Photo courtesy of Maria Li

On June 2nd of this year, I finally cancelled my Alltel contract and ported my number over to prepaid service provided by Page Plus Cellular.  I had wanted to leave Alltel for a while, but didn’t want to pay the early termination fee (ETF) for doing it before my contract was up.  After an exhaustive search, I found no practical way to avoid the fee; however, I decided to cancel it anyway with the idea that the savings would soon offset the fee. 

Today, I sat down and calculated how much my 1st month of prepaid service had cost me.  After a little calculater work, I was very pleased to find out it was less than 1/5 of what my average Alltel bill had been. Overall, I had saved over $60!

My story

For about 8 months prior to going prepaid, I was on a smart phone plan with Alltel.  As i would soon find out, however, there was nothing smart about being on that plan. 

Before getting a Blackberry, I was on a normal plan with a friend which cost me $65/month.  When I went to upgrade my phone, the salesman convinced me that a Blackberry would save money.  Although I knew a plan for the Blackberry would bring my total bill up to around $75, I thought it was a good idea as well, since I was under the impression I would be able to significantly lower my internet bill by using it as a modem.  To make a long story short, my whole internet plan never panned out, and I soon began to regret ever getting that Blackberry. 

After months of being disgusted with high phone bills, I decided to research prepaid plans.  This wasn’t something I finished overnight, and I recommend that if you go the prepaid route to take your time.  There are so many options today in prepaid cell service that the best choice for you is personal.  I recommend you not only look at how many minutes you are using, but also your usage of SMS texts, picture messages, and internet.

In the end, like I said previously, I chose to go with Page Plus.  Given my phone usage, it was definitely the cheapest option for me. Also, they are on Verizon network so the coverage is great in my area.  In a nut shell, I now pay $10.95 for 2000 texts/month, a $0.50 monthly surcharge, and $0.06 for every minute I use.  For this month I spent a total $13.78!

Comments

In the end, lowering my cell phone bill from $75 in May to $13.78 the next month made me wish I’d only done it sooner.  Prepaid has grown a lot in the last year, and I have plans for multiple posts on how it can save you money.  Stay tuned!