not bad. That gave me raise of $1200 a year.

Again, itâ€™s not how much you make but how much you keep. And this definitely makes me feel better about having to keep both a cell phone and a land line.

If cell phone consolidation is an option, do yourself a favor and check it out â€“ you may find a way to save even more than me.