Cell phone plans
I am trying to get a smartphone but it's an uphill battle, especially since I'm such a cheapskate. I like to think of myself as a smart consumer so yesterday I looked over what Best Buy had to offer in phones and discovered what I thought was a good deal for an iPhone 5s with 2 yr contract through AT&T which has the best coverage in my area. Legit 4G, when the other carriers only have 3G for area and barely 2G at my house.
They have a 1G usage plan for $25/month and thought that would be fine since I can use Wifi at home and would only use phone occasionally online while at work, no downloading, no gaming, few apps. I found a calculator that showed me 1G would get me by with what I would be doing on it.
However since my too-good-to-be-true dinger kept going off, I went to AT&T's site and selected plans there, which actually told me how much my actual bill would be.
Good thing I did. Turns out AT&T charges a monthly access fee in addition to usage plan and that would run me $40/month extra! My monthly bill went from what I thought would be about $40 with taxes/fees to $90! Shame on Best Buy for not disclosing this about AT&T. I am guessing the other carriers do this too.
I really don't want to put out $500 for a phone just to be able to use a pay-as-you-go plan, which seems like it would be the best plan for me, no more than I use a phone. But I can't stomach carriers charging you for usage AND the privilege of using your device on their network, which is what the access charge feels like to me.
They have a 1G usage plan for $25/month and thought that would be fine since I can use Wifi at home and would only use phone occasionally online while at work, no downloading, no gaming, few apps. I found a calculator that showed me 1G would get me by with what I would be doing on it.
However since my too-good-to-be-true dinger kept going off, I went to AT&T's site and selected plans there, which actually told me how much my actual bill would be.
Good thing I did. Turns out AT&T charges a monthly access fee in addition to usage plan and that would run me $40/month extra! My monthly bill went from what I thought would be about $40 with taxes/fees to $90! Shame on Best Buy for not disclosing this about AT&T. I am guessing the other carriers do this too.
I really don't want to put out $500 for a phone just to be able to use a pay-as-you-go plan, which seems like it would be the best plan for me, no more than I use a phone. But I can't stomach carriers charging you for usage AND the privilege of using your device on their network, which is what the access charge feels like to me.