Lazy Man and Money

I Got a Year of AT&T Service for $20/mo (and you can too!)

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I love a good bargain, but sometimes you really do get what you pay for. When it comes to cell phone service, I’m always looking for something cheaper than my $35/mo Cricket Wireless plan (which includes a $5 discount for autopay). It’s a pretty competitive price for a no-compromise service in my opinion.

I’ve tried a few other carriers to reduce my bill… and it didn’t work out. I actually felt scammed by Red Pocket Mobile. My attempt with Mint was an incomplete and that’s on me. I plugged in the sim chip and got dozens of spam SMS and calls almost right away. I think it got better, but I put it in a super cheap phone (instead of my real number) and then didn’t want to carry two phones around. I also didn’t want to deal with a slow phone when I had a fast one.

Today I come with a cell phone deal from a company you have probably heard of… AT&T. For fair disclosure, I personally bought this deal and I will make no commission if you decide to do the same.

Simply put, you pay $300 upfront for a year of service. Get your yuks in with my bad math while you can. It gets effectively cheaper, just keep reading.

I always give credit where it’s due, so I found the deal through this CNET Cheapskate article. A reader found the promotion and he thought it was good too. Don’t blindly follow that link and sign up yet though. There’s more money to be saved.

I love saving money, but the thing that made me go for it was something many people may consider minor. It’s what we’d call an “edge case” when I was a software engineer. It’s not likely to impact a lot of people, but it impacts me greatly. (I feel my life is a giant edge case, but that’s a different article all together.) This deal included mobile hotspot at no additional charge. On my current Cricket Wireless service (same AT&T network) it is another $10. I don’t need a mobile hotspot. However, my kids love Pokemon and Pokemon Go and we can use some old phones lying around to play… if they have a mobile connection while we walk around. For the 2-4 hours a month we’d use it, it’s hard to spend an extra $10 on a mobile hotspot. Also, I’m certainly not buying a 5 and 6 year old cell phone service.

So instead of paying $45 a month for Cricket with a hotspot, $20 is much, much better.

Ugh, there’s my bad math again. It’s time to fix that.

I Tweeted out this deal and the Awesome Jackie Beck saw it and bought it. She said that if you download the Honey extension for your browser, you’ll get 20% back. I did it and they promised me 20% back, so I expect that it will be legit. I’ve heard of Honey before and it’s reputable, just like Ebates (or Rakuten as it now has been rebranded by the new owners). That 20% back ($60) would make it effectively $20/mo.

If for some reason Honey doesn’t come through, I’ll happily pay $25/mo. It’s still a great price. At a minimum it saves me $10/mo. and solves a problem in my life (the Pokemon Go thing). At a maximum it saves me $15/mo. and still solves that problem.

Other than the saving big money part, perhaps the best part is that you have a full AT&T account. You can go to a store and get good customer service. You won’t find a store for Red Pocket Mobile or Mint.

What happens in a year from now when it expires? I always have Cricket Wireless to go back to. There are almost always deals in the wireless space, and maybe a new one will surface.

I should note that this may be for new AT&T customers only. They won’t just let you switch from your existing plan it seems. However, if you do what I do, have your main phone number ported to Google Voice, you should have no problem. Let me know how it works for you.

How do you actually get the deal? I tried to find a direct link, but couldn’t find a good one. I just used the CNET Cheapskate link, but with Honey installed.

What do you think? Is $20-25 a “buy it now”? Let me know in the comments.

How Much Should I Spend on a Cell Phone?

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For the first in forever, I’m at a loss on how much I should spend on a phone. In the past it was an easy decision.

My smart phone history started with a Handspring Treo 180 around 2002. I continued to upgrade to a new Treo whenever they came out, because carrying the internet in your pocket was awesome. (So was SD storage cards to hold videos, which some iCompanies still can’t figure out.) Sprint had a really cheap plan, so everything was great.

Things changed in 2009. That’s when the Palm Pre came out. I continued with various Palm Pre’s even getting an unreleased Pre 3.*

The best part about this upgrade cycle is that you could always sell the old phone on Ebay for around 70-75% of the new phone.

After 4 years with the Pre, I had to finally move on. Since Hewlett-Packard wasn’t going to support it, I had to make the choice that most people do: iOS or Android.

I voted with my wallet. Android won. Apple phones were way too expensive.

In October 2013 I went bought a Google Nexus 5. When that screen broke (Feb 2017), I moved to my current phone Moto X Pure.

I know what you are thinking, “Cool story, bro.”

cell phone spending

While it’s not exciting, I can use this to look at a history of purchase prices of phones per year. The cost of new hardware for Treo era (7 years) was about $350… or $50 a year. The Palm Pre was $200 (after $100 mail-in rebate), which got me through another 4 years… or $50 a year. The Nexus 5 at $399 made me sick to my stomach, but I got 3.5 years or around $115 a year. My $300 Moto X Pure is more than 2 years old, so we’re approaching around $120 a year.

Recently my phone started feeling slow, very slow. My first thought that was it was time to upgrade. After all, the phone came out in 2015 which is old nowadays. However, I realized that the lethargy was likely due to the 100+ Chrome tabs or the pile of apps on it that I rarely use. I deleted a bunch of stuff and now manage just a few browser tabs. That seemed to buy me some time, but doesn’t have the same life it had when I first got it.

I can’t push off the decision forever. I want to have control how I use my phone… not have my phone control how I use it. I’m going to have upgrade at some point.

That’s when there’s that looming question:

How Much Should I Spend on a Cell Phone?

There are a few reasons why it is more difficult this time. First, there are more phones out there. My current phone was the only phone where I had to actually think about what I wanted and compare specifications and pricing.

The second reason is that phone prices are going up. The introduction of the $1000 iPhone and the $2000 Samsung folding phone disaster creates a lot of room for mid-range phones to charge $500.

However, by far the biggest reason why this is a difficult choice is an odd phenomenon. The choice is between a very good product at a very cheap price and an excellent product that is a lot more money. At first it seems obvious to me that I should go with the cheap option. However, because of how often a cell phone is used, that small difference between very good and excellent is greatly amplified.

For me, the choice is likely between three phones:

  1. Moto G6 – At $140 on Amazon, the Moto G6 is only a year old. Moving my phone up from a higher-end in 2015 technology to a mid-range 2018 is a good upgrade.
  2. Moto X4 – For only $120 on Amazon, the Moto X4 is a little older than the G6, but it’s higher-end phone. I think it’s a better phone for $20 less, but it could be up to personal preference.
  3. Google Pixel 3a – This phone is supposed to be announced and launched today so I don’t have a link. It’s a “lite” version of Google Pixel expensive flagship Pixel 3. It’s rumored to be priced at $399 – half the price of its big brother. With the same camera, it doesn’t compromise too much in other areas. I think it’s a happy medium between the very good at a very cheap price and the excellent at a very expensive price.

While the Pixel 3a is tempting, I have soured on it. It doesn’t feel like a bargain. The Pixel 3 was on sale a couple of weeks ago for $399 and I didn’t bite then. It’s hard to justify spending the same money for the light version today. The good news is that the Pixel 3a may be on sale when I upgrade my phone down the line.

If I had to make a choice today, I’d go with the Moto X4. I’m confident that I could be happy for a couple of years with it. At a price of $60 a year, it would be a very good value compared to some of my other phones. It would also be easy to justify giving it to one of the kids when it’s time to upgrade.

How Much Should You Spend on a Cell Phone?

Exactly $424.42… not a penny more or less. (Joking, of course.)

If you were expecting me to tell you want to do about anything, you’ve come to the wrong place. You know yourself best.

However, I can give you a couple of tips that have helped me. The first I’ve already written about. Looking at a phone as a cost per year may be helpful in making your choice. Some people may feel that $2 a day ($700+ a year) is a reasonable price for all the value they get out of their phone. I think I prefer to save the $500 and put it towards hiring a cleaning service.

The second tip is to consider the purchase in the context of your overall technology budget. I’m a big tech geek (hence the smartphone back in 2002), so I usually spend more than most people. My wife doesn’t care that much, so the low-end laptops and cell phones work for her. If I know that I’m going to spend half my internet on my cell phone, I might spend more on it. However, I am usually around my laptop, so that’s my priority.

Final Thoughts on Cell Phone Spending

We live in an era where cell phones aren’t advancing that much. They continue to get faster, more efficient chips, more memory, and better cameras. There aren’t a lot of new featuers. Some of the more recent phones have embraced wireless charging pioneered by my beloved Palm Pre (celebrating it’s 10-year birthday next month).

For us as consumers, there’s almost no wrong choice. It’s great to have very good phones available for less than $150. That’s the right choice for me, but for the first time in a long time, I understand why people spend a lot more.

* I started up the Palm Pre 3 last year and it still works great. The replaceable battery I bought very cheaply on Ebay allowed me to get all my pictures.

Deal: $20/Mo. Cell Service (AT&T/Sprint) from Red Pocket Mobile

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I ended up signing up for this deal. It was a terrible mistake as I ran into one customer service headache after another. I’m working on writing an article explaining my problems (as of 5/7/2018).

Today, I have a deal for you that I myself am very likely to jump on. Also, I don’t make a penny if you jump on it or not. That’s an extremely rare combination in the personal finance blogging world nowadays.

When I started this blog in 2006, I had an awesome Sprint SERO plan which was $30 for voice/text/data. Then the iPhone and other smart phones created a path for mobile companies to up the charges as they built up their networks. It wasn’t uncommon for my wife to have a bill over $100 when all the taxes and fees were added in.

It was crazy.

Fortunately, we are now back to the days of cheap cell service. My wife is on Straight Talk at around $40 a month. I’m on Cricket for $35 a month after an autopay credit. (Getting her to switch has been on the never-ending to-do list). Both use the AT&T network, which we find is the best for us.

Last year, I tried a Mint Sim. I immediately got a bunch of spam text coming in. I failed in that experiment. I never wanted to carry around the cheap cell phone with me, especially when it meant it being the second cell phone. Mint Sim runs on T-Mobile. If readers find that to be their ideal network, it might be worth looking into, especially at a price where $15-20/mo. paid yearly would suit most users.

However, if you are interested in AT&T (the best GSM network in my opinion), I think I’ve found a great deal. While it also works for Sprint, deals on that network are a dime a dozen. If that network works for you, you might be able to score a better deal.

The deal I’m talking about is Red Pocket 360 Day Prepaid Wireless Phone Plan. This is a limited time deal through their Ebay store. For an upfront price of $240 you get a year of Unlimited talk/text/data with 5GB of LTE data (before throttling). That comes out to $20/mo. This is using the same AT&T network that I’m already on with Cricket, so the service should be exactly the same.

At $20/mo. this is even cheaper than my cellphone service was back in 2006. Inflation-schminflation.

It looks like this could save me $180 a year and my wife $240 a year. So it’s a no-brainer, right?

Let’s get to some potential “gotchas”:

  • According to this Red Pocket Page, MMS (picture messaging) will not work on the iPhone. However, if you use iMessage and other apps it will. For an Android user like me, I don’t think this is a problem.
  • It’s a year commitment. If it’s no good, I don’t know if you can get a refund. I imagine there is some grace period.
  • I have never heard of Red Pocket Mobile

There are a lot of user comments on this Slickdeals page. You’ll find that international calling is free and it does support tethering (which is extra on Cricket). A few of the comments came from former Cricket users who said that their coverage was the same when they switched. That’s as you’d imagine as it’s the same network.

To me this is like buying Campbell’s Soup vs. the generic. I was already on one form of the generic, but this generic seems like half price. The only place this analogy falls apart is that I have personal reasons for supporting Campbell’s Soup as they’ve been great to my local community.

What do you think? Is it worth giving Red Pocket Mobile a try?

P.S. Here’s a cool thing I learned recently. You can check from whom the spam text is on Short Codes. For example you can search 622622 shortcode if you get a text from 622622.

Cell Phone Cheaps Rejoice!

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A few minutes ago, I installed a Cricket Wireless Prepaid GSM SIM Card (Review) in my Nexus 5 phone. The phone service should cost me $35 a month when I sign up for AutoPay. Unfortunately signing up for AutoPay gives me the following message, “The system couldn’t process your request. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please try again later.”

Whenever “later” comes along (hey it just came along… and here it is again), I’ll save about $12 from what I was paying Straight Talk.

It seems like there’s an arm’s race in cheap cell phone service. I pulled the trigger on that, but Google’s Project Fi Mobile Service? is almost as tempting.

But yesterday things got a little more interesting.

Rick Broida of CNET’s Cheapskate blog upped the ante by noting that StackSocial has a $199 deal for a Nexus 5 and a YEAR of service. You’d pay more than that for either the phone or the service almost anywhere else and you get BOTH. The service is through Freedom Pop and it runs on the Sprint network. Those may be deal-breakers for some, but a deal this good has to have a couple of strings attached, right?

The data is limited to 500MB which isn’t a lot. I use around 1GB a month, which adds another $12.50 (2.5 cents per MB). If you use a lot of data, this may not be for you.

Between the data costs and the Sprint network, I don’t think this is a fit for me, but maybe it works for you? Let me know in the comments.

Should You Get Google’s Project Fi Mobile Service?

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I don’t like a pay a lot for my cell phone service. Of course no one does. I particularly don’t like it because I rarely use it. I could use fewer than 100 minutes as I’m mostly working from home. I use about 1GB of data on average, but I think I could get away with using less.

For these reasons, I love to find the cheapest plan that is going to give fast service and enough data that don’t have to fear going over. I also require the service to allow me to bring my own phone because Unlocked Google Nexus 5’s are still a great value.

I’m going to keep my Nexus 5 as long as I can. The longer I keep it the less I paid for it when you look at it as a monthly cost. A full HD screen, a top processor, the latest operating system, a great camera, plenty of memory, wireless charging, and NFC… what else more do you need?

Around 18 months ago, I wrote that a Nexus 5 on Straight Talk is the best value around. My wife used to pay $120 for what she got on a $45 Straight Talk plan. We’ve both been very happy the service.

However, last month I realized that it might make sense to Switch to Cricket Wireless. They use the same AT&T network and a very similar plan (unlimited talk/text, over 2GB of LTE data) is only $35 a month. I went as far to buy a Cricket SIM card so I can give it a shot a next month. It might not seem like much, but Straight Talk adds taxes while Cricket is “all-in” for $35 with auto-refill. That’s a savings of around $12 a month… or $144 a year. (Yes, I used my 3rd-grade Trapper Keeper skills, there.) Multiply that by two people (me and my wife) and it’s nearly $300 of savings.

A few extra date nights without sacrificing anything? Count me in.

Last week Google introduced itself into the mix with their “Project Fi” service. If you are techie you’ve heard of it. If not consider this a brief introduction… at least from my understanding after reading a dozen articles on the topic.

Project Fi is Google’s attempt to dip their toes into being a mobile carrier. They aren’t really a mobile carrier… the service uses Sprint’s T-Mobile’s networks. They’ve engineered their Nexus 6 to be able to take a sim card that can work on both networks. You get whichever network is better in your area. So while you might not like either, the combination of the two is probably as reliable as Verizon or AT&T. In addition, if you are in a place with configured wifi, your calls and data are routed through that, making cell coverage irrelevant. Supposedly the switch between carriers and wifi is seamless, but it may be best to wait until you read some reviews of how it works in the real world.

Waiting shouldn’t be a problem, because, for now, you need to be invited to get into Project Fi. And you’ll also need to have a Nexus 6 (not to be confused with the Nexus 5 mentioned above), which starts at $650… a few hundred more than a Nexus 5. It’s a very nice device, but I’m not sure I’m ready to make the leap to a 6-inch phone… especially if costs more money.

If you get over those hurdles, Project Fi really sounds intriguing. Pricing is $20 per month for talk and text. This includes a complex international calling plan that works in 120+ countries (including Aruba)… which can be an extra charge (when over cellular data), but can be free over wifi.

Data seems to be the wildcard nowadays with plans. Google is charging $10 for GB used. If you sign up for 3GB of data (a $50 plan) and use only 800MB, you’ll get a $22 credit, essentially paying only the $20 + (0.8GB * $10) or $28.

If you followed my data use at the beginning of the article, I mentioned that I used around 1GB of data a month. That would be an average bill of around $30 a month… not that big of a savings from Cricket’s $35. If I use less data with Google, I’ll save more money, but if I use more, I could lose money. Cricket includes 2.5GB of data for the $35 price, which would be $45 with Project Fi.

I will keep an eye on Project Fi, but for now, I’m not very motivated by the savings to consider it. The cost of a Nexus 6 is too much. The question of whether calls will transfer well is too much of an unknown.

Give me something like 200 cellular minutes and 200 texts for $10 and data for another $10/GB and you’ve got me interested. That would bring my average bill down to around $20 each month. However, I would also need the opportunity to switch to unlimited talk/text for the same $20 that they are pitching now.

In short, I’m looking to be rewarded for limited cellular talk/text and using wifi 90% of the time. Some may see this as me looking for something for nothing, but if carriers are operating effectively, 200 minutes of cellular talk/200 texts should cost them a lot less than a GB of data. Paying $20 for unlimited talk/text as a starting point is better than many carriers, but isn’t ideal for customers like myself that don’t use unlimited talk/text.

In the meantime, I’m not going to complain… pricing has certainly gotten much better over the last few years.