Going for Broke: A Tip to Lower Dad’s Cost For Cellular Services

If you use a cell phone in America, you can be sure that you spend more money on your service than any other person living outside of the US. A 2014 International Market Communications Report detailed that a US cellular user $47 per line. That amounts to more than any other country that was polled. Japan was next in line but paid only $31 per line.

While other technologies tend to decrease in price, mobile technologies are seeing an increase in cost as new hardware is brought to the market and new upgrades are made available. The hidden secret behind this rise in cost has more to do with how cellular plans are purchased over what the deal has to offer.

There are only a couple of options when you want to get a cellular plan deal. One option is that you can buy a service which includes a phone that you will pay a small amount over a two-year period. The company you choose will then invoice the cost of the handset plus the cost of service and spread those payments over the life of the contract. The second option is go with a SIM-only service which allows you to pay only for the services you want and nothing more, including the handset. If you do your research, a SIM-only service may just be the cheapest way to go.

The latest iPhone X, 256GB handset has a retail price of over $1000. Your service provider will be happy to hand you one without anything more than a signed contract for two years of service. The biggest downside to this is that it locks the owner in for the entirety of the service contract. There is no backing out once the contract is signed and the responsibility for all costs remains with the user if the contract is broken. Another downside to this format of service is that you have to pay more to protect you in the event the phone is lost. The cost for insurance is just under $200 at the time this article was written. So, you don’t have to pay for the expensive handset now, but you may have to pay more than you expected at the end of the contract due to changes made to the service by the provider. Now, let’s look at option number two.

A SIM-only contract liberates the user from the cellular company’s demand for higher revenues per customer with each new upgrade or product development. This deal allows you to purchase a plan that fits perfectly into your lifestyle and usage requirements. You can customize your services to include talk, text, and data limits so that you can get the most out of your phone while at the same time protecting yourself from billing practices that are outright aggressive. The SIM-only plans are the cheapest available on the market.

You may think that because your new, SIM-only plan is not from one of the major US cellular companies, you might be surprised to find out that your phone will be using the same network(s) that the other companies promote as their biggest asset. These SIM-only deals come with access to the latest LTE networks by renting data transfer from the big cell phone providers. That way you can be sure to get more for much less when you combine a new, SIM-only plan with a handset that you pay for upfront, or unlock an old phone provided by another service. You don’t have to be a patsy to a big cellular provider anymore and that’s a tip your Dad can be proud of.