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The people who are close to me know that I was totally against getting a smart phone. There was no way I was going to pay that much money a month. Especially since Kyle and I are trying to save to buy a car with cash and pay off our house.
No WAY!
Until I found out about Clark Howard from a friend at work. He is a guy who has a radio show about how to live frugal. A man after my own heart.
We were paying about $100 a month for Kyle and my "dumb" phone as I like to call it. We had 700 minutes together, unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes, unlimited text messaging, and stuck in a contract. That was with the 22% discount I get from work.
Lets rewind to the beginning of the year. Kyle started a new job and was given an iPhone as a work phone. We decided to cut his personal line since his contract was up. It was a pain to let everyone know about his new number but worth it to only pay for my phone.
Now one of us had a smart phone....and was not even paying for it! The only way to do it! FREE!
Now with only my line open, I was paying $70 a month. All for a stupid dumb phone. SERIOUSLY?!
Back to the beginning of the year. I came back to work from maternity leave and in my office was my new co-worker. She is like me because she is a Dave Ramsey follower! She is as passionate as me about getting out of debt! How do we get any work done?!
I asked her how is she drinking the Dave Ramsey Kool-aid AND have an iPhone. It made no sense to me.
Enter Clark Howard...
He suggests StraightTalk for a cell phone provider. Get this....I have unlimited minutes to anyone in the States, unlimited text, unlimited Internet, no contract. for only...
wait for it....
$45 a month!!!!
GET OUT!!!
YES!!
I also kept my old number. What is the catch? You have to get your own phone. I bought a used iPhone 3, bought a sim card, hooked it up, then BAM! Service! There was some hoops I had to go through but it works great.
If anyone wants to sell me their old iPhone 4, let me know. I would love an upgrade.
I figured if I did not like it, I could cancel and go back to my old provider since I'm not in a contract.
Good news about StraightTalk is that they use AT&T and Verizon towers. Win/Win!
I've had the service since February and I have had zero problems, even with traveling. I refill my "card" each month. This is a pay-as-you-go service. I have it automatically refilled each month.
I was paying $70 a month for a dumb phone to a company that I had been with since 1997. I had to even pay a little money to get out of my contract. Now I pay $45 a month ($48 with tax) for a smart phone! Where is the loyalty?!
We only pay $28 a month for both of our phones. How is that? Kyle's work pays for his. I get reimbursed $20 a month for my phone from work. 48-20=$28 a month. For 2 iPhone plans. SCORE!
I highly recommend it!
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