Crunching the Numbers On Shared Cellphone Contracts 91
itwbennett writes "The Wall Street Journal has a handy online calculator to help you sort out which phone plan is best for you. But one thing you'll notice is that shared or 'family' plans rarely offer any real savings, or benefits beyond the convenience of having a single bill, says blogger Kevin Purdy, who is bracing himself to propose a phone plan separation with his wife."
There is at least one benefit (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong conclusion? (Score:5, Informative)
I priced it out using that calculator for 4 lines (unlimited voice, unlimited messaging, 2GB data per line). T-Mobile costs $140/month for a shared plan vs. $240/month for 4 individual plans. For 2 lines it'd be $100/month shared vs. $120/month for 2 individual plans. I see exactly the opposite of the claim: the shared plan is more economical than individual plans for everything but the most limited usage. And that T-Mobile's plans are more economical than anybody else's, which may explain why T-Mobile had such a good quarter.
Re:What About the MVNOs? (Score:4, Informative)
Don't spam your referral link without labeling it. (Score:3, Informative)
Ting is a great company, and I'm a happy customer, too.
Parent is a sleazy spammer for posting a referral link without mentioning that it earns him $25 as well.
Go directly to https://ting.com/ [ting.com], or find a friend who's using it and use their referral link. Screw sneaky spammers.
Re:Is this realy that hard (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Is this realy that hard (Score:3, Informative)
It's hard not to sound like a shill for Ting, after you've dealt with traditional cell providers for so long. When you finally find one that has great prices, treats you like an important customer, has real people helping you (and fast) and eliminates all the bullshit gimmicks and fees and everything else . . . well, it's hard not to get over-excited when you try to show other people that they can jump off the shit-train of Sprint/Verizon/AT&T and so on.
(Also, you'll notice that I'm such a fan of Ting that I never post a referral link when I recommend their service -- it's so cheap that I don't need $25 for referring a customer and I'd rather people check it out without feeling slimy about it).
Re:What About the MVNOs? (Score:4, Informative)
The calculator is also wrong.
According to this calculator, I should be paying $210/month before any taxes and fees, with my particular carrier and profile. I am, in fact, paying $140 after all taxes and fees. Given that it provides incorrect information for what I know, I don't feel I can trust it to provide me correct information for comparison purposes.
Do you have a current plan or are you grandfathered in to a better plan that's no longer available?
My current rate plan is cheaper than what the calculator gave, but when I compared to a new plan on the carrier's website, it matched.