I need a data plan that my wife and I both use, and I don't want to pay more than $100 a month for both. Family plans are a rip-off - even with a limited number of minutes the cheapest I've found for two smartphones is about $120 a month. At a two year contract, that hits nearly $3000. What can I say, I'm a tightwad.
Pre-paid plans on pre-pay networks.
If you've always gone with the big boys (AT&T or Verizon) you probably don't even know about these pre-paid plans. Some of them are even subsidiries of the bigger companies, but they don't advertise them much.
Here are the ones I've looked at, with their total 2 year cost for an unlimited plan and a limited-minutes plan, assuming a phone cost of $400 (new iPhone 4S 16GB is $650, used goes for less. For comparison, Galaxy Nexus is a great phone at $350 from the Google Play Store.)
- At $50/m, 2 years, plus iPhone 4S 16GB at $650…
- Plan shows $55, but if you set up auto-renew you save $5 a month.
- If you are willing to cap minutes @ 300/m you can reduce cost to $1120, saving almost $500.
- Runs on the Sprint network.
- Plans are here
- Important: This is a CDMA network, so you won't be using GSM cards, which means if you buy a phone for Virgin Mobile you won't be able to take it with you.
- Runs on the T-mobile network.
- This plan will throttle you to about 220kbps, you can pay an extra $10 a month to get 4G speeds.
- GSM, so if you want to move you can.
- Their plan price is all-in, meaning it appears to include taxes & fees.
- Rides on the AT&T Network
- Moving over an iPhone is /relatively/ painless. You will have to do some work to change the APN. Note that you will need an AT&T iPhone, and it's easier with older (3GS, 4) phones that use a normal-sized SIM card.
- GSM, so if you want to move you can.
Got some other plans you've checked out? Fork this and suggest your own!