Try this experiment: Calculate how much you actually spend per minute using your current cell plan for one month. You may be astonished at the result! People routinely spend much more than they think.
Let’s say your cell phone plan is $60 per month and you spend 300 minutes talking. Right there, that’s 20 cents a minute! If you go over your allotted minutes, you get hit hard. AND most people are in a contractual relationship with their carrier, meaning you pledge to pay for the service for one or two years!
Being cheap and wary of large company monopolies and contracts, I set out to find a different way. The pay-as-you-go plan I found a few months ago is through STI Mobile. It’s eight cents a minute, which has been working out well for us. There’s usually adequate coverage because they piggyback on the Sprint network. The only downside is horrible customer service.
We also eliminated our land line years ago and never looked back. Why pay for a land line AND cell phones? It just confuses your friends who aren’t sure what number to call when.
Today, I set up an entirely new system using my awesome iMac as a phone. I can call (and receive calls) anywhere in the US for free! I used this article as a guide.
I’ll be testing this system out for a week or so to make sure it works well, and then getting rid of my cell phone. Simplicity is a good thing! One cell phone at eight cents a minute and a free land line is all the complexity we need.
Perhaps best of all, my new number is 617-440-HOLT. How awesome is that? Yeah, I’ll have to change my number, but it’s worth it.
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