As most of you know we use Ting here and LOVE it.
Recently we were able to switch DH and his beloved iPhone over to Ting. That simple change has saved us $60/month. Which came at just the right time because we ended up needing $60 more per month to cover the new health plan for the children.
As stated in the title Ting service actually saves us more than $60 each month.
Here is how I am basing that statement:
Sprint (network Ting uses) is now offering it's "Framily" plan. So assuming all three of us phone users in our family used that plan it would be $45/pp/mo. That is $135 per month. And say another $6 for taxes and fees, so $141 total per month.
Here is our Ting bill from February 18 to March 18.
(so you all don't think I made up numbers!)
(Our texting is high due to DD. She pays difference between the $5 Medium level and whatever level her texting lands us.)
Yes, that total is $61.97 for three smart phones. Really it could be much lower if we tried harder to limit some of the usage.
AND the amount I actually *paid* last month was $36.97 because I had a $25 referral credit (THANK YOU dear person!).
I think the savings are even greater if you compare plans from AT&T or Verizon. One of them is offering a "special deal" - a four line plan for $180/mo.
SO, if changing your cell service to Ting sounds like something you'd like to do you can save $25 right away by using my referral code:
MonkeyMama and Ceejay are also using Ting. I know MM likes it. I am interested to hear if Ting is saving CeeJay money and if she likes her new phone.
UPDATE: CeeJay was the first one to comment!
April 3rd, 2014 at 09:41 pm 1396557712
I like it so far! We put a hard data limit on our account, which is great because that's the only thing I could see getting expensive; minutes and texts are cheap for what we tend to use. So it will cut us off if we get near the point where we'd bump up to the Medium level of data usage! We keep 4G/mobile/whatever it's called turned off except in emergencies; many places have Wi-Fi so the smartphone aspect still comes in handy without constantly accessing the mobile network.
It looks like next month's bill will be about $33 for all three of us, minus a bit of our referral credit we still have left. Our prepaid phones tended to average us $40-$50 per month, and we had to buy 1000 minutes at a time to get a year of service, so this new monthly but still cheap option (with a bit of smartphone functionality!) is a great deal.
The Sprint coverage is patchy compared with our old T-Mobile coverage, but a friend of ours has had Sprint for a long time and says they're upgrading their towers in our area, so we should be getting better coverage shortly. And it's really not that bad; it's mostly in our high-rise that we have trouble sometimes, but we only need the phone for buzzing people in; if we really wanted to call someone while at home, we could always Skype. (And we can always go down and let people in if the buzzing in isn't working.)
So yeah! We've only had them less than a month, but so far it seems like a great value -- and, more important, doesn't look like it'll cost any more per month than our prepaid dumbphones did!
April 3rd, 2014 at 09:47 pm 1396558065
April 3rd, 2014 at 10:07 pm 1396559241
Sprint data is *terrible* in our city. My dh heard that they had backed down the 3G while they upgrade 4G. (We never received anything in the realm of advertised 3G speeds and got endless Sprint credits from complaining). But that has been going on for about 24 months. Every month or two or three my dh tells me there is an insider rumor that they are going to turn on 4G this next month!!! (I don't even know why he bothers any more. They told us that when we got our Sprint phones 2 years ago. I will believe it when I see it). So yeah, at this point, "3G speeds as advertised" would be an immense improvement. We'd be more than happy with that.
That said, it was ridiculous to pay $100/month for that data speed. & the only phone that was really bad was my dh's old phone. I have never had any problems. Though I have noticed dead spots in some of the areas dh frequents, and see why he was so annoyed. But for $25/month (& free with credits), I have not heard one complaint since we switched to Ting (no complaints from dh). We know the network will eventually improve. Until then, what we pay is fine for what we get. We also largely get 4G everywhere else but our immediate neighborhood.
I can only laugh at commercials that say what a great deal 2 phones for $180/month are.
I have yet to pay one single cent to Ting - 4+ months of service.
April 3rd, 2014 at 10:27 pm 1396560436
April 4th, 2014 at 12:13 am 1396566797
We get excellent 4G here and even on 3G the phones are fast enough usually. Of course I don't really care about all that much and try to just use WiFi.
FreebieQueen - I am SO happy that you are happy! It is great to hear my recommendation helped you save money - Thanks!
April 4th, 2014 at 07:16 am 1396592213