(How to) Stop Paying So Much For Your Cellphone
97% of Americans have a cell phone and the average monthly cell phone bill is $144. This is wild — especially when you think about what other people pay around the globe (for example, in India you can get pretty robust cell service for less than $10/month).
But I’m not above reproach here. For years, I was a Sprint/T-Mobile customer. And to make it worse, I went from having an Obamaphone, to having a Cricket phone, and then ‘graduated’ to a post-paid plan. Why would I do such a thing? Well it’s simple — I wanted a new phone (a Samsung Galaxy S8+ to be exact). But I didn’t have a lot of cash on hand. So I applied for a post-paid plan and for $50 you get to walk away with a cool new expensive phone. But this is a trap. These companies make billions off of our impulsivity.
My Escape Plan
In early 2024, I started to get real, legit anxiety when it came time to pay my cell phone bill. It had crept up to over $135/month and I just hated paying it. The good news is that my bill made it clear when my phone equipment (now an iPhone 14) would be paid off. I made 24 payments of $31.25 for that phone, so the cost was $750; which is pretty much the retail price.
Once the phone was paid off, I was able to unlock it. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but their customer support was really helpful. Now with the phone being unlocked, I was free to take the phone to any service provider that I wanted.
Mint To the Rescue
Because my phone was already working on the Sprint/T-mobile network, I needed to find a GSM network (as opposed to an CDMA network – like Verizon). The most daunting thing about making the switch is that you don’t have a store with bright neon and helpful staff to walk you through the process.
My supervisor told me about Mint mobile. It looked great — but my goodness, $360/yr for the unlimited plan. That was a significant chunk of change. Then I had to remind myself — that was less than 3 months of my post-paid service. So I bit the bullet. And it was absolutely liberating to have that recurring bill cut out of my life!
I fully understand that if you are living paycheck-to-paycheck, it can be hard to get lump sums of money together to benefit from MVNOs like Mint or Ultra. Also, you need to truly understand your cell phone usage. For me I didn’t make so many phone calls. I usually was on my home Wi-Fi. I had an Apple Watch — but I rarely used it to make/receive phone calls. So I didn’t expect to have my cell phone user experience suffer (and it hasn’t).
Cricket (Another Option)
When it came time for my husband to get a phone, he needed something updated but didn’t want to bother with payments. He also didn’t need anything fancy (unlike me). So we went to a Cricket store and walked out with a basic smartphone, and a $50/month plan. So more expensive than Mint — but you get access to a store, the ability to finance phones (or even get one for free), and basic features (like the ability to have a wearable — like an Apple watch).
I will say that Cricket is a bit unforgiving in regards to bill payment. If you miss you do date, your service is off. Also you need to set up auto-pay to have the cheapest rates. What my husband does, is split the $50 into two payments that coincide with pay periods. Technically he is on auto-pay — but there is never a balance to be charged.
So if you are struggling with your bills, take an honest look at what you pay for your cell phone service. It is probably the one line item where you can definitely save. Few people care or notice what kind of cell phone you have and it is also very unlikely that they know who your service provider is. I still use the same iPhone 14 (although I’ll probably upgrade in 2026), but I pay $1,273.92 less for the service than I did a year ago. That alone is just amazing to think about (and my bank account is happier too).
