Keep in touch

One fairly big expense that many of us are saddled with these days is the cost of cellphones. It isn't really the price of the phone that is the problem though. It's those monthly bills for the wireless service. They can really add up quickly. Even if you have an inexpensive monthly plan you can easily shell out $360.00/yr. Add in text messages and a data plan and the price can quickly top $800.00 or more. And this, of course, assumes that you don't go over your alotted minutes. Now if you are a heavy cellphone user, this trick won't work for you. If, however, you use you cellphone for maybe one 2 minute call every day or two or a few text messages a week, there is a way to save a bundle.

The answer is to go pre-paid. T-Mobile, for instance, has a deal where by you pay $100.00 for 1000 minutes (or text messages at 20 cents/message) that lasts for a full year. There is no contract either so you can back out at any time. For someone who views a cellphone as something for occasional or emergency use only, that works pretty well. It's great for kids too because there are no unpleasant surprises about over charges. Now one of the turn-offs for some folks to going pre-paid has been that the phones that are offered are generally pretty simple models. (If you are ok with a basic phone, you can stop reading now.) The bells and whistles that you get on the fancier phones are usually absent. You can get all that stuff though if you do your homework. As long as you are using a pre-paid GSM service (T-Mobile or AT&T), any UNLOCKED GSM cellphone will work fine. (You can get just the pre-paid SIM card from a T-Mobile store I believe. That way you can avoid paying for a phone you aren't planning to use.)

Go on ebay and take a look at new or refurbished smartphones. Remember, as long as it is an unlocked GSM model, your pre-paid GSM SIM card will work in it. I use a Treo 750 smartphone that I got for a fraction of the price that Palm charges and with the pre-paid plan, no monthly bills either. I don't have full-time wireless Internet access (more on this in a bit) but AT&T does offer a pre-paid Internet plan I believe (but I find the price a bit steep).

I do periodically like to use my phone to check e-mail and a few websites. My frugal solution here is to use WiFi. This is the same short range Internet connection that many of us have in our homes. It is also commonly available these days, for free mind you, in public libraries, hotels, highway rest stops & coffee shops. Some smartphones have built-in WiFi capability and others can have it added inexpensively with a WiFi card (it sounds more complicated than it is really).

The bottom line, for me at least, is that I went from paying $740/year for my old phone service to $100/year. Even factoring in the price of the Treo, I'm still ahead by over 500.00, and that's just for first year. Now that the Treo is paid for, next year my total cost for a cellphone will be just $100. Not bad at all.