Every year consumers have more and more choices in cell phone carriers and the plans that they offer. Finding the right carrier and plan for you can be a daunting task. How do you know which is the right one for you? The thing you need to remember first whenever looking into a cell phone plan is to read the fine print – advertising is meant to get you to the store and carriers are experts in doing just that. What really matter is what your final cost will be in the long run as well as what you can afford on a monthly basis.
We are going to discuss details about plans and services of some of the main carriers. The first carrier we are going to discuss is T Mobile. T Mobile is known for their advertising and reaching out to the public in letting them know about their latest deals and features. T Mobile has decent service in most population centers but has some weak service areas in suburbs and other such areas (i.e. parts of Monsey do not have any T Mobile service at all). Although being in a bad service area can pose a problem for some, T Mobile just launched their calling and texting via WI-FI which will allow individuals to place phone calls or send text messages from dead service areas, as long as they have access to WI-FI. Individuals who are switching to T Mobile from another carrier that has termination fees, T Mobile will pay your termination fee for your current carrier as long as you trade in your devices from that other carrier.
As for T Mobile’s plans, let’s discuss T Mobile’s single plan first which starts out at 45 a month for 2 gigabyte (40 for 500MB) and goes up to 80 a month for an unlimited data plan. This price does not include taxes and fees nor does it include the price of the phones. After selecting a plan on T Mobile’s network, you will then need to select a phone. Whatever phone you choose to buy, you will be given a monthly payment plan which will cover the cost of the phone (you can also opt to pay the full price of the phone upfront). For example, if you decide to purchase a Samsung Galaxy s5 your monthly payments will be will be about $25 a month in addition to your plan cost.
Another optional add on T Mobile has to offer is called Jump!. Jump! is a way for an individual to upgrade their device before the traditional two year contract is up. Jump! costs an additional $10 per month. With other carriers you may be required to wait 2 years from signing a contract in order to upgrade your phone. With Jump! you just need to wait 6 months before you can upgrade. However, here’s the catch; in order to upgrade your device you need to give in your current device that you are using & need to have paid off half of the device’s value. If you did not pay half of the device’s value at the six month mark, you will be required to pay off the rest of the half of the value in order to complete your upgrade. Going back to our example of using the Galaxy s5 which is roughly $600, you will have to have paid $300, or the equivalent of $50 per month, towards the value of the phone before you can upgrade. If you wait one year, you will automatically become eligible for an upgrade as you would have already paid half of the phone’s value in your monthly payments. Paying for Jump! also gets you data protection and insurance on your phone but does have a deductible (with a limit of two claims per year).
If you calculate monthly payments (excluding taxes & fees) for a single plan with 2 GB of data you are paying $70 per month or $80 with Jump!. For the unlimited plan, you would be paying $105 per month or $115 with Jump!.
Family plans on T Mobile, at first glance, are quite affordable; the first line costs $50, $30 for the next and $10 additional for each line up to 5 lines. That means you can have a plan with five lines for $110 per month with 2.5 GB of data for each line (T Mobile data is per line and cannot be shared). However, once you add on the price of the phones you are looking at another $15 – $26 a month per line (depending on the phone that you choose). For example, a family with five lines getting five Samsung Galaxy s5s would pay $235 per month and that is without adding Jump! or taxes and fees.
That being said, you do not have to purchase T Mobile phones if you already own a T Mobile device. You may also choose to purchase a T Mobile phone on eBay or Amazon at a cheaper price. However, many devices that come on eBay or Amazon do not come with warranties and some individuals will find themselves spending more money on mobile phones then they would have if they would have purchased a phone from T Mobile with Jump! (there is also an $8 a month insurance plan from T Mobile as well). While you can purchase a SquareTrade warranty for phones that are bought on eBay or Amazon, the insurance plan for a cell phone costs about $100 for 2 years and has $75 deductible which would probably cost more than the purchase of a new device on Amazon or eBay. A SquareTrade warranty might be the answer for someone purchasing a phone from T Mobile directly and chose not to pay for Jump!. The cost of Jump! over a two year period would be $240 ($192 for the $8 insurance only plan) plus deductibles, while a warranty with a claim will cost $175 from SquareTrade.
If you have any questions about the article, need help with your device, would like specific topics covered in future articles, or would like to be a sponsor of this column, I can be reached at [email protected].
Until next time,
Nesanel ~ YWN
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One Response
Sprint last week came out with new plans that are competitive against T-Mobile and Sprint has more coverage areas than T-Mobile. A Sprint family plan can now be had for $100 month for 10 (ten) phone lines. This includes unlimited voice minutes and text as well as 20 GB shared data plus another 2 GB data for each of the ten lines, averaging each line having 4 GB per month data. At $100 for ten lines, each line ends up costing $10 (ten dollars) per month.