AT&T for Cell Service - how does our bill compare to others?

[Anonymous]

We have been with AT&T for years - mostly because we have this stupid "2 year contract" that automatically resets every single freaking time we make a change to our service whether it be increasing our data or adding a line. I hate it, but it is what it is. And I understand that more carriers are moving away from this tactic of trapping customers into lengthy contracts.

We have 4 iPhones, three of them are 6's and one of them is a 5.

We have 15g of data per month total, shared by all 4 phones.

Unlimited voice and text which I think is a common "gimme" these days.

Our bill is crazy high, at least I think it is - and literally almost of the bill is related to fees and not anything to do with our usage. The bill is always around $240. how do we compare to others on a similar plan? We'd like to kick ATT to the curb but don't want to go through the hassle of switching out or giving up our phones, or worse yet have to get new phone numbers.

Any advice?

[Anonymous]

We are moving to T Mobile with unlimited data. It is going to cut our bill significantly.

[Anonymous]

Isn't Sprint running a half off deal? I would look into that, OP.

[Anonymous]

That's not too bad. We have Verizon - 5 smart phones - 10 GB and we pay about 280/month.

[Anonymous]

Verizon - 2 iPhones, 2GB for $132 a month.

15G is a lot of data. Have you checked your usage? We're on the wifi more often than not and rarely reach 2GB.

[Anonymous]

AT&T - 3 iphones/lines - $122/month

unlimited talk/text + 3GB shared data (with rollover data). Like PP, we rarely use all 3GB since most of the time on WiFi.

We pay for our phones outright, so no two-year contract. It's cheaper to do it that way (especially if you don't upgrade every phone every two years). AT&T has been trying to phase out the whole two-year contract thing AFAIK. If you don't want to pay for full price of phone upfront, you can also pay on installment at 0% interest.

[Anonymous]

Join AARP and you can save 10% on your AT&T bill. Most people don't know, but you can join AARP at any age. The $16 annual fee pays for itself very quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AT&T - 3 iphones/lines - $122/month

unlimited talk/text + 3GB shared data (with rollover data). Like PP, we rarely use all 3GB since most of the time on WiFi.

We pay for our phones outright, so no two-year contract. It's cheaper to do it that way (especially if you don't upgrade every phone every two years). AT&T has been trying to phase out the whole two-year contract thing AFAIK. If you don't want to pay for full price of phone upfront, you can also pay on installment at 0% interest.

Too bad you can't get a discount on iPhone's anymore, because I did what you did, sign a 2 year deal and reduce my cost. I got the 6S Plus earlier this year and will be paying month to month for a while.

I got the latest bill since I switched phones, and it was just short of $100 (1 line/4 GB data with rollover/unlimited talk and text).

[Anonymous]

The simple answer is check you data usage over the last year. If you are not using the 15g, call and ask for less G plan. New plans are popping up all the time and the providers will not call you!

[Anonymous]

We have the same basic deal on AT&T but with 3 phones - 1 6 and 2 5s. I pay about $180/month. If I added a 4th 6 it would go to $220. So you aren't too far off.

We had the 10GB plan and got very close to it several times. We just got bumped to 15 for "free".

[Anonymous]

T-Mobile no-contract plan. $100 per month for 4 phones unlimited talk, text, data, although data does slow down a bit after 2G. We go over that sometimes but the lower speed hasn't been an issue (we don't watch video on our phones)

[Anonymous]

OP here.

Good to know that our bill is not that much higher than other ATT users with comparable plans. I do hate the notion of being trapped in a plan, so I am pretty resentful of ATT.

We usually stay right below our 15G limit, but not enough to bump down to the next plan for sure. We have two teens on the plan and they know to hop on WiFi whenever possible but when they're out with friends, that is nearly impossible unless they're hanging out at Starbucks.

17:09 the one company I was curious about was T mobile as I see their adds all the time and they sound enticing. I'm going to take a look at what they offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Good to know that our bill is not that much higher than other ATT users with comparable plans. I do hate the notion of being trapped in a plan, so I am pretty resentful of ATT.

We usually stay right below our 15G limit, but not enough to bump down to the next plan for sure. We have two teens on the plan and they know to hop on WiFi whenever possible but when they're out with friends, that is nearly impossible unless they're hanging out at Starbucks.

17:09 the one company I was curious about was T mobile as I see their adds all the time and they sound enticing. I'm going to take a look at what they offer.

I haven't looked in a while, but I think you can play around with options to reduce your cost on AT&T's website. In addition, I have done the online chat thing before to see what offers are out there that may not be advertised. I have knocked at least $30 off my bill before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Good to know that our bill is not that much higher than other ATT users with comparable plans. I do hate the notion of being trapped in a plan, so I am pretty resentful of ATT.

We usually stay right below our 15G limit, but not enough to bump down to the next plan for sure. We have two teens on the plan and they know to hop on WiFi whenever possible but when they're out with friends, that is nearly impossible unless they're hanging out at Starbucks.

17:09 the one company I was curious about was T mobile as I see their adds all the time and they sound enticing. I'm going to take a look at what they offer.

You need to reduce your data. Look at who and how each phone uses data. If people are at home, they should be on wifi. If it apps and videos that has to stop. ...15g is too much for email and texting. Also Google is doing phones now https://fi.google.com/about/...but not for iPhone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AT&T - 3 iphones/lines - $122/month

unlimited talk/text + 3GB shared data (with rollover data). Like PP, we rarely use all 3GB since most of the time on WiFi.

We pay for our phones outright, so no two-year contract. It's cheaper to do it that way (especially if you don't upgrade every phone every two years). AT&T has been trying to phase out the whole two-year contract thing AFAIK. If you don't want to pay for full price of phone upfront, you can also pay on installment at 0% interest.

Too bad you can't get a discount on iPhone's anymore, because I did what you did, sign a 2 year deal and reduce my cost. I got the 6S Plus earlier this year and will be paying month to month for a while.

I got the latest bill since I switched phones, and it was just short of $100 (1 line/4 GB data with rollover/unlimited talk and text).

You could never really could get a discount on the iPhone. AT&T was just making the money back in other ways with your 2 year contract. Everyone was paying for the subsidy, whether or not they purchased a new phone every two years. The new plans are much better (you can thank T-Mobile for pushing the first plans that did not include the phone subsidy.)