The big four cellphone providers play a constant game of one-upmanship and undercutting to position themselves as the go-to provider with the best rates and packages available. In December 2014, Sprint, the third-largest carrier with 16 percent market share, tried to lure customers of AT&T and Verizon, both of whom hold 34 percent of the market, to switch carriers by promising to cut phone bills in half. Before that, T-Mobile, the fourth-largest carrier with 15 percent of the market, offered monthly unlimited plans for $100 to undercut the other three competitors.
Without getting taken in by the hype, try these tactics to save money in 2015.
4 ways to cut your cellphone bill
- Ask your current company to reduce your bill. Companies hate losing customers, and many have entire departments devoted to customer retention. If you say you want to switch carriers, it’s likely that your current provider will give you a good offer to get you to stay. If you’re in the middle of a two-year contract, you won’t have leverage; try this only if you’re on a month-to-month contract or if your contract is about to expire.
- Consider how life changes affect your needs. If you’ve moved to a city and rarely travel to remote areas, you may not need to be on a network with great coverage, and you can save money by getting service through a smaller carrier or with a prepaid phone. Or a family plan may make sense now that you have tweens who need phones of their own. Think about how your life has changed and how you use your phone.
- Look at what you actually use. It’s easy to be dazzled by “unlimited everything” plans, but if you don’t actually need unlimited everything, you could be paying more than necessary. Look back at three or four previous cellphone statements — or start using a data management app — to see how many texts you sent and received, how many minutes you spent on the phone during what time of day, and how much data you used. Then see if any carriers are offering plans that fit what you actually use — not what you think you use.
- Use other service providers through your phone. Instead of using your phone to text and burning through your allotted texts, download a smartphone app like WhatsApp for free. Or use Skype, FaceTime or Google Hangouts, rather than your minutes, to make calls over Wi-Fi. You’ll avoid fees that arise from exceeding your monthly allotments.
4 cellphone billing traps to avoid
- Per-text charges. Some plans may be unlimited when it comes to minutes and data usage, but they charge per-text fees up to 50 cents per text. These fees can add up fast. If you’re not a texter, the savings on the rest of the plan may be worth it, but be sure to tell friends and family not to text you, or it will cost.
- Slow speeds with high data usage. The Federal Trade Commission sued AT&T in October over this issue on the grounds that the carrier deliberately slowed down speeds for customers who surfed the web too much and used too much data, even though they supposedly had unlimited data. AT&T responded by saying it was following normal network management procedures. So, while you may have unlimited data, don’t be surprised if your speed slows down towards the end of your billing cycle.
- Smaller coverage area. While the biggest carriers have good coverage across the nation, smaller carriers tend to have the best coverage in urban areas. Compare, for instance, Sprint’s network coverage with that of Boost, a subsidiary of Sprint. There’s a big difference.
- International travel. If you plan to travel internationally and want to use your own phone overseas, pay attention to your phone’s network. AT&T and T-Mobile are on the GSM network, the default network worldwide that accounts for 90 percent of market share. If your phone is on this network, you can take it overseas and be pretty sure you can use it there. But if your phone uses the CDMA network, as Sprint and Verizon do, it will be tougher to travel with.
