Recent Light Bulb Moment about Verizon Wireless Plans

We currently have a cell phone family plan with Verizon Wireless, and have for many years.  Only recently when money has been looking a little tighter, and the boys growing up and getting out on their own, have I actually REALLY looked into what we have been paying for these past 6 years or so.

On a Verizon PLAN they tell you (or at least they told us) that we are actually SAVING MONEY by going with a  family plan and "sharing everything".  Currently we have 1 smart phones, 2 basic phones, and a mobile hot spot, all with 2GB  shared Data and unlimited talk & text. We are also paying for a prepaid basic phone (long story). Gasp! it is expensive, but Verizon knows what they were talking about on saving money, right?

Come February we will have 1 smart phone, 1 mobile hot spot, and 2 prepaid phones.  This saves us about $60 on our "plan", but because the prepaid phones are minimum $50 a month for minutes, we really aren't saving any yet,  HOWEVER if you don't have the money buy more minutes you're not going to be having bill collectors knocking at your door, you're just without a phone until you can buy more minutes.  One of the prepaid belongs to our son.  He still lives at home and works for us, so paying for his minutes is part of his salary. :-)  For that matter hubby and I could probably share the smart phone since with it he could get on facebook and message me or call me at the shop.  Hummmmm nice thought to remember.

Back to the Verizon PLAN.......I'm going to talk about the Smart Phone, because that's what most people I know have, and what I have.  The phone I have is about a  $500 phone if I were buy it outright (which is silly because the really only cost a few dollars to produce), but with a 2 year contract it's a special price for about $200  BUT we pay $40 a month just to have the smart phone on our plan.  If I'm figuring correctly that's $960 more that I'm paying for the phone after I've already purchased it with a plan (so over $1000 for the phone?  Seriously?).  If I had bought it outright I'm guessing I would still be charged the $40 a month additional for the line on our plan.

We have 2GB shared data plan between my phone and the mobile hotspot (which we hardly ever use).  That is $60 a month (same as it is for a $60 prepaid smart phone with 2GB data).  I have to watch my data usage so I don't go over because it's $15 per GB (which I'm sure they round up) over the 2GB we already pay for.

I know that the prepaid smart phones have a limited selection, but that's not a big problem for me, as long as I can text and chat with my friends on facebook.  I already know which one I want when my plan expires, unless we decide to go with a basic phone, which I would be fine with also.   I won't bore you with the details of our plan come February when 2 of the 4 devices are able to be cancelled without penalty (which that is a whole another thing and is stupid what they want to cancel). We do plan on cancelling the plans as they "mature" and go prepaid just because the economy is so insecure it's scary to think of not being able to pay my bills when they come due.

With a prepaid Verizon smart phone, once you buy the phone there are no additional charges other than your monthly minutes card.  Minimum is $60 and that is for 2GB data that you don't have to share.  When you use up all your data, you just have to buy another card.  :-)  So it is actually a savings of $40 a month to go prepaid with a smart phone.



I don't think Verizon isn't being completely honest with their customers who actually commit to a plan for 2 years. It's more of a trap than a "cheaper way to go".

This is completely my own opinion, I'm not unhappy with Verizon service, it's the best coverage for our area, I just wish I had looked into this a lot sooner.