October 10, 2018 • 35 mins
Most folks are paying more than twice as much as they need to for cell phone service! The biggest reason for that is because they haven't shopped around- they're blindly paying the overpriced plans from 5 years ago. The average monthly cell phone bill is $73 and by the end of this episode, you’ll know how to get that down drastically- closer to the $25 per month mark which is the new golden standard. Plus, you’ll be able to do that without having to be on a massive friends and family plan like we are (seriously, it’s like we’re playing a game of sardines!).
And during this episode we enjoyed a Zarza Marrón by Casa Agria Specialty Ales which you can find and learn all about on Untappd. A big thanks to our friend Josh for trekking this beer all the way to Atlanta. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and review us in Apple Podcasts, Castbox, or wherever you get your podcasts!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
and today we're discussing jumping on a low cost cell
phone plan. Joel, do I look tired to you? Yeah?
(00:27):
I see the bags under your eyes fell like sleepy.
There is a reason I asked, is my brother in law,
him and his wife they had a baby last night? Yeah?
It so congrats to them, they had a healthy baby boy.
But the reason I'm tired is because they're one year old,
almost a year old. Daughter spent the night with us
last night and tonight as well, but you know, she's
(00:50):
not used to being in her house, sleeping in the
pack and play, and we're not used to waking up
a couple of times a night tending to a baby. Man,
I gotta say it's a to relief to exit that
stage as apparent finally your kids sleeping through the night,
and then to go back to getting woken up in
the middle of the night. I can't imagine it's so
hard to get drugged back into that place again. Yeah,
(01:10):
I know, especially without the adrenaline of having your own
like fresh baby. You know, like it's like I can
handle that as long as I about like the cue baby.
I haven't even met the new baby yet. You know,
I've been working all day and I haven't been able
to get over to the hospital. Maybe we should do
an episode about babies. How much do babies cost? Well,
we need to do one, especially on because I feel
like every year the statistic comes out about how much
(01:32):
a child cost to raise. Oh yeah, and I feel
like it's kind of ridiculous, and we should definitely talk
about the cost of raising the kid and how to
minimize those and so let's do an episode on that soon.
I mean, I think people would love that. And if
you've had a baby recently, why don't you go ahead
and send in a picture of your baby, because let's
see the beautiful babies. Yes, I'm not even joking. I
(01:53):
think love to see a picture of your baby. Seriously.
But if you're a listener and you've had a baby
in the past just a year, yeah, if if you
got a cute baby, let's see the babies. In the
best place to post it so we can all see
it is our Facebook group. So if you feel comfortable,
some people don't feel comfortable posting pictures of this, But
if you do post a pic of your super cute
baby on our Facebook group and we will just comment
(02:15):
with like Google eyes and stuff like oh yeah, hard eyes.
I'm all about it. Babies are the cutest, all right.
So congrats to Dan and Jeff. That's awesome. And by
the way, the first time I met Dan, I remember
Matt one of the first things that we hit it
off about was disc golf. We both have this super
intense love for disc off. Dude, he loves the disc
oflf is true. And just in case anyone hasn't heard
(02:36):
or has never played disc golf out there, it's one
of my favorite sports for a lot of reasons. First,
you're kind of walking through nature, and it's just kind
of fun to spend a couple of hours outdoors checking
a frisbee essentially. And although discolfers don't really like to
call it frisbee, it's yeah, you're playing with a disc.
But discolf is awesome because you can buy essentially two
discs and have everything you need to play for the
(02:58):
rest of your life for free. Yep, everywhere you play
disc golf, it's free. It's just the best time. It's
so funny to go out there with friends, maybe bring
a beer too, and and just play disc golf. Man,
it's the best. I miss it so much. I need
to get back out there and maybe I'll take Dan
in the new baby. Dan's actually who got me in
my first two discs. Man. I think I three with
you a couple of times and I would borrow maybe
(03:19):
one or two year discs. But then Dan got me
a driver and a putter, and I think maybe I
found a mid range disc and that's in the woods. Yeah.
I'm like, all right, well, I only use the driver
in the putter anyways. All right, and Matt today, the
beer that we're drinking on the show is Casa Agria
uh Zarza Marone from Oxnard, California, and it's a Flander
(03:41):
style brown ale with blackberries, cranberries and raspberries. Dude, all
the berries. Yes, Yeah, I was so so stoked when
I saw those berries on there. So I can't wait
to tell you guys about the beer at the end
of the show. And just wanted to say thanks to
my buddy Josh for bringing it down. He visited the
A t L recently and we'd a little beer exchange
and I've never had anything from Cossa Agria and I'm
(04:03):
really excited to have this beer. So speaking of beer
or alcohol, saw a report by the World Health Organization.
But it's a report and they're saying, how five percent
of deaths globally are attributed to alcohol. Five percent and
that crazy. That seems like a lot, yeah, like one
in twenty one in twenty deaths. And I'm sure that
(04:25):
like they're conflating their numbers a little bit to include
any sort of death that might be possibly related to
some sort of alcohol involvement at all. But they were
talking about it because there's little you know, there's lots
of stories out there how they say, oh, well, you know,
if you can have a little bit of booze, like
a single glass of wine and night or something like that,
it's actually good for your heart. And there's all this
and they were just saying that, like, you know what,
(04:45):
statistically speaking, it's still safer to not drink like at all.
And you know, obviously we love craft beer a lot.
Oh I wonder actually what the percentage of people that
drink craft beer specifically, about the number is way smaller
as far as death related incidents that are related to
craft beer, partially because craft beer hasn't been long around
all that long. Really that is true, but I mean,
(05:08):
I guess I wanted to mention that too, because we
love craft beer obviously, but at the same time, like
we drink in moderation, we're not idiots, and we would
encourage you to also be responsible. You know, we love
having a delicious beer during the week together, you know,
while we have an awesome conversation about money or something
money related, but sometimes it's easy to get carried away,
and we just want to encourage you to be smart. Yeah,
(05:29):
and especially a beer like this, Matt, I mean, I
get so excited to sip this beer slowly and to
essentially over hours just enjoy the flavor. That's my favorite
part about craft beer. And so it just doesn't lend
itself to chugging back three or four and just get
and getting hammered and so um. Something like this. It's
just really nice to have a small glass and drink
(05:52):
it really slowly. All right, Joel, let's go ahead and
get started talking about low cost cell phone plans um.
And first of all, we want to to encourage you
to go back and listen to last week's if you
haven't already listened to last week's, we did an episode
on getting a deal on a new cell phone, and yeah,
we covered a lot of great points there, and so
this is sort of like part two of that cell
(06:15):
phone life. Yeah man. And the problem is that many
people are still paying way too much for their cell
phone service. It's kind of like my parents randomly, they
were paying for ao L after everyone else had jumped ship,
like like for free with with the disks they get
in the mail. Yeah, yeah, I remember that, but they
were still paying. And there are still people to this
day paying twenty five dollars a month for ao L
(06:37):
even though a o L has been made completely free
for their for their mail. Yeah, they're still paying for
internet service through a o L because they just have
never canceled it. So I think that last I read,
there over two million people paying AOL a month essentially
for nothing. That's probably like the worst statistic I've ever
heard in my life, right, like like worst slash saddest.
(06:58):
I'm like, who are these people who are just paying
this without realizing it? And I feel like a big
part of that, right, A big reason might be because
we just don't talk about our finances enough. That's a
big reason that you and I like talking about money
is because it's something that isn't talked about enough, and
we like being somewhat countercultural and stepping on people's toes
and making people feel uncomfortable get it out in the open. Yeah.
(07:21):
But a big part of it is because we want
to talk about it. We want it to be normalized.
And you know, it's like talking about how much you're
paying for yourself phone service might be this thing where
you feel that you don't have the freedom to talk
about because you're like, oh, that's that's not really what
my friends and I talked about. We talk about getting
the new iPhone. You don't talk about like how much
we're paying every month on cell phone service. But we
(07:41):
would want to do is encourage you to be that
person maybe in your friend group, to kind of challenge
your friends to start talking about these things, to challenge
each other to save money, because like if you're still
friends in twenty thirty years, like instead you can be
retired and having these conversations or like you know, while traveling,
Like we just want you to to be maybe sort
of like the be and you know, the beacon of
hope of light when it comes to you and your
(08:03):
friends finances. I think the cell phone bill for many
people is actually really kind of equivalent to the A O.
L bill for those two million folks that are still
paying for it because a lot of people haven't shopped
their cellphone bill in years, and so they're paying. They
haven't seen how precipitously the prices have dropped when it
comes to cell phone plans and how many cheap options
(08:23):
there are out there right now. Because the average monthly
cell phone bill is still seventy three dollars, that's crazy,
mat Yeah, dude, that is very crazy. And like, so
I did some quick math, and that amount every month, right,
seventy three bucks invested over ten years, it's pretty close
to thirteen thousand dollars, which is a ton of money.
(08:44):
And real quick, that's if you take like a monthly
expense and you multiply it by one seven three, right,
a hundred seventy three, that essentially is that amount invested
over the next two years compounded, Like, that's how much
you know you would end up with. And that's a
lot of money, right, that's a ton of money. Um,
And since cell phone bills don't actually fluctuate on a
monthly basis, you just kind of get used to paying
the same amount. It gets you know, automatically deducted from
(09:06):
your checking account or automatically paid from your credit card,
and you don't notice the amount going out, and you
don't think to shop. You're just paying the same amount
every month. No matter what we're here to say, there
are so many better ways to do it, so many
cheaper ways to get cell phone service, and they're ultimately
not going to creep your style at all, man. And
that's part of why these cell phone planes don't get shopped,
(09:27):
because you get used to paying the same amount. It's
sort of on like the subscription model basis, right, It's
a monthly bill and you just get used to paying
it and it just gets absorbed into your budget. It's
a set amount, it doesn't really change. And it's sort
of like these new all these new subscription based companies.
They kind of get you hooked, you know, or they
get you interested, and you start paying it, and then
you can just get used to paying it, and then
you just never kind of fall off the wagon. You
(09:48):
never really look at what you're receiving and saying, is
this actually worth the money that I'm that I'm putting
to Like that sock subscription that you jumped on, Dude,
that's the real thing, is I think that's a real thing.
But I mean like Blue Apron or Dollar Shave Club, right, Like,
these are all the different subscription based companies and they're
blowing up. And the reason that they're blowing up is
(10:09):
because people sign up and it's just on cruise control.
It just keeps going. And from a business standpoint, it's
brilliant because they get someone on board and they know
that the percentage of people who then turn around and
say no, I don't want to do this anymore is
so slim, and they just keep paying it. They keep
amassing razors or a bunch of Blue Aprons. I don't
know how it works, but like it's just something that
(10:30):
they don't challenge themselves to, uh, to say no to. Yeah,
And ultimately, most of the people in our society they
value convenience over cost. And definitely, and we're here to
say it's actually not terribly inconvenient to pick a new
cell phone plan. It's not going to be very difficult,
but ultimately you can save so much your you can
cut your cost to such a level that it can
be a meaningful amount of money that you can save.
(10:51):
All right, man, let's go ahead and get started and
let's jump into it. So how to get on a
low cost cell phone plan? Uh? The first thing that
you want to consider is consider using your phone less,
because if you use it less, you'll end up paying less.
And what we're specifically referring to is data. Everyone wants
to have unlimited data, but if you do, you're gonna
pay for it. You need to ask yourself do you
(11:12):
really need it or are you just looking sort of
for that piece of mind where you think, well, I
don't really know how much I'm consuming. I just want
to have unlimited so I don't have to worry about it.
That's a very worthwhile question, right, how much data am
I actually using? Yeah? And there's a whole lot of
things in life, right where we choose to use less
of something in order to save money. Right. We turn
(11:33):
the thermostat up in the summer to avoid using the
electricity and the air conditioning. Right, that's a conscious choice
that we make. And you can do the same thing
with your cell phone. You choose to use WiFi most
of the time you have access to a WiFi network
if you're at home, or at work most of the time, right,
you can jump on the WiFi network there, and so
(11:54):
if you can do that and use less data on
your phone, that's gonna be a way that you can
hop on a lower cost plan. Yeah, and specifically as well,
I'm thinking about it as like a budget, right, so, like,
look at your statements at the end of the month
and look at how much you actually are using, Like,
look at how much you are using of the allotted
data that you're given every month. If it's unlimited, look
at how much you're using, and if it's less than
(12:15):
two gigs a month, we'll shoot. You don't need unlimited.
You already fit within the two gigs are less sort
of plan. With a little bit of thoughtfulness, you could
easily even get that probably under one gig. But knowing
where to start, right, if if I actually do think
about it like a budget, you need to know where
you're starting and then to see if that's even something
that's possible for you. You might look at your statement
and see that like, oh man, this past month, I
(12:38):
used eleven gigs worth a data. There's no way I'm
gonna be able to get under two. And if so,
that's sure like there's no sense and maybe trying to
cut it down just a little bit, or to go
through the pain and discipline of trying to get yourself
under two. It's just not gonna be worth it for you.
It's not gonna be worth your time. Yeah, but if
you're close, you can take a look at that building
statement and you can see I'm using two and a
(12:58):
half or three and a half gigs of data. And
you know what, I really think I can jump on
a WiFi network a little more frequently and just use
less in general in order to save you know, forty
fifty maybe even more dollars a month. Who I just
noticed you said data. Do you say data or do
you say data? I think I go back and forth.
I don't know. I think earlier I was saying data data.
Oh snap, what was the kid's name on Goonies? I
(13:20):
don't know. I didn't see the movie. Wait, you never
seen the Goodies. I've never seen the Goonies? You shut up.
I hate to admit it. Well, there's a little Gosh
this gonna sound so racist. There's a little Asian kid
and his name was data or I say it, you're Asian.
It's allowed like you've heard people talk about booby traps.
I was sending booty traps and they're like, no, it's
booby traps. And he's like, that's what I said, booty traps.
(13:41):
I can't believe you've never seen the Goonies. Dog pathetic.
You're not pathetic. You're a little bit younger than I.
You know, that's it. I'm like a year younger than you.
But you missed you miss the Gooneys tram. You are
really old, that is true. I think I had a
Gooney's lunchbox, dude, Like it was that hard It was
that hardcore to that into it. Yeah, okay, all right,
or maybe I'm just envisioning my friends. I don't know.
I can't remember so old. So ultimately, if you want
(14:03):
to save on a cell phone, pland, one thing you
need to do is to consider your carrier. Man. Mostly
they're the same now, Verizon's network it still seems to
be the best everywhere you go. I know there are
a lot of people that travel all over the country,
are in the mountain states, are kind of in more
rural areas, and Verizon does work better in those places.
But if you're in a major metropolitan city, if you're
(14:24):
in the suburbs of a city. Uh, you're usually okay
with a less fancy network, and Verizon definitely charges a
lot more for you to be on their slightly better network. Yeah,
that's a great point. Also consider doing the family and
friends plan. You know, if you can get more folks
on your plan, that will often save you money, although
(14:46):
that can be a huge pain, and single lines are
also starting to get a good bit cheaper as well,
so it may not even be worth the hassle. And
I say this out of a personal experience. This is
something Joel and I both do. We are on the
same family ends planned and we have do we have
ten people now or nine? We just I think we
just have one drop off, but we were hoping to
pick two up, so we'll see how it goes. We
(15:07):
can we can go from nine to eleven. No, we
were at nine, we went down to eight, and we're
hoping to go back up to ten. Okay, we've got
two more hopefully lined up soon. But it is a pain.
I will tell you, it is a p So you're
the one. I'll go ahead and set you up because
you're the one that like the accounts under your name
and you're the one that's basically charged with, you know,
collecting cell phone rent from people you don't even know,
(15:28):
because I got some friends actually they're like siblings of
my friends. Like they're not even folks I know super closely.
All that well, but I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty sure
they're good for a dog. Sign them up. No, it's
it's honestly, it's worked out really well for all of us. Okay,
but it's just really changed in the last year and
a half to two years maybe where cell phone plans
(15:49):
for individuals have kind of started to decrease rapidly, almost
to the point where family plans were for a minute,
family plans were by far, by far the cheapest options.
Couldn't even get close to that with a single or
double plan, And now you're starting to get at that
point with other providers that that that really, you know,
ten separate lines can be close to the same price
(16:10):
as a ten person family plan. Yeah, so our ten
person family plan we're paying right now about twenty three
about twenty three bucks a person, right, something like that.
And when we first signed up, we were, you know,
we hit a promotion, and that's something that will mention
later you know, you gotta look for those deals, those promotions.
But for a point there, how were we paying eleven
dollars a line? We were paying eleven dollars, I know
that for me a year. For a year, Kate and
(16:31):
I were paying you two dollars a month, you know,
and and we each had our own phone, and it
was fantastic. Yes, and it's still great now. But yeah,
like I said, the new family plans right of four lines,
even those are rivaling what we're paying now is they're
getting down close to three bucks for sure. Yeah. So, uh,
let's talk about Matt specific providers, specific costs, and kind
(16:56):
of where you should go as a single individual or
a is a dual line or family plan. Right after
this break, all right, Matt, we promised specifics, so let's
get into it. We said that the prices for single
(17:18):
line cell phone plans has gone down, and that is
so true. So let's call out a few of the
best companies to consider when you're looking for a single
line cellphone plan. So one of my personal favorite companies, Matt,
and one that's been around for quite a while now
in this space that actually really has kind of changed
the game for everyone involved. I feel like they've been
one of the main competitors that spurred competition. Republic Wireless,
(17:40):
you can for twenty do get unlimited talking and text
with one gig of data, and then you can pay
five dollars more per gig when you use more. That's
one of the best deals out there on the market
for a single line. Another one of the best deals now,
which I kinda hate to say it, it's Exfanity Mobile,
but it actually is a really good deal. So if
(18:02):
you have a Comcast for your Internet service, you can
get Exfinity Mobile. It's twelve dollars for again unlimited talking text,
and you get one gig of data with that. So
if you're a small data user, I would say Exfinity
Mobile and Republic Wireless are two really great ones to consider. Yeah, man,
for someone like me, that might actually be you know,
(18:23):
really good. I'm actually thinking for you, like how much
time I spend at home, like working from home, like
on WiFi. I mean that's all I do. I don't
have a life, you know, I just like sit at home.
I don't really have friends. I've said that about you,
And so like, why do I actually need a cell
phone plan that allows me to use it out in
the world, like out and out in space. As long
(18:43):
as you can use it in your caveable home, you'll
be fine. Um, but no, I mean that's something that
we mentioned earlier, like if if you're looking at a
plan that does have less data or data depending on
how you say it, that might entirely be an option
for you, especially if you're spending a good amount of
time either at home or at work. And obviously everyone
has WiFi or just about everyone should have WiFi at work.
(19:05):
And so while like on the surface, these numbers don't
sound like enough right, like you see here like oh,
you get like one gig of data, but gosh, really,
how much do you really need if you're going to
be on WiFi? You know, that's why at the earlier
I was mentioned going back and looking at your statements
and seeing how much are you actually using, because I
think there might be a good chance that folks are
using a good bit less than they maybe even realize. Yeah,
(19:26):
so just a couple more companies Matt that if you're
looking for single line service you should consider. And by
the way, I know this is a lot of information.
We will link to all these companies in the show
notes as well. Unreal Mobile you can get a gig
for ten dollars or two gigs for fifteen dollars. Again
that comes with unlimited talking text. That's kind of the
way all these plans are set up now. Project five,
(19:46):
which is a product of Google. Yeah, and with Project
five you pay twenty dollars a month and then one
dollar per ten of a gig of data that you use.
So I kind of like that map that they are
not just charging per single gig, but they're going down
to the tenth of a gig of data, so you
can essentially know that you're not paying for more than
you're using, and if you're a light user, you're gonna
(20:08):
be paying very little. And Project five from everything I've
heard all the reviews, and they've got really really good
service because they use multiple networks actually as their backbone. Man.
And of those uh sort of off brands you know,
names specifically five and Republic Wireless are the most highly
rated across the board and with consumer reports, you know.
And that's actually worth mentioning as well that the sort
(20:30):
of non traditional cell phone carriers they all run off
of the different major networks that you've heard of right,
and so it's not like they've built out their own
networks that they're trying to compete their buying space on
these major networks. So you're instead of paying T Mobile
money for T Mobile, you can pay one of these
their companies money and Republic Wireless. Yeah, T Mobile network
at a much cheaper price. Yeah, exactly. And so Exfinity
(20:53):
they run off of Verizons LTE network and Unreal Mobile,
Uh they run off of the Sprint network. And so
they're essential really the sort of like generic you know,
they're like the store brand version of these trusted name
brands that you've heard of, like Taste e os in Cena, Cheerios.
Oh man, that's only reminds me of Kroger. I think
it's Kroger. In college, I used to get their frosted
(21:15):
mini spooners and that was like the frosted mini wheat equivalent. Obviously,
you gotta love the off brand names that they get
creative or they just don't because they don't they don't
care at all. I will call it spooners. It's fine,
it'll be delicious. So, now that we've talked about Matt,
some of the best selfone plans for single lines. Let's
talk about some of the ones for two lines, and
(21:36):
really some of the ones that we just mentioned as
single lines are some of the best for two people.
The best discounts ultimately end up coming for people that
do family plans, but I wanted to mention if you're
over fifty five, T Mobile has a thirty five dollar
per line for a seventy dollar total for those two lines,
and you're getting that unlimited plan. And another great feature
(21:57):
about T moble, which will get into a little bit
further on out, is their overseas coverage. So if you're
over fifty five and do travel overseas a lot, that
T Mobile plan is a really good deal. T Mobile
is also offering fifty discounts for military members, So just
kind of wanted to mention both of those in case
you're in either of those boats chedule. And like you mentioned,
you can't beat the family plan, right, the best cell
(22:19):
phone coverage that you're gonna be able to get uh
is gonna be for four lines or more, and that's
gonna be a family plan. Specifically, Cricket Wireless, they've got
an awesome plan where you can get four lines of
unlimited data for one dollars and that kind of gets
down to that sort of sweet spot. You know, you've
got four lines hundred bucks. Do the math. That's twenty
five dollars a line that's getting really, really stinking close
(22:42):
to our twenty three dollars, a line without the hassle
of getting these deadbeats to pay up. Uh, and you're
having to send them texts? Yeah, exactly. Have you ever
had anybody not paying? Actually, know, everybody's been pretty cool, nice, Yeah,
just you know people that forget Every once in a
while you have to send a reminder. Yeah, right, Well,
I'm glad to hear that. Well. Yeah, and I want
(23:04):
to mention that Sprint probably offers the best family line
deal right now. And I promise not not a homer
for Sprint, even though we're on them, But but if
you transfer from a different cell phone company to Sprint
right now, they will give you a free entire year
of service for your family. It's kind of crazy. We'll
put a link to it in the show notes so
that you can check it out. That's insane. It's it's insane.
(23:24):
They've had that offer going on for a little while,
and really, man, he can save you upwards of fifteen
hundred dollars in a single year, you know, by essentially
having free cell phone service for that time, and then
after that it goes back up to the normal price point,
but then you're free to switch to another company at
that point in time. I would just say, if you
do have, like, you know, a family plan somewhere else,
you know, consider that free Sprint offer because that's that's
(23:46):
a huge savings in just a year. Awesome. Man. There's
are some great uh specifics when it comes to you know, plans,
but with carriers, you know, if you still feel that
you still really need to have Horizon because you live
in an area maybe out in the country three where
they're basically the only ones that you're gonna be able
to get coverage with, you know, consider Total Wireless or
(24:07):
Exfinity Mobile. They are on that Verizon network, but for
way cheaper than the actual fancy Verizon plan. Yeah, and
if you really need unlimited data, the best providers of
that at the most reasonable prices that our major networks
are T Mobile and Sprint, and they are especially good
if you also travel overseas and want cheap coverage as well. Yedjuel,
(24:29):
we're gonna talk more here about the international travel benefits.
In addition to that, we're gonna talk about how you
can save even more money on your cell phone plan
right after this break, All right, Joel, back to cell
phone plans. I wanted to mention this real quick before
(24:51):
we keep moving, Uh, that the cell phone plans space,
you know, like the industry, it's always changing and deals
are easy to find because have such a competitive marketplace now,
you know, like we've got the big carriers, but then
on top of that, the these smaller companies have kind
of sprouted up and are piggybacking off of those networks
and taking advantage of the unused network, and what that
(25:13):
means is a lower price for us. Yeah. Man, there
are so many companies offering really cheap cell phone service
that we haven't even talked about. Right, We've covered some
of the cheap ones, but there are dozens of companies
in this space now offering ridiculously cheap prices depending on
what you're looking for. So depending on your usage, let's
say you use two hundred megabytes of data or something
(25:34):
ridiculously small, there are companies that cater exactly to your
specific needs. So, you know, shopping around and doing your
research is really important. Yeah, and let's go ahead and
talk about to the international travel benefits. And so if
you travel overseas, you might want to spend some more
for service than you normally would to get that free
robust international coverage, right, Project Fi, T Mobile, and Sprint
(25:59):
are all gonna be the best options for you there.
Uh So for you, it could be worth a few
extra bucks a month to you to have that service
if you'll use it. Yeah, man, And so we're on
Sprint and they've got almost as good of an international
plan as Project Fi and T Mobile. Not not quite,
but they cover you in a ton of countries around
(26:19):
the world. And we can get free slow data, free texting,
and twenty cents a minute phone calls. So it's just
really nice to have that option. Some of the major
old school providers like A T and T and Verizon
will charge you a fee per day to use your
plan internationally. Uh And so I would say if you
(26:40):
do travel internationally a lot, you should really think about
going with either Project Fi, T Mobile or Sprint. You know,
look at what they offer, and you're not gonna get
like blazing fast LTE speeds, you know, while you're in
Europe on these plans, but you will get something like
really solid and it comes included in the price of
your monthly bill. Ye. Man, that's not actually something I've
(27:02):
ever done, you know, taking my cell phone over into
a different country and used it before. I think I
would immediately feel like I've like upgraded the baller status.
You know, if I had my phone and I just
pulled it out and started using it like I normally
would have. I'm not gonna lie, man, I take a
minimum cool one international trip a year. I like to
take two if I can, but you fancy Yeah, And
so it is so nice to be able to essentially
(27:23):
just not do anything and take my phone with me.
I can see how nice that would be. Yeah, Like
I'm I'm envisioning in it. I'm just like, Man, that
would be freaking awesome. And we're paying twenty three bucks
a month and I still get that awesome international service.
I love that. And Matt, I wanted to mention that
there are other discounts that you could potentially qualify for,
maybe through your employer, through your local credit union, or
(27:45):
through other companies that you do business with. So on
that Sprint bill, Man, we get off a huge chunk
of that bill just because my employer offers a discount
if you join up on a sprint plan, which suits. Yeah. Yeah,
Like the benefit that you receive through your employer is
distributed to all eight of us now hopefully it's hopefully
(28:07):
it's in Yeah. And my credit union, man, they offer
something similar. They offer a ten percent discount, So not
quite as strong as my employer. But make sure to
look around and see what your credit union offers or
what the your place of business offers. There might be
a sweet deal like waiting there in the wings for
you that you just haven't jumped on yet. Um, And
all it takes is to open your eyes and look around.
(28:28):
It's worth doing some research to see if the play
that you're currently on, if there's a discount for it.
Just because of the place where you work. You know,
it almost seems like that that's a small amount of money,
and it is right if it's just for one month.
But like we said earlier, this is a bill that
we pay every single month, and so if you're saving
ten percent or if you're able to say that's a
(28:49):
huge deal. When you're paying that every single month, it
might feel like you're coupon ing. If it's just a
single purchase, like a one time thing, and that it
may not be worth your time. But if you're able
to do that that one time and then off every
single bill for the next year or two years or
however long that you have that plan, you're gonna have
some substantial savings that will be well worth the time
(29:09):
to to to know that information, yeah completely, And then
other fees to like the dumb activation fee you know
that's always involved when you get a new phone, be
sure to call up and see if you can get
them the way of that. This is something we've talked
about on a previous episode, the art of asking for
a discount. But even just asking, you know what, like
the worst they can say is no, But see if
(29:29):
there's a way where you can figure out, like, hey,
I'm I'm a nice guy, you're a nice guy, like
that whole thing. Maybe you feel silly, you know, saying
it that way, but just see if there's the different
fees and you'll be surprised at the control that the
teller has, you know, the person that's ringing you up
um or maybe you happen to be getting checked out
by a manager, and they have the ability to give
you an even steeper discount. It never hurts to ask. Yeah,
(29:52):
I think I may be mentioned in that episode that
Twitter can be a great place to ask her a discount.
So consider reaching out to your cell phone company on
Twitter on the social media. Uh and and maybe they'll
have like a little more wiggle room to help you
with some of those silly fees. And and that activation
fee specifically, it's often like thirty to forty dollars depending
on the cell phone company, and it's just kind of
(30:13):
a bogus fee. And so I would just recommend giving
it a shot. I feel like ninety percent of the
time I have had success giving them to waive that fee.
That reminded me of Kate. So I mentioned my brother
in law, you know, they had their baby. He mentioned
that she went to the hospital today and she went
to the parking debt and the guy that was sitting
there to you know, let people through, and she didn't
ask him for a just you know, she didn't ask
(30:35):
him for a free pass. But she was just friendly,
being nice. You know, she's happy to be there and
you know, I go see a new baby. And the
guy was just like well, how long are you gonna
be here? And she's like, you know, like probably an hour.
And he's like, here you go, and he reached in
his pocket and pulled out like a free pass a chaser,
like the car that you're stick in after Yeah, and
she said, I'll thank you so much. I really appreciate it,
you know, just kind of being friendly and being human
(30:57):
it can go a long way and saving you a buck. Doubt, buddy.
All Right, so we gotta tell people about this amazing
beer we just had Casa Agrea Zarza marone thanks to
getting to my buddy Josh. Josh, we owe you a
huge one because this beer is the best. Dude, this
is delight. This was good blackberries, cranberries and raspberries in
(31:19):
a Flander style brown. It was like berry jam with
like a little bit of tartness and oh dude, it
was absolutely beautiful. And I will say it poured very
brown like when I when I when we poured it
at the before we started recording, I was kind of
shocked at how sort of muddy water it looked, which
(31:39):
sounds incredibly unappetizing. But this beer was incredibly delicious. You know.
It was a sour One of the things I love
about sour beers is that for me, it doesn't fill
me up. For some reason, I can if I wanted to,
I could keep drinking sour beers. It doesn't hit you
quite like a stout does right where it feels like
you're just drinking a lot of calories. Likely the a
b V on this one is six point four percent,
(32:00):
so it's pretty light. You and I are splitting this
bottle here. But but yeah, that's one of the things
I found man with with sour beers, is that something
about them it just doesn't you know, it doesn't fill
me up, you know I'm talking about I definitely do.
And I will say, Man, you know I mentioned this
on the show before that a sour beer with fruit
mixed in there is one of my favorite all time styles.
And I feel like this is my first beer from
(32:23):
this brewery, Casa Agria, and man, they just kind of
vaulted up to the top of my list. I totally
want to have more stuff from them because this hit
the nail on the head in one of my favorite
beer styles ever. Yeah. So this is a Flanders brown,
So typically I think Flaander's reds tend to be a
little more popular, and the flavor profile of those tend
to be maybe a little more forward, like in your face,
(32:45):
kind of aggressive. And we you and I were talking
kind of off air earlier, how this is a lot
more subtle. It's a brown nail it, so it's a
Flaander's brown and it kind of bramps up to that flavor,
but it just doesn't smack you in the face like
right when you drink it. It's kind of subtle. I
kind of ease is this way in your taste buds,
And oh my gosh, it's like nicely balanced. Yeah, it's
(33:06):
it's so well balanced. Even though Scott just massive amounts
of flavor, it still feels balanced. Yeah. It what builds.
It's got all those berries. Yeah, it's just it's just wonderful,
all right, Joel, let's hit him with our final thoughts. Yeah, man,
the first thing I want to say is people are
paying way too much for their cell phone service. So
if you keep getting that bill every month, open it
(33:26):
up instead of letting it auto pay, remember what you're paying,
look it in the face, and then decide, you know what,
I'm gonna pay less because this is just ridiculous. Yeah, man. Also,
when you're looking at that statement, look at how much
you're actually using. I think you'll find that you might
be using much less than you think. When so much
of our time is spent in locations that have WiFi,
(33:47):
whether it be at home or at work or at
a friend's house, you'll find that your on WiFi and
that you're not actually using your data. So if you're
able to use less of your cell phones data, you're
gonna end up paying less. Yeah, and for a list
of some of the cell phone carriers that are providing
the best deals, whether that be for single lines, multiple lines,
or even four lines or more. If you're gonna do
(34:09):
the family plan, go to our website check it out. Yeah,
the cell phone space it's always changing and it's a
really competitive landscape. So if you haven't shopped for cell
phone service in a while, chances are you're paying way
too much. Also, there's a good chance that your company
or a company that you do business with, offers you
an additional discount on the cell phone plan that you're
(34:31):
currently on. Look into that. Because I'm saving on my
plan because of an employer sponsored deal. And to that,
all eight of us say thank you. Papa Joel, no problem.
Little Birdie's all right. Everyone. Thanks for listening. Our home
on the web is how to money dot com. We'll
have shown up for this episode with links to each
(34:51):
and every specific cellphone provider that we mentioned. That's right,
And if you like what you hear and have found
our podcast helpful, let us know. You can give a
s review on Apple Podcasts. We'd love to hear from you,
and while you're there, be sure to subscribe. Until next time. Buddy,
Best Friends Out, Man Best Friends Out.
Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
and today we're discussing jumping on a low cost cell
phone plan. Joel, do I look tired to you? Yeah?
(00:27):
I see the bags under your eyes fell like sleepy.
There is a reason I asked, is my brother in law,
him and his wife they had a baby last night? Yeah?
It so congrats to them, they had a healthy baby boy.
But the reason I'm tired is because they're one year old,
almost a year old. Daughter spent the night with us
last night and tonight as well, but you know, she's
(00:50):
not used to being in her house, sleeping in the
pack and play, and we're not used to waking up
a couple of times a night tending to a baby. Man,
I gotta say it's a to relief to exit that
stage as apparent finally your kids sleeping through the night,
and then to go back to getting woken up in
the middle of the night. I can't imagine it's so
hard to get drugged back into that place again. Yeah,
(01:10):
I know, especially without the adrenaline of having your own
like fresh baby. You know, like it's like I can
handle that as long as I about like the cue baby.
I haven't even met the new baby yet. You know,
I've been working all day and I haven't been able
to get over to the hospital. Maybe we should do
an episode about babies. How much do babies cost? Well,
we need to do one, especially on because I feel
like every year the statistic comes out about how much
(01:32):
a child cost to raise. Oh yeah, and I feel
like it's kind of ridiculous, and we should definitely talk
about the cost of raising the kid and how to
minimize those and so let's do an episode on that soon.
I mean, I think people would love that. And if
you've had a baby recently, why don't you go ahead
and send in a picture of your baby, because let's
see the beautiful babies. Yes, I'm not even joking. I
(01:53):
think love to see a picture of your baby. Seriously.
But if you're a listener and you've had a baby
in the past just a year, yeah, if if you
got a cute baby, let's see the babies. In the
best place to post it so we can all see
it is our Facebook group. So if you feel comfortable,
some people don't feel comfortable posting pictures of this, But
if you do post a pic of your super cute
baby on our Facebook group and we will just comment
(02:15):
with like Google eyes and stuff like oh yeah, hard eyes.
I'm all about it. Babies are the cutest, all right.
So congrats to Dan and Jeff. That's awesome. And by
the way, the first time I met Dan, I remember
Matt one of the first things that we hit it
off about was disc golf. We both have this super
intense love for disc off. Dude, he loves the disc
oflf is true. And just in case anyone hasn't heard
(02:36):
or has never played disc golf out there, it's one
of my favorite sports for a lot of reasons. First,
you're kind of walking through nature, and it's just kind
of fun to spend a couple of hours outdoors checking
a frisbee essentially. And although discolfers don't really like to
call it frisbee, it's yeah, you're playing with a disc.
But discolf is awesome because you can buy essentially two
discs and have everything you need to play for the
(02:58):
rest of your life for free. Yep, everywhere you play
disc golf, it's free. It's just the best time. It's
so funny to go out there with friends, maybe bring
a beer too, and and just play disc golf. Man,
it's the best. I miss it so much. I need
to get back out there and maybe I'll take Dan
in the new baby. Dan's actually who got me in
my first two discs. Man. I think I three with
you a couple of times and I would borrow maybe
(03:19):
one or two year discs. But then Dan got me
a driver and a putter, and I think maybe I
found a mid range disc and that's in the woods. Yeah.
I'm like, all right, well, I only use the driver
in the putter anyways. All right, and Matt today, the
beer that we're drinking on the show is Casa Agria
uh Zarza Marone from Oxnard, California, and it's a Flander
(03:41):
style brown ale with blackberries, cranberries and raspberries. Dude, all
the berries. Yes, Yeah, I was so so stoked when
I saw those berries on there. So I can't wait
to tell you guys about the beer at the end
of the show. And just wanted to say thanks to
my buddy Josh for bringing it down. He visited the
A t L recently and we'd a little beer exchange
and I've never had anything from Cossa Agria and I'm
(04:03):
really excited to have this beer. So speaking of beer
or alcohol, saw a report by the World Health Organization.
But it's a report and they're saying, how five percent
of deaths globally are attributed to alcohol. Five percent and
that crazy. That seems like a lot, yeah, like one
in twenty one in twenty deaths. And I'm sure that
(04:25):
like they're conflating their numbers a little bit to include
any sort of death that might be possibly related to
some sort of alcohol involvement at all. But they were
talking about it because there's little you know, there's lots
of stories out there how they say, oh, well, you know,
if you can have a little bit of booze, like
a single glass of wine and night or something like that,
it's actually good for your heart. And there's all this
and they were just saying that, like, you know what,
(04:45):
statistically speaking, it's still safer to not drink like at all.
And you know, obviously we love craft beer a lot.
Oh I wonder actually what the percentage of people that
drink craft beer specifically, about the number is way smaller
as far as death related incidents that are related to
craft beer, partially because craft beer hasn't been long around
all that long. Really that is true, but I mean,
(05:08):
I guess I wanted to mention that too, because we
love craft beer obviously, but at the same time, like
we drink in moderation, we're not idiots, and we would
encourage you to also be responsible. You know, we love
having a delicious beer during the week together, you know,
while we have an awesome conversation about money or something
money related, but sometimes it's easy to get carried away,
and we just want to encourage you to be smart. Yeah,
(05:29):
and especially a beer like this, Matt, I mean, I
get so excited to sip this beer slowly and to
essentially over hours just enjoy the flavor. That's my favorite
part about craft beer. And so it just doesn't lend
itself to chugging back three or four and just get
and getting hammered and so um. Something like this. It's
just really nice to have a small glass and drink
(05:52):
it really slowly. All right, Joel, let's go ahead and
get started talking about low cost cell phone plans um.
And first of all, we want to to encourage you
to go back and listen to last week's if you
haven't already listened to last week's, we did an episode
on getting a deal on a new cell phone, and yeah,
we covered a lot of great points there, and so
this is sort of like part two of that cell
(06:15):
phone life. Yeah man. And the problem is that many
people are still paying way too much for their cell
phone service. It's kind of like my parents randomly, they
were paying for ao L after everyone else had jumped ship,
like like for free with with the disks they get
in the mail. Yeah, yeah, I remember that, but they
were still paying. And there are still people to this
day paying twenty five dollars a month for ao L
(06:37):
even though a o L has been made completely free
for their for their mail. Yeah, they're still paying for
internet service through a o L because they just have
never canceled it. So I think that last I read,
there over two million people paying AOL a month essentially
for nothing. That's probably like the worst statistic I've ever
heard in my life, right, like like worst slash saddest.
(06:58):
I'm like, who are these people who are just paying
this without realizing it? And I feel like a big
part of that, right, A big reason might be because
we just don't talk about our finances enough. That's a
big reason that you and I like talking about money
is because it's something that isn't talked about enough, and
we like being somewhat countercultural and stepping on people's toes
and making people feel uncomfortable get it out in the open. Yeah.
(07:21):
But a big part of it is because we want
to talk about it. We want it to be normalized.
And you know, it's like talking about how much you're
paying for yourself phone service might be this thing where
you feel that you don't have the freedom to talk
about because you're like, oh, that's that's not really what
my friends and I talked about. We talk about getting
the new iPhone. You don't talk about like how much
we're paying every month on cell phone service. But we
(07:41):
would want to do is encourage you to be that
person maybe in your friend group, to kind of challenge
your friends to start talking about these things, to challenge
each other to save money, because like if you're still
friends in twenty thirty years, like instead you can be
retired and having these conversations or like you know, while traveling,
Like we just want you to to be maybe sort
of like the be and you know, the beacon of
hope of light when it comes to you and your
(08:03):
friends finances. I think the cell phone bill for many
people is actually really kind of equivalent to the A O.
L bill for those two million folks that are still
paying for it because a lot of people haven't shopped
their cellphone bill in years, and so they're paying. They
haven't seen how precipitously the prices have dropped when it
comes to cell phone plans and how many cheap options
(08:23):
there are out there right now. Because the average monthly
cell phone bill is still seventy three dollars, that's crazy,
mat Yeah, dude, that is very crazy. And like, so
I did some quick math, and that amount every month, right,
seventy three bucks invested over ten years, it's pretty close
to thirteen thousand dollars, which is a ton of money.
(08:44):
And real quick, that's if you take like a monthly
expense and you multiply it by one seven three, right,
a hundred seventy three, that essentially is that amount invested
over the next two years compounded, Like, that's how much
you know you would end up with. And that's a
lot of money, right, that's a ton of money. Um,
And since cell phone bills don't actually fluctuate on a
monthly basis, you just kind of get used to paying
the same amount. It gets you know, automatically deducted from
(09:06):
your checking account or automatically paid from your credit card,
and you don't notice the amount going out, and you
don't think to shop. You're just paying the same amount
every month. No matter what we're here to say, there
are so many better ways to do it, so many
cheaper ways to get cell phone service, and they're ultimately
not going to creep your style at all, man. And
that's part of why these cell phone planes don't get shopped,
(09:27):
because you get used to paying the same amount. It's
sort of on like the subscription model basis, right, It's
a monthly bill and you just get used to paying
it and it just gets absorbed into your budget. It's
a set amount, it doesn't really change. And it's sort
of like these new all these new subscription based companies.
They kind of get you hooked, you know, or they
get you interested, and you start paying it, and then
you can just get used to paying it, and then
you just never kind of fall off the wagon. You
(09:48):
never really look at what you're receiving and saying, is
this actually worth the money that I'm that I'm putting
to Like that sock subscription that you jumped on, Dude,
that's the real thing, is I think that's a real thing.
But I mean like Blue Apron or Dollar Shave Club, right, Like,
these are all the different subscription based companies and they're
blowing up. And the reason that they're blowing up is
(10:09):
because people sign up and it's just on cruise control.
It just keeps going. And from a business standpoint, it's
brilliant because they get someone on board and they know
that the percentage of people who then turn around and
say no, I don't want to do this anymore is
so slim, and they just keep paying it. They keep
amassing razors or a bunch of Blue Aprons. I don't
know how it works, but like it's just something that
(10:30):
they don't challenge themselves to, uh, to say no to. Yeah,
And ultimately, most of the people in our society they
value convenience over cost. And definitely, and we're here to
say it's actually not terribly inconvenient to pick a new
cell phone plan. It's not going to be very difficult,
but ultimately you can save so much your you can
cut your cost to such a level that it can
be a meaningful amount of money that you can save.
(10:51):
All right, man, let's go ahead and get started and
let's jump into it. So how to get on a
low cost cell phone plan? Uh? The first thing that
you want to consider is consider using your phone less,
because if you use it less, you'll end up paying less.
And what we're specifically referring to is data. Everyone wants
to have unlimited data, but if you do, you're gonna
pay for it. You need to ask yourself do you
(11:12):
really need it or are you just looking sort of
for that piece of mind where you think, well, I
don't really know how much I'm consuming. I just want
to have unlimited so I don't have to worry about it.
That's a very worthwhile question, right, how much data am
I actually using? Yeah? And there's a whole lot of
things in life, right where we choose to use less
of something in order to save money. Right. We turn
(11:33):
the thermostat up in the summer to avoid using the
electricity and the air conditioning. Right, that's a conscious choice
that we make. And you can do the same thing
with your cell phone. You choose to use WiFi most
of the time you have access to a WiFi network
if you're at home, or at work most of the time, right,
you can jump on the WiFi network there, and so
(11:54):
if you can do that and use less data on
your phone, that's gonna be a way that you can
hop on a lower cost plan. Yeah, and specifically as well,
I'm thinking about it as like a budget, right, so, like,
look at your statements at the end of the month
and look at how much you actually are using, Like,
look at how much you are using of the allotted
data that you're given every month. If it's unlimited, look
at how much you're using, and if it's less than
(12:15):
two gigs a month, we'll shoot. You don't need unlimited.
You already fit within the two gigs are less sort
of plan. With a little bit of thoughtfulness, you could
easily even get that probably under one gig. But knowing
where to start, right, if if I actually do think
about it like a budget, you need to know where
you're starting and then to see if that's even something
that's possible for you. You might look at your statement
and see that like, oh man, this past month, I
(12:38):
used eleven gigs worth a data. There's no way I'm
gonna be able to get under two. And if so,
that's sure like there's no sense and maybe trying to
cut it down just a little bit, or to go
through the pain and discipline of trying to get yourself
under two. It's just not gonna be worth it for you.
It's not gonna be worth your time. Yeah, but if
you're close, you can take a look at that building
statement and you can see I'm using two and a
(12:58):
half or three and a half gigs of data. And
you know what, I really think I can jump on
a WiFi network a little more frequently and just use
less in general in order to save you know, forty
fifty maybe even more dollars a month. Who I just
noticed you said data. Do you say data or do
you say data? I think I go back and forth.
I don't know. I think earlier I was saying data data.
Oh snap, what was the kid's name on Goonies? I
(13:20):
don't know. I didn't see the movie. Wait, you never
seen the Goodies. I've never seen the Goonies? You shut up.
I hate to admit it. Well, there's a little Gosh
this gonna sound so racist. There's a little Asian kid
and his name was data or I say it, you're Asian.
It's allowed like you've heard people talk about booby traps.
I was sending booty traps and they're like, no, it's
booby traps. And he's like, that's what I said, booty traps.
(13:41):
I can't believe you've never seen the Goonies. Dog pathetic.
You're not pathetic. You're a little bit younger than I.
You know, that's it. I'm like a year younger than you.
But you missed you miss the Gooneys tram. You are
really old, that is true. I think I had a
Gooney's lunchbox, dude, Like it was that hard It was
that hardcore to that into it. Yeah, okay, all right,
or maybe I'm just envisioning my friends. I don't know.
I can't remember so old. So ultimately, if you want
(14:03):
to save on a cell phone, pland, one thing you
need to do is to consider your carrier. Man. Mostly
they're the same now, Verizon's network it still seems to
be the best everywhere you go. I know there are
a lot of people that travel all over the country,
are in the mountain states, are kind of in more
rural areas, and Verizon does work better in those places.
But if you're in a major metropolitan city, if you're
(14:24):
in the suburbs of a city. Uh, you're usually okay
with a less fancy network, and Verizon definitely charges a
lot more for you to be on their slightly better network. Yeah,
that's a great point. Also consider doing the family and
friends plan. You know, if you can get more folks
on your plan, that will often save you money, although
(14:46):
that can be a huge pain, and single lines are
also starting to get a good bit cheaper as well,
so it may not even be worth the hassle. And
I say this out of a personal experience. This is
something Joel and I both do. We are on the
same family ends planned and we have do we have
ten people now or nine? We just I think we
just have one drop off, but we were hoping to
pick two up, so we'll see how it goes. We
(15:07):
can we can go from nine to eleven. No, we
were at nine, we went down to eight, and we're
hoping to go back up to ten. Okay, we've got
two more hopefully lined up soon. But it is a pain.
I will tell you, it is a p So you're
the one. I'll go ahead and set you up because
you're the one that like the accounts under your name
and you're the one that's basically charged with, you know,
collecting cell phone rent from people you don't even know,
(15:28):
because I got some friends actually they're like siblings of
my friends. Like they're not even folks I know super closely.
All that well, but I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty sure
they're good for a dog. Sign them up. No, it's
it's honestly, it's worked out really well for all of us. Okay,
but it's just really changed in the last year and
a half to two years maybe where cell phone plans
(15:49):
for individuals have kind of started to decrease rapidly, almost
to the point where family plans were for a minute,
family plans were by far, by far the cheapest options.
Couldn't even get close to that with a single or
double plan, And now you're starting to get at that
point with other providers that that that really, you know,
ten separate lines can be close to the same price
(16:10):
as a ten person family plan. Yeah, so our ten
person family plan we're paying right now about twenty three
about twenty three bucks a person, right, something like that.
And when we first signed up, we were, you know,
we hit a promotion, and that's something that will mention
later you know, you gotta look for those deals, those promotions.
But for a point there, how were we paying eleven
dollars a line? We were paying eleven dollars, I know
that for me a year. For a year, Kate and
(16:31):
I were paying you two dollars a month, you know,
and and we each had our own phone, and it
was fantastic. Yes, and it's still great now. But yeah,
like I said, the new family plans right of four lines,
even those are rivaling what we're paying now is they're
getting down close to three bucks for sure. Yeah. So, uh,
let's talk about Matt specific providers, specific costs, and kind
(16:56):
of where you should go as a single individual or
a is a dual line or family plan. Right after
this break, all right, Matt, we promised specifics, so let's
get into it. We said that the prices for single
(17:18):
line cell phone plans has gone down, and that is
so true. So let's call out a few of the
best companies to consider when you're looking for a single
line cellphone plan. So one of my personal favorite companies, Matt,
and one that's been around for quite a while now
in this space that actually really has kind of changed
the game for everyone involved. I feel like they've been
one of the main competitors that spurred competition. Republic Wireless,
(17:40):
you can for twenty do get unlimited talking and text
with one gig of data, and then you can pay
five dollars more per gig when you use more. That's
one of the best deals out there on the market
for a single line. Another one of the best deals now,
which I kinda hate to say it, it's Exfanity Mobile,
but it actually is a really good deal. So if
(18:02):
you have a Comcast for your Internet service, you can
get Exfinity Mobile. It's twelve dollars for again unlimited talking text,
and you get one gig of data with that. So
if you're a small data user, I would say Exfinity
Mobile and Republic Wireless are two really great ones to consider. Yeah, man,
for someone like me, that might actually be you know,
(18:23):
really good. I'm actually thinking for you, like how much
time I spend at home, like working from home, like
on WiFi. I mean that's all I do. I don't
have a life, you know, I just like sit at home.
I don't really have friends. I've said that about you,
And so like, why do I actually need a cell
phone plan that allows me to use it out in
the world, like out and out in space. As long
(18:43):
as you can use it in your caveable home, you'll
be fine. Um, but no, I mean that's something that
we mentioned earlier, like if if you're looking at a
plan that does have less data or data depending on
how you say it, that might entirely be an option
for you, especially if you're spending a good amount of
time either at home or at work. And obviously everyone
has WiFi or just about everyone should have WiFi at work.
(19:05):
And so while like on the surface, these numbers don't
sound like enough right, like you see here like oh,
you get like one gig of data, but gosh, really,
how much do you really need if you're going to
be on WiFi? You know, that's why at the earlier
I was mentioned going back and looking at your statements
and seeing how much are you actually using, because I
think there might be a good chance that folks are
using a good bit less than they maybe even realize. Yeah,
(19:26):
so just a couple more companies Matt that if you're
looking for single line service you should consider. And by
the way, I know this is a lot of information.
We will link to all these companies in the show
notes as well. Unreal Mobile you can get a gig
for ten dollars or two gigs for fifteen dollars. Again
that comes with unlimited talking text. That's kind of the
way all these plans are set up now. Project five,
(19:46):
which is a product of Google. Yeah, and with Project
five you pay twenty dollars a month and then one
dollar per ten of a gig of data that you use.
So I kind of like that map that they are
not just charging per single gig, but they're going down
to the tenth of a gig of data, so you
can essentially know that you're not paying for more than
you're using, and if you're a light user, you're gonna
(20:08):
be paying very little. And Project five from everything I've
heard all the reviews, and they've got really really good
service because they use multiple networks actually as their backbone. Man.
And of those uh sort of off brands you know,
names specifically five and Republic Wireless are the most highly
rated across the board and with consumer reports, you know.
And that's actually worth mentioning as well that the sort
(20:30):
of non traditional cell phone carriers they all run off
of the different major networks that you've heard of right,
and so it's not like they've built out their own
networks that they're trying to compete their buying space on
these major networks. So you're instead of paying T Mobile
money for T Mobile, you can pay one of these
their companies money and Republic Wireless. Yeah, T Mobile network
at a much cheaper price. Yeah, exactly. And so Exfinity
(20:53):
they run off of Verizons LTE network and Unreal Mobile,
Uh they run off of the Sprint network. And so
they're essential really the sort of like generic you know,
they're like the store brand version of these trusted name
brands that you've heard of, like Taste e os in Cena, Cheerios.
Oh man, that's only reminds me of Kroger. I think
it's Kroger. In college, I used to get their frosted
(21:15):
mini spooners and that was like the frosted mini wheat equivalent. Obviously,
you gotta love the off brand names that they get
creative or they just don't because they don't they don't
care at all. I will call it spooners. It's fine,
it'll be delicious. So, now that we've talked about Matt,
some of the best selfone plans for single lines. Let's
talk about some of the ones for two lines, and
(21:36):
really some of the ones that we just mentioned as
single lines are some of the best for two people.
The best discounts ultimately end up coming for people that
do family plans, but I wanted to mention if you're
over fifty five, T Mobile has a thirty five dollar
per line for a seventy dollar total for those two lines,
and you're getting that unlimited plan. And another great feature
(21:57):
about T moble, which will get into a little bit
further on out, is their overseas coverage. So if you're
over fifty five and do travel overseas a lot, that
T Mobile plan is a really good deal. T Mobile
is also offering fifty discounts for military members, So just
kind of wanted to mention both of those in case
you're in either of those boats chedule. And like you mentioned,
you can't beat the family plan, right, the best cell
(22:19):
phone coverage that you're gonna be able to get uh
is gonna be for four lines or more, and that's
gonna be a family plan. Specifically, Cricket Wireless, they've got
an awesome plan where you can get four lines of
unlimited data for one dollars and that kind of gets
down to that sort of sweet spot. You know, you've
got four lines hundred bucks. Do the math. That's twenty
five dollars a line that's getting really, really stinking close
(22:42):
to our twenty three dollars, a line without the hassle
of getting these deadbeats to pay up. Uh, and you're
having to send them texts? Yeah, exactly. Have you ever
had anybody not paying? Actually, know, everybody's been pretty cool, nice, Yeah,
just you know people that forget Every once in a
while you have to send a reminder. Yeah, right, Well,
I'm glad to hear that. Well. Yeah, and I want
(23:04):
to mention that Sprint probably offers the best family line
deal right now. And I promise not not a homer
for Sprint, even though we're on them, But but if
you transfer from a different cell phone company to Sprint
right now, they will give you a free entire year
of service for your family. It's kind of crazy. We'll
put a link to it in the show notes so
that you can check it out. That's insane. It's it's insane.
(23:24):
They've had that offer going on for a little while,
and really, man, he can save you upwards of fifteen
hundred dollars in a single year, you know, by essentially
having free cell phone service for that time, and then
after that it goes back up to the normal price point,
but then you're free to switch to another company at
that point in time. I would just say, if you
do have, like, you know, a family plan somewhere else,
you know, consider that free Sprint offer because that's that's
(23:46):
a huge savings in just a year. Awesome. Man. There's
are some great uh specifics when it comes to you know, plans,
but with carriers, you know, if you still feel that
you still really need to have Horizon because you live
in an area maybe out in the country three where
they're basically the only ones that you're gonna be able
to get coverage with, you know, consider Total Wireless or
(24:07):
Exfinity Mobile. They are on that Verizon network, but for
way cheaper than the actual fancy Verizon plan. Yeah, and
if you really need unlimited data, the best providers of
that at the most reasonable prices that our major networks
are T Mobile and Sprint, and they are especially good
if you also travel overseas and want cheap coverage as well. Yedjuel,
(24:29):
we're gonna talk more here about the international travel benefits.
In addition to that, we're gonna talk about how you
can save even more money on your cell phone plan
right after this break, All right, Joel, back to cell
phone plans. I wanted to mention this real quick before
(24:51):
we keep moving, Uh, that the cell phone plans space,
you know, like the industry, it's always changing and deals
are easy to find because have such a competitive marketplace now,
you know, like we've got the big carriers, but then
on top of that, the these smaller companies have kind
of sprouted up and are piggybacking off of those networks
and taking advantage of the unused network, and what that
(25:13):
means is a lower price for us. Yeah. Man, there
are so many companies offering really cheap cell phone service
that we haven't even talked about. Right, We've covered some
of the cheap ones, but there are dozens of companies
in this space now offering ridiculously cheap prices depending on
what you're looking for. So depending on your usage, let's
say you use two hundred megabytes of data or something
(25:34):
ridiculously small, there are companies that cater exactly to your
specific needs. So, you know, shopping around and doing your
research is really important. Yeah, and let's go ahead and
talk about to the international travel benefits. And so if
you travel overseas, you might want to spend some more
for service than you normally would to get that free
robust international coverage, right, Project Fi, T Mobile, and Sprint
(25:59):
are all gonna be the best options for you there.
Uh So for you, it could be worth a few
extra bucks a month to you to have that service
if you'll use it. Yeah, man, And so we're on
Sprint and they've got almost as good of an international
plan as Project Fi and T Mobile. Not not quite,
but they cover you in a ton of countries around
(26:19):
the world. And we can get free slow data, free texting,
and twenty cents a minute phone calls. So it's just
really nice to have that option. Some of the major
old school providers like A T and T and Verizon
will charge you a fee per day to use your
plan internationally. Uh And so I would say if you
(26:40):
do travel internationally a lot, you should really think about
going with either Project Fi, T Mobile or Sprint. You know,
look at what they offer, and you're not gonna get
like blazing fast LTE speeds, you know, while you're in
Europe on these plans, but you will get something like
really solid and it comes included in the price of
your monthly bill. Ye. Man, that's not actually something I've
(27:02):
ever done, you know, taking my cell phone over into
a different country and used it before. I think I
would immediately feel like I've like upgraded the baller status.
You know, if I had my phone and I just
pulled it out and started using it like I normally
would have. I'm not gonna lie, man, I take a
minimum cool one international trip a year. I like to
take two if I can, but you fancy Yeah, And
so it is so nice to be able to essentially
(27:23):
just not do anything and take my phone with me.
I can see how nice that would be. Yeah, Like
I'm I'm envisioning in it. I'm just like, Man, that
would be freaking awesome. And we're paying twenty three bucks
a month and I still get that awesome international service.
I love that. And Matt, I wanted to mention that
there are other discounts that you could potentially qualify for,
maybe through your employer, through your local credit union, or
(27:45):
through other companies that you do business with. So on
that Sprint bill, Man, we get off a huge chunk
of that bill just because my employer offers a discount
if you join up on a sprint plan, which suits. Yeah. Yeah,
Like the benefit that you receive through your employer is
distributed to all eight of us now hopefully it's hopefully
(28:07):
it's in Yeah. And my credit union, man, they offer
something similar. They offer a ten percent discount, So not
quite as strong as my employer. But make sure to
look around and see what your credit union offers or
what the your place of business offers. There might be
a sweet deal like waiting there in the wings for
you that you just haven't jumped on yet. Um, And
all it takes is to open your eyes and look around.
(28:28):
It's worth doing some research to see if the play
that you're currently on, if there's a discount for it.
Just because of the place where you work. You know,
it almost seems like that that's a small amount of money,
and it is right if it's just for one month.
But like we said earlier, this is a bill that
we pay every single month, and so if you're saving
ten percent or if you're able to say that's a
(28:49):
huge deal. When you're paying that every single month, it
might feel like you're coupon ing. If it's just a
single purchase, like a one time thing, and that it
may not be worth your time. But if you're able
to do that that one time and then off every
single bill for the next year or two years or
however long that you have that plan, you're gonna have
some substantial savings that will be well worth the time
(29:09):
to to to know that information, yeah completely, And then
other fees to like the dumb activation fee you know
that's always involved when you get a new phone, be
sure to call up and see if you can get
them the way of that. This is something we've talked
about on a previous episode, the art of asking for
a discount. But even just asking, you know what, like
the worst they can say is no, But see if
(29:29):
there's a way where you can figure out, like, hey,
I'm I'm a nice guy, you're a nice guy, like
that whole thing. Maybe you feel silly, you know, saying
it that way, but just see if there's the different
fees and you'll be surprised at the control that the
teller has, you know, the person that's ringing you up
um or maybe you happen to be getting checked out
by a manager, and they have the ability to give
you an even steeper discount. It never hurts to ask. Yeah,
(29:52):
I think I may be mentioned in that episode that
Twitter can be a great place to ask her a discount.
So consider reaching out to your cell phone company on
Twitter on the social media. Uh and and maybe they'll
have like a little more wiggle room to help you
with some of those silly fees. And and that activation
fee specifically, it's often like thirty to forty dollars depending
on the cell phone company, and it's just kind of
(30:13):
a bogus fee. And so I would just recommend giving
it a shot. I feel like ninety percent of the
time I have had success giving them to waive that fee.
That reminded me of Kate. So I mentioned my brother
in law, you know, they had their baby. He mentioned
that she went to the hospital today and she went
to the parking debt and the guy that was sitting
there to you know, let people through, and she didn't
ask him for a just you know, she didn't ask
(30:35):
him for a free pass. But she was just friendly,
being nice. You know, she's happy to be there and
you know, I go see a new baby. And the
guy was just like well, how long are you gonna
be here? And she's like, you know, like probably an hour.
And he's like, here you go, and he reached in
his pocket and pulled out like a free pass a chaser,
like the car that you're stick in after Yeah, and
she said, I'll thank you so much. I really appreciate it,
you know, just kind of being friendly and being human
(30:57):
it can go a long way and saving you a buck. Doubt, buddy.
All Right, so we gotta tell people about this amazing
beer we just had Casa Agrea Zarza marone thanks to
getting to my buddy Josh. Josh, we owe you a
huge one because this beer is the best. Dude, this
is delight. This was good blackberries, cranberries and raspberries in
(31:19):
a Flander style brown. It was like berry jam with
like a little bit of tartness and oh dude, it
was absolutely beautiful. And I will say it poured very
brown like when I when I when we poured it
at the before we started recording, I was kind of
shocked at how sort of muddy water it looked, which
(31:39):
sounds incredibly unappetizing. But this beer was incredibly delicious. You know.
It was a sour One of the things I love
about sour beers is that for me, it doesn't fill
me up. For some reason, I can if I wanted to,
I could keep drinking sour beers. It doesn't hit you
quite like a stout does right where it feels like
you're just drinking a lot of calories. Likely the a
b V on this one is six point four percent,
(32:00):
so it's pretty light. You and I are splitting this
bottle here. But but yeah, that's one of the things
I found man with with sour beers, is that something
about them it just doesn't you know, it doesn't fill
me up, you know I'm talking about I definitely do.
And I will say, Man, you know I mentioned this
on the show before that a sour beer with fruit
mixed in there is one of my favorite all time styles.
And I feel like this is my first beer from
(32:23):
this brewery, Casa Agria, and man, they just kind of
vaulted up to the top of my list. I totally
want to have more stuff from them because this hit
the nail on the head in one of my favorite
beer styles ever. Yeah. So this is a Flanders brown,
So typically I think Flaander's reds tend to be a
little more popular, and the flavor profile of those tend
to be maybe a little more forward, like in your face,
(32:45):
kind of aggressive. And we you and I were talking
kind of off air earlier, how this is a lot
more subtle. It's a brown nail it, so it's a
Flaander's brown and it kind of bramps up to that flavor,
but it just doesn't smack you in the face like
right when you drink it. It's kind of subtle. I
kind of ease is this way in your taste buds,
And oh my gosh, it's like nicely balanced. Yeah, it's
(33:06):
it's so well balanced. Even though Scott just massive amounts
of flavor, it still feels balanced. Yeah. It what builds.
It's got all those berries. Yeah, it's just it's just wonderful,
all right, Joel, let's hit him with our final thoughts. Yeah, man,
the first thing I want to say is people are
paying way too much for their cell phone service. So
if you keep getting that bill every month, open it
(33:26):
up instead of letting it auto pay, remember what you're paying,
look it in the face, and then decide, you know what,
I'm gonna pay less because this is just ridiculous. Yeah, man. Also,
when you're looking at that statement, look at how much
you're actually using. I think you'll find that you might
be using much less than you think. When so much
of our time is spent in locations that have WiFi,
(33:47):
whether it be at home or at work or at
a friend's house, you'll find that your on WiFi and
that you're not actually using your data. So if you're
able to use less of your cell phones data, you're
gonna end up paying less. Yeah, and for a list
of some of the cell phone carriers that are providing
the best deals, whether that be for single lines, multiple lines,
or even four lines or more. If you're gonna do
(34:09):
the family plan, go to our website check it out. Yeah,
the cell phone space it's always changing and it's a
really competitive landscape. So if you haven't shopped for cell
phone service in a while, chances are you're paying way
too much. Also, there's a good chance that your company
or a company that you do business with, offers you
an additional discount on the cell phone plan that you're
(34:31):
currently on. Look into that. Because I'm saving on my
plan because of an employer sponsored deal. And to that,
all eight of us say thank you. Papa Joel, no problem.
Little Birdie's all right. Everyone. Thanks for listening. Our home
on the web is how to money dot com. We'll
have shown up for this episode with links to each
(34:51):
and every specific cellphone provider that we mentioned. That's right,
And if you like what you hear and have found
our podcast helpful, let us know. You can give a
s review on Apple Podcasts. We'd love to hear from you,
and while you're there, be sure to subscribe. Until next time. Buddy,
Best Friends Out, Man Best Friends Out.
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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