Where do we (my phone and I) go from here?

March 6, 2015 9:20 AM

My current mobile situation meets some of my needs, but not others. Can I do better?

I've been using T-Mobile's Pay As You Go plan (now notated as a "Legacy" plan, I note with some concern) for many years. Once a year, I buy a $100 minutes card, and this covers my texting and call needs for a whole year, more or less. Sometimes I finish a year with some money left over, and sometimes I end up needing to buy more minutes a month or two sooner. I have weeks and months where I barely use my phone, and others where I am traveling or interacting more with people and call and text much more frequently (in general, I text a lot more than I call). I have never had a data plan, instead stalking around for halfway decent wifi signals where ever I go.

I like the way my plan is now because I never lose minutes month to month, and if I were to lose my job, I would not have to struggle with paying monthly bills or breaking a contract. I have had a fairly positive experience with T-Mobile and view them (perhaps wrongly) as a slightly more ethical mobile service provider choice. I currently rock a 2nd generation Moto G, and I like it a lot. I'd prefer not to have to buy another phone unless I absolutely have to.

On the other hand, the mobile service plan landscape is changing, and I wonder if I could get more for a similar amount of money. I get the impression that T-Mobile's Pay As You Go option is changing, but even when I read a lot of different official and unofficial sources about it, I can't get a sense of how and how it's going to affect me. How is a plan still a Pay As You Go Plan if you are expected to pay, for example, $40 a month?

Additionally, I want to travel more this year, and between that and using public transportation at home, there are many places and times of the day and evening where I wish I could use data, or would like to be able to have my own secure signal to connect to - airports, or when I am out and about late at night or in places I'm unfamiliar with, for example. However, I have no idea how to gauge what my mobile data usage might be in a given month, and site pages that ask questions like "how many pictures do you upload a day? How many hours do you stream internet radio?" aren't really helpful - they all end up placing me in the most expensive "unlimited" data tiers.

I also don't know how to realistically calculate what my minutes needs might be when in one month at home I might only make a few very brief phone calls (<5 minutes), but in another I might be traveling and on the phone with many people for longer. A one-hour phone call devastates a plan where you have only 100 minutes to work with per month.

Hive mind, how are you meeting your mobile service needs when they change from month to month and you need to be thrifty? I'm interested in hearing from people who use services like Ting, and also people who use mobile hotspots. Thank you in advance.

posted by koucha to Technology (3 answers total)

I have a T-Mobile prepaid account, for $35 a month, which is a lot more than $100 a year. But it's no contract, so you don't have to worry about continuing to pay for it (if you can find something cheaper to fall back on). And you would be able to use it with your existing phone. For that price, I get unlimited text and data (which really is nice to have), and 100 minutes a month (which I know is going to sound like it's not enough, but hold on!).

If your phone allows WiFi calling, those minutes don't count towards your 100 minutes. This works out great for me, because when I usually know when I'm going to need to make a long call, and can plan it for someplace where I have WiFi access. Also, additional regular mobile minutes are $0.10. So it's not like you can't make any calls if you go over your 100 minutes.

If you go with a non-unlimited data plan, don't pay any attention to those "how much data do you need?" calculators. You sound like you would use close to the minimum (especially if you're often in places with WiFi), and if you find yourself running out, you're only just back where you were with no data. Just don't develop a pattern of downloading HD movies on the bus (which you probably don't want to do with your existing phone anyway) and you'll be fine.
posted by mskyle at 9:36 AM on March 6, 2015

My wife is on the T-mobile PAYG plan just like you. It works for her, the only thing I have seen cheaper per minute is LycaMobile which offers 2 cents a minute (may have increased to 4). I don't know if the minute retention is as long as what T-mobile offers.

Another cheap option would be to use Freedompop, they supposedly offer free phone service (limited phone selection) that includes 200 min/ 200 text / 500 mb data. I think they route everything through cellular data so I'm not sure of the reliability, esp. when 3G/4G is not available.
posted by wongcorgi at 9:55 AM on March 6, 2015

Stay where you are unless there's a compelling reason to change, perhaps if you want data service more than a few days a year or to be able to make more calls. Otherwise you already get minutes at a reasonable price and hold the balance for a year no matter what size refill you use since you're already Gold.

I seriously doubt that T-Mobile is going to stop servicing existing PAYG accounts any time soon, and you'll lose whatever balance you have if you switch to a monthly plan. Not to mention that there's pretty much nothing out there with a lower monthly cost.
posted by wierdo at 2:03 PM on March 6, 2015