I feel like every two years I need to call my carrier and complain if I want a decent deal. They will do things like upgrade my plan on their website to have 10 extra gigabytes of data but won’t upgrade me to it until I contact them. There’s also all the new member exclusive deals that I feel make it impractical to just sit on one plan for an extended period of time.
Never.
Ok almost never. By staying on the older plan I get a lower rate. I think I changed four years ago because the cost was basically the same but got more data. Before that… It was a long time ago
Never. $25/line, unlimited talk / text / data. Had it for seven years now. Can’t beat that.
Can’t beat that
Laughs in Rest of the World
Every other year I will review my phone plan. I use Sim only plans because phones provided by carriers are generally awful in my opinion.
You don’t like bloatware and having to ask if they can unlock your phone for you so you can leave their business? Psshhh
Network locking isn’t a thing in any place I have lived. But I know some uncivilized north American countries do it.
Never. I’ve only ever used a prepaid plan. I know exactly how much my bill is gonna be.
Well, not never. It’s been probably 5 years since I got wifi and changed to the lowest Internet plan. Before that it was also years since my last change.
You might be European as well (as am I). I supect the poster is from North America. And North America is a little special when it comes to phone/internet service (as in: almost universally, they pay a lot but always have the latest devices on their contact). Afaik, prepaid is mostly dead at least in the US, always was more expensive than in the EU
and always had a bad rap due to usage for “burner” phones. [edited: struck part of the sentence, see below]I’ve looked at “low-cost” mobile providers like Ting some time ago and shuddered at the prices.
There are a lot of prepaid services through MVNOs, even Google sells one, they’re just not as mainstream. Ting has always been on the higher end.
I pay $25 a month for unlimited everything, but it doesn’t include the device. There is cheaper available, but more vulnerable to sim swapping attacks.
Also, I feel like your information on how Americans feel about prepaid phones is somewhat inaccurate. Almost everyone I know who doesn’t have kids uses a prepaid plan, and there is definitely no stigma against them. Perhaps the Americans you talk to are more high class than I, but the working class uses prepaid more often than plans (at least people 40 or under).
Ok. I got the stigma thing mostly from movies, so I guess I need to watch fewer crime procedurals. :) I’ll edit the comment…
Nope. I live in Tennessee and use Cricket Mobile. Admittedly I don’t have children/family whose phones I pay for, which means I can avoid a family plan. That simplifies things. My husband also uses Cricket. $30/mo each (no extra taxes) thanks to using auto pay. (It would be $35 otherwise.) Unlimited calls/texts and 5GB data. That’s very low, but I have WiFi at home and the office, so I hardly use mobile data other than for GPS. Cricket uses AT&T’s towers, which have made great strides in cell service in rural Tennessee since I fist tried them a decade ago.
This reads like an ad, and I’m sorry for that. But, you should try this out if you can, fellow Americans.
One downside is that I don’t get free phones routinely as a plan would allow. But my phone was like $150-$180 and I’ve had it for… 2 or 3 years? Can’t remember. That is like an additional $6/month-ish.
Unlimited calls/texts and 5GB in Germany is currently around 8,99€/28d on prepaid (incl. VAT). Yet Germany is one of the more expensive countries in the EU. Prepaid plans from most other EU countries would likely not be cheaper but include more data. E.g. 3 Austria has a postpaid plan for 12,99€/m that includes 40 GB of data and unlimited calls/texts (that’s randomly the first provider I looked at).
Back in Germany, you can also get super-expensive postpaid plans with a device included of course. Economically, for private users that usually makes no sense though. These plans are often used for corporate phones or by people who want bragging rights.
(On the flip side, I guess the pricing pressure may be part of what apparently drives telecom companies to outsource even more of their business functions here than they do in the US.)
You don’t need to sell me on Germany. I’d move there in an instant if I had the resources.
Sorry if my comment came across overly braggy. Couldn’t help myself.
Been with the same carrier 18 years now, same unlimited plan for at least the last 8.
I just switch providers, it’s easier to get a good deal than by staying and nagging customer support. Though I currently pay €10,- with my current provider because I also have fibre with them, so I’ll probably stay with them for the foreseeable future.
I switched ever couple of years.
Not for 10 years. Sign up data plans looks so good until the cheap period is over. I got a good unlimited plan that I’ve been holding on for years.
Same. They keep trying to get us to switch to their new “unlimited” plans that are more money for less unlimited…
I have a prepaid plan that I never change. It costs nothing per month and I get 10 MB inclusive. I only add internet volume bundles when I need it for navigation for longer trips - to ensure it does not exceed that price (gets slower after).
Often, once a year or so. It’s the only reliable way to get a lower price plan where I live. If I were to stay on the same plan I was on a couple years ago I would be paying an extra 20-30$ a month in fees for less data.
It’s the only reliable way to get a lower price plan where I live.
That’s what I thought, too. But nonetheless, I stayed with the budget provider who was trying to shake up the market. I chose them solely because they were cheap.
When mobile plans started getting really competitive, they quadrupled my data (to over 10gb/mo) for free, no questions asked. So now I’m probably going to be a customer of theirs for life unless they start raising the price on my grandfathered plan.
After using some grandfathered T-Mobile family plan for over a decade I moved us to Tello. Still the same towers, but with our usage it’s half the price.
Every other year or so, but only because there somehow keep being better deals. Over the last 8 years mint mobile has been consistently good pricing even for returning customers provided you’re willing to pay for the whole year up front. That’s my baseline. From there other small carriers come along offering unlimited for less and you join for a year or two until they go bust. Right now I’m on Spectrum mobile since it’s free with even the cheapest home internet available to my address (for 12 months).
I’ve got the same prepaid plan for over a decade, just sometimes buy more data.
I think I’ve been on the same plan for about 10 years now. I’m with one of the only non-evil carriers in Canada, and I’ve never really felt like I needed more or wasn’t getting my money’s worth with them.
The answers here are interesting. If I don’t change my mobile plan after it expires (2 years) and it gets renewed automatically it will get more expensive for the same service. Actually, if you want to keep getting a decent price, the best way is to completely change provider every 2 years.
In the 15 years I’ve had a mobile phone I have changed around 5 times. But the last one was just an upgrade that added 40 GB of data while roaming in the EU, US and Canada to my previous unlimited plan for Switzerland only. That increased the cost from 20 to 25 Swiss Franks per month.
