The average cell phone bill is $70/month or $840/year for a single line according to JD Power. And a family of 4 can expect to pay anywhere from $120 to $220 a month for 4 lines from a major wireless carrier according to Tom’s Guide. Allconnect estimates the average cost of a single cell phone plan at $113 and $170 a month for a family of 4. My cell phone bill was just $11/person per month last year. How did I accomplish that? Here’s how to save money on my your phone bill with Ting.
Full disclosure, this post is not sponsored. I’m just a happy customer.
Ting has been around since 2012 and got their start by buying airwaves from Sprint. There was a flat rate for the number of lines you had and the rest was billed in buckets of minutes, text messages, and data across those lines. If you didn’t use your cellphone as your primary phone (ie, you had a landline) and didn’t use much data, it was a great alternative to an expensive phone plan with the Big Four carriers.
It worked for my family because we had a landline and we didn’t use much data because we had wifi at home (like nearly everyone in America). The four of us usually kept ourselves under 500 minutes of talking, 1000 text messages, and 100 MB of Data. So it rarely costs us more than $41/month.
After moving out my sister and I started using our cell phones as our primary communication devices so minutes and texts went up. We combated this by getting google voice and using that for our longer conversations. It helped for the most part, but even if we went over on minutes or texts, Ting was still wildly cheaper.
Then I got Married
After getting married we added Courtney onto our mobile plan for a total of 5 lines. That extra line tipped us over to the next bucket for several of these. (That year Pokémon Go also came out but I’m sure that didn’t affect my data usage at all *cough* *cough*). At 5 lines, 1000 minutes, 2000 text messages, and 500 MB of data, our monthly bill was looking more like $66-$83 per month. That is still so much cheaper than just about any other option. Especially for 5 people.
We did this for a while, then Ting was bought out by Dish. We’re still not sure what that means for customer service or reliability, but after this they changed the billing system. Their new plan is much simpler: Unlimited Talk and Text for $10/line plus $5/GB shared across all lines. They have other plans if you need more data, but this has worked great for us.
So with 5 lines and never going over 1GB of data our bill comes out to $55/month or $11/person!
But what if I need Data?
I’m going to say something a little controversial: you don’t need that much data. It’s been my experience that no one needs data, or at least no one needs as much data as they think they do. No one needed it ten years ago and now that nearly every home, business, and restaurant has wifi, there’s no need to use cell data. The most data we use is for Pokémon Go and even that only ends up being like 200 MB/month.
Everywhere I am has wifi. The only places that don’t are when I’m actively driving and at the park. And you don’t need to use your phone when driving or enjoying the outdoors. You can stream music or watch YouTube videos on data, but you don’t need to stream music or videos when you’re out. But what if my work doesn’t have wifi I can access? You’re working, you don’t need to be on your phone. If you want to watch something while on your lunch break, download it before you leave home. Netflix allows a variety of episodes and movies to be temporarily downloaded.
Some people stream music when they’re driving or running, but that’s just a modern luxury. Just pretend it’s the distant past circa A.D. 2010 and put some music onto your phone. Modern phones have a crazy amount of storage now. You can put so much music on them! With the money you save by not paying for data, you could buy several albums a week.
What carriers do they have?
Originally it was just Sprint, but now they have deals with all the major carriers. We’re currently using them on Verizon’s airwaves, or the “Red Network” as they call it. Never had a problem with coverage.
Do I have to buy a new phone?
No. Ting works with nearly any phone. They have a phone checker that will make sure your phone is compatible with their networks, but pretty much any modern phone will work now that the government has forced the Big Three to play nicely. If your phone doesn’t work on Ting or you just want a new phone they have a shop where they sell compatible phones at or below new prices. That being said I only buy used phones from Swappa.
What if I *actually* need data?
They have other plans that are more data-friendly, like unlimited talk and text and 5 GB of data for $25, but for the most part we don’t *need* as much data as we think we do. The less data you use the more you can save money on your phone bill.
What about Google Maps?
Google maps uses surprisingly little data. An hour trip might use like 30 MB. If you use Google maps a lot, you can download an offline map while at home then you won’t need data to use the GPS.
Conclusion
I like Ting a lot. Our family spends roughly ¼ of what the average American does on cell service. And now that they have unlimited talk and text for $10/line it’s pretty hard to complain. I don’t use much data and frankly have never felt that I needed more than the 1 GB we use. Even for a family of 5, we only ever use a few hundred megabytes. Remember mobile data is a luxury, and while it’s ok to indulge in the occasional luxury, they aren’t needs.
What do you think? How much do you spend on cell service? How do you save money on your phone bill? Have you been looking for a new cell plan? Let us know in the comments below.