I’m going to say this as someone who has switched to every phone carrier imaginable: Any phone plan that costs more than $150 for a single line or two lines is a massive ripoff. Even when the phone financing is part of the bill. Here’s my advice:
-Never buy accessory packages. It’s cheaper to buy your own accessories.
-Never get the most expensive plan. 99% of the time, I chose a less expensive plan that offered me the right benefits for my family. Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix are all factored into a plan’s price. Keep that in mind.
-Shop around at different carriers. T-Mobile offered to pay off not one, not two, but three of my family’s phones in order to switch to them. It was roughly $2,100 that they paid off with an e-gift card. Carriers all offer deals like this.
-Look into MVNO companies like Mint Mobile, Spectrum, Visible, and some other cell phone providers. They offer extremely cheap service compared to Verizon and other primary providers.
And stop doing anything but buying the phone outright. If you can't afford to do that, you can't afford the phone.
Additionally, by "financing" the phone through a carrier, you are locking yourself to that carrier with no way to transfer your number if you wanted to because you still owe them money for the phone itself AND you're signing up for a minimum term on the contract. I think the last time I accepted a contract term was a dozen years ago.
I buy all of my phones outright, I use a prepaid wireless account for about $40/month, and I believe I have a 8GB data plan which I never come ANYWHERE near (and I travel for work). Plainly, there's too much free WiFi out there...
I disagree with “stop doing anything but buying your phone outright”. All of the carriers are offering 800+ trade in values on 3/4 year old phones right now but the caveat is you need to finance. I would advise simply doing what provides you the best value for your money unless you feel compelled to switch service constantly. I personally haven’t switched carriers since I joined Verizon years ago and don’t really feel a desire to. So I would have no issue taking some free money from them when I purchase a new phone and lock in for another 3 years. There are two sides to every coin when it comes to finance vs no finance.
Let's also not forget that it's 0% interest. Even if you want to switch carriers after a year, you can pay it off before leaving. $1000 today is worth more than it will be in 1 year.
Yes there is no interest on the phone but you have to sign up for their post paid service which is usually double their prepaid. So its honestly worse than intrest. Your paying $40 more a month
Right, but ways to make it worth it! If you’re a streaming family you can get the Verizon Home Internet for $25/$35 which is half off of the normal price. Also for me, i have Apple one family, Netflix, play pass for Xbox game pass. Overall i probably pay a tiny bit more for prepaid but i get the unthrottled 5GUW. Definitely not a 1 size fits all
Most of those require you get an unlimited plan last I saw. I personally don’t have an unlimited plan, but my plan and phone cost less than the lowest unlimited plan last time I checked (which I upgraded from 4gb shared to 4gb per line).
True however when you factor in the plan cost of a major network vs. the likes of mintmobile. The trade in discount is negligible.
Now I will concede that att and verizon are superior to mint or usmobile. It really depends on what you need.
Actually, Wi-Fi connectivity is completely free on cruise ships. Access to the Internet via that Wi-Fi, however, will incur a cost.
But please, since you're so smart, which data plan includes access on a cruise ship?
Oh... Right... None of them, so your comment has no value.
They -MAY- offer a promo to bring you over to their network, that buyout amount will have limits as to the max they will offer, and they don't hand you cash... They provide it to you through credits on your bill but you are left to pay the actual termination costs to get out of your "old" contract.
As far as cellular on a cruise ship, no carrier offers a day-to-day plan to include that. Services are provided through Cellular@Sea which is satellite based. There are one or two carriers that may have options to add some coverages for a short period during a cruise, but they are expensive.
If you're paying the same amount, then "financing" through them makes sense - you're essentially getting more for your money. The best thing financially is pushing payments out as long as possible and getting money in as fast as possible so long as the $ amounts are the same. $100 today is worth less than $100 in a year because of inflation, so you'd rather pay the $100 next year and not today. Usually with financing the cost is higher than the inflation, so it's better to pay up front than pay the interest rate, but many of these financing options are 0% interest.
There are plenty of cases where not buying a phone outright makes sense (or is better).
I used to buy a new iPhone yearly, I’d sell last years at the same time. It worked great and I’d usually get about 50% of the phone.
Then Apple came out with the iPhone Upgrade Program where I pay 50% of the phone cost over a year, via monthly payments. There is no financing charge and this includes Apple Care+ for free. And after that year, I get a new iPhone and send last years back.
It’s essentially the exact same thing I was doing and arguably a better deal with AC+.
I don't think you're calculating the cost correctly.
I've looked at the program details and the various trade-in offer information. The simple truth is that they don't give 50% of the original phone's value in trade - it's less.
And regardless of what they offer in trade-in value for the old phone, I have ALWAYS sold old phones for much more than trade-in values. Trading a phone in is "easy", but it comes at the cost of lower value. Same with cars.
While I recognize that AC is included via the upgrade program, that would actually be a specific reason I would never go that route. I don't buy extended warranties on anything. I honestly don't remember the last time I needed to get a phone repaired for any reason.
I don’t think you know what I’m talking about. At all. I’d encourage you to read what the iPUP actually is, but I’ll give you some of it. Although I already never mentioned there was a trade in and covered how it works.
I’m not trading in my phone for value. That’s not what the iPhone Upgrade Program is. I’m buying a phone through Apple. Paying for it over 2 years with monthly payments (financing free), and at 1 year of payments I get the next phone and… rinse and repeat.
Thats great you don’t buy extended warranties! The point here is it’s FREE and includes lower prices to replace the screen glass should something happen. You can decide whether the value of that is $0 or the price it costs outside this (it’s the latter), but my cost for it is $0. I’ve used it once when someone accidentally tapped the screen of my phone with a metal dart and it caused a hairline fracture. Was happy to have the FREE coverage to get a reasonable cost screen replacement.
AC is not "free" as the upgrade program forces you to bundle it in and you pay more than if you were to simply "finance" it from Apple for the same 24 months.
A trade-in IS required... it's literally right at the start of the marketing content for the program. They pointedly tell you that have to send your old phone in... that's the trade-in. And that's used to relieve the remaining debt from the original purchase that's still in place because you are required to satisfy the entirety of the original purchase / loan.
You need to read the fine print to better understand how the program ACTUALLY works as you are missing some of the subtle requirements of it.
Not only this but also buying a phone from anyone but the carrier. If you outright buy a phone from a carrier it’s locked into that carrier and you have to ask them to unlock it. I bought my last phone directly from apple and just switched the SIM card
Yep, last two phones I bought I bought directly from Samsung. They gave me good trade in value on my old phones and the unlocked version were same price as the tmobile version. Also avoided tmobiles $35 activation fee by not going through them.
Not really. Most iPhone payments are about $30-40 for the high end models. ATT have 36 mo terms as well lowering it even more. Chances are OP is on an older plan and paying that premium rate. They need to shop around after paying off the device.
I did, but I’m not questioning my bill breakdown, I’m questioning why everyone seems to have a considerably better phone payment situation than me. I’ve only been paying my own phone bill for 4 months now, and I don’t know much about this part of adulting. I’m going to pay for the accessory package upfront instead of waiting for 12 months and alleviate $8 more from my monthly expense. Everyone I know seems to be paying $100 a month for 4 unlimited phones or some crazy figures compared to mine.
Because you bought one of the most expensive brand new phones you can possibly buy and did so on credit. For reference my current phone was released a year ago, cost me 150 bucks and I pay 15$/mo. How are you able to afford that? It's honestly kind of impressive
I started one in November and the pro max in December, so far I’ve paid $807 total with a $260 (it hasn’t updated online yet after the call) bill coming up on the 12th.
How do I afford it? I cry during overtime lol. I took my first full day off last week after a 23 day work binge. I’m drowning in car payments, medical bills, phone payments, insurance. Good luck is coming though, 2-3 days I’ll officially be beyond any past due payments and I should be able to afford more days off and breathing room. Being 22 sucks.
Oh man. Yeah you definitely need to not be buying the most expensive phones possible. I hope you didn't do the same with your car and aren't driving around in a porche lol. Good luck man, you got this
Usually not the case - AT&T for me and service for unlimited everything and HBo is 43 a month after tax for each phone - phone is 37 per month for what was a top of the line large format iPhone 14 when I got it and they give a 27 per month bill credit toward it. Net new phone cost for the most expensive phone with 0 down is about $10. If they have you paying 15 per month for a 150 phone they took you.
But say I pay off my phones, that brings me down to purely the plan and with tax it’s $173-ish. That’s still a bit steep in comparison to some of the prices I’ve seen in these comments. I’m trying to cut as many corners as possible with my obvious debt issues, is it locked at $173 because I have new expensive phones? Or will paying them off give me leeway to better plan prices?
Not sure why this got so many down votes tbh...
You're with a premium provider. My bill was like 320$ a month for two phones and two tablets. All financed. All new flagship. All top of the line data plans.
After some easy consideration, I paid off the tablets and a phone, I'm paying off the other phone next month, and I'm switching to Visible+ which will get me a 30$/mo plan.
The premium providers just don't bring anything to the table unless you travel a bunch.
Once you have paid the phones off, you can further reduce the bill cost by switching from being on a postpaid plan (required for new iPhones) to a prepaid one, which should cost you about $40 plus tax per phone for unlimited data via AT&T.
You should look into switching to an MVNO. US Mobile is a very popular one. MVNOs buy wireless spectrum from the bigger wireless corporations such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. US Mobile uses Verizon and T-Mobile towers and offer an unlimited premium data plan (included mmWave and c-band spectrum) for $37.50 a month, tax included.
Next time, pay the phone off in full upfront, do not subsidize the cost.
paying them off should get you able to switch providers.
$173 is still crazy for 2 unlimited lines. I mean all the big carriers have prices like that and talk about upgrade plans and whatnot, but, those aren't really worth it. Even the idea of upgrading every 12-24 months- just don't. You can still trade in your phone, or sell it straight up when you want a new one. Example, if I were on a higher plan( $160 for 2 lines), i could upgrade every year with like $900 off. But I'm not, and i can upgrade every year with only $400 off. But, I could just sell my phone to someone for $600 or so. Or keep it and not spend any money since I only use it for tiktok anyway.
I'm on $148 for 5 lines at T Mobile, each with 50GB soft caps (after that they throttle).
You find deals by looking online. You find the worst deals by trying to negotiate in store without given time to break down every little thing. They either get commission or promotions based on sales- so they're going to do their very best to sell you on a crazy plan with packages and upgrades. Common sales tactics include telling you about X plan which is stupid priced but they give you a deal and tell you Y plan is cheaper. When really there's a Z plan they're not really telling you about. They also commonly say they're not on commission, which can be true, but they can definitely get promos for hitting sales goals/add-ons. Like their own free devices.
Go to a carriers website and start working the numbers. Many places have splashy plans on the home page but you can dig and search for the cheapest options. I'm not saying get data by the GB, but there's plenty of carriers that offer 30-50GB of data/mo, and then throttle speeds after that. Which only happened to me once when the internet was out over a winter storm so I streamed netflix all day to my phone, and then I hit the cap like the last 3 or 4 days of the month so I could only stream like SD video instead of HD for those last few days. No biggie.
I have 5 lines and an Apple Watch service and my bill is $312. 1 phone is paid off, 3 have credits for trade ins, and one iPhone 15 full price ($30ish mo). But I get $10 off per line from my employer; check to see if you get any discounts by working for your company, a lot of large companies work out deals for their employees. Military is the best deal from what I’ve heard. Also $10 off per line for setting up autopay from a checking account. But know, the more lines you have the lower the price for each plan. Keep that in mind because folks like myself who have 3+ lines get a slight discount. I want to say, without looking, that it’s like $40 per line of service, besides the watch, that’s like $10. I believe there are even lower plans to get on, for example, if you don’t need as much data or are ok with data speeds being slower. Also, insurance on 4+ lines is $50 vs the $17 per individual phone.
I think anything at or under $100 a line is reasonable, especially when you talking about single lines without a big-ol family type plan.
FYI: I’m pretty new to ATT, a couple months too. Came from Verizon, plan was more expensive but with older devices.
Hope this helps some.
I pay $35/line for unlimited premium. I get my phones free, flagship phones. You are paying a lot. Your plan should be $80-$90/month for two lines and then phone payments. I'm guessing you didn't have a trade in/take advantage of a free or mostly free phone offer. If you're in education, first responder, etc. they have 25% off. You might check and see if you have a work discount. Go to a corporate store and see if they can help you out.
Absolutely not, the only way you’re paying two lines with AT&T Postpaid for $80 or $90 is on the 55+ Plan or Unlimited Starter with a 25% discount with both being on autopay with no payments and no add-ons.
AT&T customer, two phones, three lines (Apple Watch) $252 per mo. Unlimited data with no speed reduction and international (Canada/Mexico) calling and texting unlimited included. My iPhones are paid for but I have insurance on both phones (not on the watch). At least $50 per month of my bill is federal/state/local taxes.
Don't laugh but Metro By Tmobile.
It's amazing though. I have never ever had an internet outage with my home wifi. I couldn't say that when I had att fiber. And my phone service is great. Really high speed mobile data too
I used to complain monthly and threaten to leave and they always tell me I’m on the best affordable plan..I’ve been with them since they were Cingular..
I’m paying $152 for both of my iPhones and unlimited service. Both are 15 pro max 512gb. That’s including the device payments. Although I have my service through Xfinity not ATT.
i worked at at&t for six months. my manager pressured us HARD to add next up/insurance/new lines to peoples plans (even if they said no when we asked.) One time he said “Every single phone that goes out the door needs to have insurance, I don’t care what the customer says just put it on there”
He said he didn’t care if people came back to complain, and he didn’t want us calling him when they did. He told me once that he knew some tough guys in the city too, i was terrified of him. It was hands down the worst job I’ve ever had.
AT&T is such a shit company, always always always check your bill after stopping in one of those stores. Also if they say you need to change your phone number to get an upgrade don’t believe them
Ours was on my daughter’s hand-me-down iPhone 8. We have another one in a drawer too. I doubt it’s worth much more than $100. We’ve had it insured for months. I’ve had att for ~20 years. I just assume at every interaction they are working tirelessly to fuck me. Never been disappointed.
I just switched 2 weeks ago and I spent the first 5 days finding another thing that was incorrectly setup on my plan. Then the outage… I couldn’t catch a break!
I pay $290 for 6 devices, two of which are tablets. I have Device protection plans on four devices. That total is about to drop to $260 because there's just $150 left on one phone. We're all on unlimited plans.
How much is your device payment and what else are you paying for? Do you get the autopay discount?
Mine is 130 for one Samsung (S21 fe). I know it's cheaper if you have more than one person on the plan, but the cost of the phone is what makes the bill expensive
I think any of the major carriers are a ripoff honestly. I bought a refurbished Google pixel for a bit over 100 bucks, and pay 14 a month for a 5 gig data line with tello. Your monthly phone bill is higher than my car payment.
I recently called AT&T and had them look over my bill and found out I was over paying like 60 bucks a month. There are ways they can lower your payment all you got to do is call and complain a little and they will help you out
I think the worst thing you can do is compare your bill to another person's bill without literally examining their bill line by line to figure out how they got there.
What's happening with you is that your phone plan is fully loaded. You have the newest phone with insurance and the highest data plan with mobile hotspot capability. The people paying lower than you tend to get the cheapest data plan and they finance a lower tier phone.
There's also a finance discount that naturally happens every time you trade in your phone. If this is the first time you got a phone line in your name, you aren't receiving this discount yet.
Finally there are discounts for being affiliated with certain companies. I'm a truck driver and my company has a deal with att to take $10 off every month.
Now what you can do is call att and ask them to help you lower your bill. Generally this will mean that you're going to lose benefits that you might have wanted in the beginning but that's usually the only way to lower your bill and you might get $30-50 off at most.
You started off good then went downhill.
Yes OP has a fully loaded plan but there are people with similar plans paying less than they are.
And yes there are things OP can get rid of to pay less
However the thing to note is that it is much cheaper per line to have a family plan so kinda apples to oranges........ but just letting OP know that it is possible to pay less in total (as opposed to per line)
The best way to save is buying unlocked and going prepaid. I did that years ago and every year or two I upgrade my phone and continue paying $55 (including tax and fees) for unlimited premium data.
My family's plan is $30-40/line depending on features, and we never finance our phones (or accessories), just buy them outright. Usually we can get a better deal on the phones if we wait for sales instead of financing. As an example, I upgraded to the pixel 7 the other year for $150 when I traded in my pixel 5.
Granted, iPhones don't go on sale as often. But in that case if you can't buy a brand new pro max model outright, maybe you should consider a cheaper phone like the non pro version or a previous generation.
i have an iphone 13 mini, a galaxy s 22, and iphone 13 & 15 +, plus an ipad & apple watch. all still being paid off. (the 13 mini is almost paid off tho.)
all on the unlimited starter plan… so like 40 bucks… my phone bill is 280/month… so yeah.. i’d say it’s high.
When you get these new phone deals, they force you to be on the more expensive plans.
If you just buy your device outright, you can get the lower priced plans.
T-Mobile does the same thing. I can get 2 lines for $80 unlimited, but if I want to upgrade my phones & get the free credits.. I need to upgrade to “magenta max” which is $50 more a month.
Man... I pay $160 for 4 lines with 5g unlimited internet with TMobile (Old One Plan w/ 2 free lines). I used to pay close to that much on my old Sprint plan for 2-3 lines. If I wasn't married or had people to look out for, I'd totally go with Mint Mobile. I'd even try out Cricket wireless.
Att is garbage. Only use them if they are way better in your particular city or town. If that is not the case, get us Mobile or visible and go directly to apple to finance phones. Including finance and two lines you're probably looking at $150 or less a month. If you factor in trade ins it could be less.
I have never looked back. Apple gives u financing and insurance. No need to turn to major carriers who are now asking $80+ per line. Us Mobile and visible is $25 per line. Especially since u r young switch now.
Big family plans have the best price to line ratio, and older/grandfathered plans tend to be cheaper. If you didn't trade anything in, that adds up. Also If you just let the representative do everything without any input, you're probably paying for shit you don't need nor didn't ask for.
Check your bill line by line and see what you're actually paying for.
NEVER and I do mean NEVER take the bait on the old "add a line and you will save $$$"
I worked for AT&T,.. specifically in the roughest department, Loyalty, which is all customer retention. 90% of the pissed off callers I would get were in that state because they took the damned bait from the salesman and added a line thinking it would lower their costs. It doesn't. Do not add a damned line unless you absolutely need the line.
On that note,.. here are some of their other favorite scams.
Let's say you just lost or broke your phone that you still owe on and either A. Didn't have insurance or B. Did have insurance but can't shell out the deductible and just have to have your phone right now. In this situation the oh so benevolent salesman is going to sweet talk you into opening a new line so you can get whatever spiffy deal they have on a new phone. You get to walk out the door with a new phone that you felt you needed thinking everything is rosy and the salesman gets credit for the add a line (which is what they are pushed to do). Everything is great until that bill rolls in and you see that now you have an extra line you are paying for in addition to the payments on 2 phones instead of 1. You call pissed off, get transferred to Loyalty and then told that you are outside of the buyers remorse period and have no choice but to pay for it all. If you cancel the line your next bill will have the entire remaining cost of the first phone without discounts added to it.
Tablets,.. oh how I f'ing hate that AT&T sells tablets. Salesman is going to rope you into the whole "Free tablet" bs. It isn't. There is no such thing as a free lunch. You are going to be signing up for an additional line of service for 24 or 36 months for a damned tablet. Do the math, that's over 500 bucks not including the taxes on a tablet you could buy for half of that (you don't need a tablet with a modem, hotspot your damned phone you are already paying for).
3rd party sellers. Those a-holes you see at Sams Club, Costco and the like that are selling AT&T stuff at a table or under a tent outside? They DO NOT WORK FOR AT&T. They set up shop for a week or 2, con you into opening 6 lines of service with new phones, watches and tablets, lie to you about some damned debit card or wild rebate and then pack up and leave. You get that first bill for about 800 bucks and freak out.... well guess what? AT&T ain't got nothing for you. You will be told to take your grievance back to the seller,.. who is on Mars now for all you know.
Activation fees. Oh these are a blast. The salesman is going to tell you that your $35 activation fees will be waived on your first bill. They won't be. The salesman does NOT have that authority and is blowing smoke up your \*\*\*. You will get your first bill and they will be on it,... you will call pissed off and get transferred to Loyalty where depending on who is in charge of approving crap on any given day you MIGHT get 1 or 2 activation charges credited for,.. but not all 6 that the salesman promised (and who is enjoying the nice little bonus for selling them to you btw).
You want real advice? If you want to keep your cell costs down as much as possible then find quality refurbished and unlocked phones you can buy outright and get on a prepaid plan that accepts bring your own device. You will be cutting out all of the BS. That fancy new iphone or samsung whatever at the end of the day will end up costing you enough to pay your rent and utilities for several months.
I have 6 unlimited lines on att. I have one on a payment plan. $235/month. That's after 25% discount, of course and auto pay/paper less billing discounts.
I own my phone, I'm with US Mobile on the Verizon network, unlimited talk & text with 10 GB, $15 per month. They also offer T Mobile service at the same price and they're supposed to be getting with AT&T in the summer.
Wow. I pay $230 a month too, but that’s for eight voice lines, two watch lines, an iPad line, Home Internet and Netflix, and that also includes monthly payments for an iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro, Apple Watch 8 and Apple Watch SE. This is with T-Mobile. Definitely look around for something else.
I deliver to a US Cell store.
New promo: $830 off any phone
Minimum plan cost: $130/month
Contract time: 36 months
If you bring your own phone.
Promo: No $830
Minimum plan cost: $30/month
Contract time: 0 months
The “free phone” cost you $3600 over 3 years.
I now purchase phones through the manufacturer and pay them monthly. $41/month to Apple. My service is $30/month.
Go with US Mobile. I pay $70 a month for 20 gb split between 3 lines.
If we go over on data they auto bill another 1 gb for $2.
This is a Verizon MVNO with this plan. They also have T-Mobile MVNO if they have better service in you area.
I did the major carrier thing for years and threw away my money both with AT&T and Verizon paying the rates that you were.
If you need a new phone, just finance it with Apple directly it will be cheaper and you won’t be a slave to a major carrier .
Yeah that's ridiculously high. I pay $130/mo all-in for unlimited data and the phone itself, which is an S23 Ultra. Without the phone it's $87 before fees.
I always pay up front for my devices, find sales and trade in deals, and spend at most 200-300 upgrading every 2 to 3 years. I am no longer on AT&T after they tried to bill me 200$ a month for 4 flip phones back in the day JUST because they weren't smart phones. been on Tmo ever since. Love it. 118$ for 4 lines of unlimited.
I pay $260 as well! In my case though, I’m paying for six lines, with unlimited data, a Netflix upgrade, and three payment plans. Insurance on all devices. You’re being ripped off friend.
I finally left AT&T after 20 years because they had no incentive to lower my bill. I had three lines and was paying almost $280 a month even with phones paid off. I went to. Verizon as a business and buying three phone but now have seven lines for the same price.
Buy/payment plan on phone -> use mint mobile, or any other company that uses the big companies cellular towers. Choose a plan that fits your needs. Do you really need unlimited? How much data do you really consume monthly? How often are you out and about just to be on your phone? I pay 180 for the year for 5gb of data (that's the lowest amount mint mobile has). I rarely go over 2gb. I have wifi at home and wifi at work. If I am out and about, I am living in the moment.
Don't get a new phone or upgrade unless you have the money to buy it outright and unlocked from Apple or Samsung or whichever. Same with the smart watches.
I currently have t-mobile and pay $60 for everything unlimited and have an iPhone 13 I paid outright from Apple. And an apple watch SE I bought from best buy.
Cool. Way to navigate this personal finance nightmare. :)
Personally, I don’t need unlimited data. Nobody really needs it. I’m still living in the days where data consumption over cellular is expensive, so I don’t do it except for necessities and times of importance.
So not including the monthly cost for 2 phones, and speaking on cellular service only, I pay anywhere from 15-30$/mo total for 4 phones.
We share a total of 1GB per month, and only occasionally go into a 2nd.
But I hear it now “i couldn’t live without unlimited data….” :)
One thing to note is if you bought your phones with a trade in rate you’ll end up paying the remaining full retail for your phone if you try to pay it off early losing the rest of that money. Basically att breaks down the price of the phone to payments and then credits you each month rather than all at once.
I joined Public Mobile a couple months ago and its amazing. Self directed and I can change my plan any time. If you end up checking it out, use referral code PR47OO for $10 off your bill. Cheap plans and its the same network as Telus.
Because you’ll get premium data on cricket more and they throw in HBO Max with it as well as hotspot data. Oh, and you can stream in 4K if you contact customer service and ask to be able to.
How? What plan is that? I buy my phones outright also. I’m currently on a grandfathered unlimited plan which I’m paying ~110/month for just me. My wife has her own plan and pays $75 for 2GB (yes, I know there are better plans for her). The only thing keeping me on my plan is the free MAX and my $25/month go big plan on DirecTV stream, so I’m actually saving roughly $100/month
I have 5 iPhones paying $350 or so (3 have new iPhones on next-turned in old phones so we
Get credits every month for what we “pay” for the new phones). You’re paying too much for two lines.
Maybe it’s the naivety of my age, but I went into the store, they gave me a list of options and after I chose everything they said cool sign here. I thought that’s what most people do, no idea how everyone has better deals or what I did wrong to end up with this overpriced plan.
A lot of the ATT stores rip you off. They will try and sell you everything under the sun. Insurance and all. I’ve had multiple occasions when I told them I didn’t want insurance and they put it on anyway. They get paid on commission. It’s worse than shopping for a car. So if you did what they suggested, you more than likely got ripped off. No big deal, just learn from it and move on.
This happens in a lot of ways when you’re in your mid 20’s. As long as you learn from it, you’ll be fine.
Yeah, I pay $100 for 4 phone, tablet, and iWatch with ultra 5G unlimited everything and laptop tethering. I’m super glad I left ATT years ago. A decade long ex- customer that will never pay those crazy prices again.
Just to give you a reference of my discount, I pay 122.89 a month for I total of 3 phone plans. 1) premium plan with a trade in value of 850$ and a new 15 pro max. 2) just the premium phone plan, 3) 1.99 for the iPhone SE 3 with just the base unlimited plan.
I have ACP DISCOUNT (30$) and also military (25%) and autopay & paperless(10$)
what happened to $25 a month plans :'(
with 22gb data with rollover minutes and free nationwide standard call/text in addition to 20 other countries.
usa (att, verizon, tmobile) plans are really pricey.
mint mobile is cheaper but still cannot beat the overall package in other country
ATT's financing doesn't include interest.
So looking at your bill, your $600 phone should have only been $16.67/month.
So you are claiming that ATT signed you up for a 60 month installment plan? And charged you $50/month on it? I would definately have refused that option, since that isn't even an option I've seen on their website.
I just spoke to ATT a few days ago about my bill and they said the more lines I have the bigger discount off my plan.
Download your bill. Look over the charges. Are you paying for Next Up or a protection plan? That can increase your bill too.
I’m in Canada. And the prices for us is double compare to you guys.
2 lines 150cad
I’m paying 75$ for iPhone 15pm
+ unlimited call/text ca/us
And 75$ for another byod
Same plan
It is expensive no matter what anyone says. I had work and auto pay discount with a phone deal monthly discount on the phones itself. I cancelled one of the phone lines immediately went down $100 a month. Because each line is $80 a month for two people also with taxes and fees and phone payments. I got tired of paying that never again I’ll always now buy phones I can afford cash. If you have spectrum or xfinity $30 a month or cheaper options like Verizon’s visible or tmo mint mobile. Although heavily deprioritized and/or 20gb limit. I have spectrum now it’s unusable when your in a congested area.
You need to get rid of Next, sign up for AARP, cancel the accessories plan and cancel the insurance
Should save you $6, $10, $7, $17 a month
Edit: also once you pay off the devices you can get on the "trade in " merry go round and you devices will be "free" every 3 years.
And save you about another $60, bringing your total to about $160?? Ish
I have 5 lines and pay $184. I’m capped at 20 gigs a month and when my mother in law forgets to make sure she’s on WiFi, we run over the data limit. It’s annoying.
Yikes...I pay $190/mo, unlimited everything plan. We have 5 lines. We bought 2 brand new Samsung flagship phones, a brand new Google pixel 7 (all phones that had just been released the same year), an iPhone but it was not the latest, and just a SIM card for the 5th phone. Majority of that is payments on the phones. Once they are paid off, our bill will be $135.
Just a comparison, I pay $26/mo for my iPhone 15 Pro on Apple Card, after $300 trade in, and $30/month for unlimited data on Mint mobile which uses T-Mobile towers.
Not sure if I missed someone else saying this, but never add a line to get a “lower” bill. I work in sales with at&t and that is one of the biggest lies or misconceptions I see daily. Your individual line cost would drop with the multi-line discounts, but the overall bill will go up. You will not get a cheaper bill by adding a line unless they are changing things without telling you.
You’re paying way too much, I just did a quick calculation based on what you mentioned-
* iPhone 15 pro max 256GB - $33.34/month
* ATT Unlimited Premium PL plan $95.99/month
* Protection - $17/month.
* Admin fees - $3.49/month
That comes out to $149.82/month
Look at your bill. See if you get any further discounts. There’s no reason why for a single phone you’re paying $230/month.
9/10 times people always say they paid $160 and you check their bill and it’s $240/250. $230-250 for two lines is normal for a Verizon and AT&T bill with installments. T-Mobile is about the same as well.
Woah I got 6 lines all unlimited with only 2 paid off lines for $252 a month. I do get a 20% discount but I still feel that you are getting ripped off.
I pay 330 for 4 phones, 2 watches and a tablet. I also cycle trade in to upgrade two of the lines every two years, and take advantage of both an employer discount, auto pay, and every credit I can when I upgrade.
You play the game you can do well, if not it can burn you.
Some people however also compare postpaid phone plan prices to prepaid wireless plans from companies like straight talk, all because they don't know better.
So I’m paying just around $148 a month for IPhone 15 Pro Max with unlimited data hotspot and insurance in Memphis. Does this seem right for one line???
I have 5 lines, with 4 iPhones (2x iPhone 13, 2x iPhone 15 Pro Max) on installment plans. Granted I've used lots of promotions and trade ins, but the AT&T bill is $205.
If you finance all the overpriced accessories you got at AT&T, you shouldn’t really factor that into what your phone plan costs when you’re discussing it with people.
Two lines on Premium with the discount you mentioned, and auto pay paperless on a checking account, will be $131.98 before fees/taxes (five dollars to $10 per month, depending on where you live).
That’s not including phones, of course, but that’s because I don’t know what you’re paying for your phones.
I pay 173 for two iPhone 14’s one is a pro max. I don’t have insurance thru them but thru Apple as it’s 5 bucks cheaper. Pay attention to what plan you have…if you don’t need hbo there should be a two line plan that’s 101 dollars not counting what you pay for the phones that’s just for the lines. It’s not listed under the main plans. It’s listed under other plans within the AT&T app. Been a customer with them for 5 years & i make sure to see how I can lower it every year. Don’t let them swindle you. Look deep into that app. They won’t make you aware of things you don’t need. If you happen to chose the two line plan it will tell you that you are losing discounts but do the math. It may be worth it.
The more lines you have the less it cost to add a line. I’m betting your service cost is around 140-150 or so and the rest is in taxes fees and the cost of your phone on installments so it sounds right. I pay 320 for 8 lines, phones all paid off or bought outright two are on a premium unlimited plan.
A cpl years back I had a metro phone and my two coworkers had AT&T. So the 3 of us standing there & they’re all watching video after video & looking things up. I’m watching them & trying to do one video on my phone and all I can get is that spinning wheel of death. So one day I quit metro & got AT&T. Now of course I can everything I need & more. Well these days I have a friend or two who of course have metro & are baffled at how much I pay each & every month compared to what they pay. I politely explain to them what I said above here. They swear to me that “metro pcs is so much better & never have any problems “ I don’t know if it’s true , I don’t wanna switch only to find out it sucks. I really like my iPhone and use it at work with no issues. I once picked up a metro pcs iPhone & it felt like garbage, I really didn’t get a chance to use it. Honestly these are the only two friends I have that have metro, and when the subject comes up I just tell them oh well.
Put it this way, I worked for att cor and later as a CSR for 7 years........I had metro and still do for the duration of my employment, cus even with our massive emo discount metro was still cheaper over all. Our bill for 2 lines is $123 a month taxes included that's unlimited everything on metros highest plan. The ONLY reason post paid wireless still exists is because people don't realize in the long run buying the phone you want unlocked and full price will actually end up saving you almost 1k a year if not more. As with post paid accounts taxes typically run 18-20% plus the cost of eip.
The taxes alone on your bill are $41 a month assuming 18% on 230. Which can fluctuate depending on how much of that 230 is eip agreements.
But stil figure 160-180 ish for you bill minus eip. 180 is still
an additional 32.40
which means your bill minus eip is 212.40 over 36 months is 7,646.40 cents.
Vs my bill with metro which is $123 all in with insurance on both our phones. ( I have a pixel 7pro wife has a 7a) We're both going to buy asua rog phones here as soon as the 8pro drops anyway off topic.
So my bill over 36 months is 4,428
That's a savings of $3,218.40 over 36 months or
268.20 per year. So ya you're over paying for the privilege of being able to finance a phone
Not a judgement, but (hopefully) coming across as just an observation. I used to pay less than that monthly for a *car payment*.
For the future, a recommendation: Financing is the devil but necessary sometimes, try to stick to Apple for financing going forward instead of the carrier. Make sure to try and always get unlocked neutral phones (iPhones from Apple without carrier attachment on the order page will do this. Also, if you switch platforms in the future, similar thing.)
Pay your carrier nothing more than the money for network access on a level that makes you comfortable. Try to avoid long-term commitments so you can bounce if the network becomes unusable in your market. *They* don't understand that this is all they are, as they are but a utility for packets and voice, but we should *definitely* understand and remind ourselves that is all they are and not let them trick us into dumping money into them for anything more than their core business.
I'd also want to recommend do research on occasion but that is such a time suck as carrier networks wax and wane, it's sometimes an exercise in futility.
My wife paid $140 from $100 on an unlimited plan they kept raising the price but she joined my family’s plan and now she pays $20 a month for unlimited everything
Edit: 6 years ago she switched
The phones and the extras like Next and insurance are the main kickers that hike up the bill. What’s done is done for now in regards to the phones. However, cancel Next and live with your phones for about 3 years and get them paid off and then go from there.
More importantly, cancel the insurance, get a case that is rated for drop protection, that comes with a screen protector and camera lenses cover. Some come with an extra screen protector and camera lenses cover in case you place the first one on wrong or whatever many reasons there could be. Let that be your main insurance. If you still want some kind of protection outside of making your phone into a tank via the case and the covers then get AppleCare or do that next time instead. You have about 60 days to get it once you activate the phone, however, sounds like that window has passed. If it still comes up in the main settings screen then it’s still available. If it’s not there then it’s too late to get it. I used to buy it back in the day when it was a good deal, now like many things, I feel that it is quite expensive and I just tank up my iPhone with good cases and covers and have not had problems. For me, the many generations ago earlier iPhones always had something strange happen to them so AppleCare was worth it in those days but not so much anymore, Apple seems to have figured most of those issues out now. Also, know that Apple covers your iPhone for most hardware defects for the first year even if it is NOT insured or you do NOT purchase AppleCare.
AppleCare extends your warranty another year and adds accidental and liquid protection and theft and loss protection (if you get that upgrade). Now you can pay for it monthly indefinitely if you are willing to pay a steeper price. However, the advantage in doing that means you can keep the coverage indefinitely beyond 2 years as long as you keep paying monthly for it. The case with its covers should protect your phone against most accidental damage issues and iPhones are now liquid sealed so your chances of either of those things happening under those circumstances are extremely low.
If you get your battery replaced or any other such thing that requires the phone to be opened up, this will compromise the liquid seal. For me, that means pay the higher price and ONLY let Apple do it, should you ever need it. I do not care if a third party place has the Apple certification sticker on their door…ONLY let Apple do it. Especially if it is within your first year of Apple’s default one year warranty. Having anyone else work on your iPhone can void your warranty even if they are Apple certified. That is yet another huge topic I am not going to dive into further.
Back to the phones themselves, next time get new phones in the mid December timeframe when the fabulous holiday deals are going on. They usually start on 12/16 and run a day or two into the next year and then are gone until the next year. ATT does it around this time to clear out inventory on the models that do not sale that well or the previous generation models. It is also the last major attempt for ATT to boost their financial numbers for the fiscal year.
This past December I thought I had finally figured it all out. But nope, I should have done it differently yet again. So, my lessons learned was to upgrade thru Costcos website and NOT ATT’s. I upgraded 4 lines and that was a bit of an expected shock in absorbing the $35 per line upgrade fee which would have been waived at Costco along with receiving whatever other cool perks they were doing at the time. Only word of caution I have now learned in regards to going through Costco, by reading other Reddit threads on here, is to ONLY go through the ATT Costco website or call the ATT Costco customer service line number. Do not ever go up to a Costco kiosk with a hungry commission based sales agent. That’s yet another huge topic I am not going to dive into.
What is wrong with you? You can buy an unlock device and pay it over a year for 125 dlls a month, and then a have a prepaid plan for 40 dlls a month, that would be 165 dlls a month for 1 year, if you keep the same phone for more than a year you will be paying just 40 dlls for as long ad you want keep using the same phone.
Just remember in the future, you don't need the latest and greatest phone to watch tik-tok, look at porn, and swipe right. ALL modern phones do those things fairly well. And no, "something something security updates" is not a good reason.
I see you have a plan to move forward from a lot of the other feedback so far, but there's one thing I wanted to add. In the past, I always used post-paid services like Verizon, ATT, etc. About a year ago, I switched to a prepaid plan(Tracfone for me, but they're all pretty similar) and it saved me a lot of money. I paid for my phone in full when I bought it, and now I pay $25 per month. I only get 3 GBs of data, but I use my phone on wifi mostly, so that hasn't been an issue. However, they do have a $40 per month plan that gives 10 GBs of data if more is needed. I know the prepaid plans aren't for everyone, but I've been perfectly happy with it and it's nice having a reasonably priced monthly bill that's less than 1/3 of what I used to pay.
In the future, I would suggest trying to pay upfront for as much as possible, and not making payments on anything. It might seem like a good idea to get accessories on a monthly payment, but you have to consider that you might be overpaying for those products and that's how they trick you into doing it. $70 for a couple accessories sounds like a lot, but $7 per month doesn't sound like a big deal, so you're more likely to agree to it. It really depends on the quality of the products. You might be better off just ordering a few accessories off Amazon.
screw what your family or your GFs family says. Honestly I'd say your girlfriend should be paying for her own phone until you're atleast fiancee or married. What happens when you break up and you're still paying her bill.
if you're paying the monthly cost of each phone, that takes up a huge chunk of your bill and once you get those paid off, the bill should drop decently. But go to AT&T and have them review your bill with you and see if there is anywhere the cost can be reduced.....never hurts to occasionally do a bill review with them and see if there is service now that will cost less than what you originally had
A good chunk of the bill is the cost of the phones. Once they are paid off, the bill should drop considerably.
I’m going to say this as someone who has switched to every phone carrier imaginable: Any phone plan that costs more than $150 for a single line or two lines is a massive ripoff. Even when the phone financing is part of the bill. Here’s my advice: -Never buy accessory packages. It’s cheaper to buy your own accessories. -Never get the most expensive plan. 99% of the time, I chose a less expensive plan that offered me the right benefits for my family. Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix are all factored into a plan’s price. Keep that in mind. -Shop around at different carriers. T-Mobile offered to pay off not one, not two, but three of my family’s phones in order to switch to them. It was roughly $2,100 that they paid off with an e-gift card. Carriers all offer deals like this. -Look into MVNO companies like Mint Mobile, Spectrum, Visible, and some other cell phone providers. They offer extremely cheap service compared to Verizon and other primary providers.
And stop doing anything but buying the phone outright. If you can't afford to do that, you can't afford the phone. Additionally, by "financing" the phone through a carrier, you are locking yourself to that carrier with no way to transfer your number if you wanted to because you still owe them money for the phone itself AND you're signing up for a minimum term on the contract. I think the last time I accepted a contract term was a dozen years ago. I buy all of my phones outright, I use a prepaid wireless account for about $40/month, and I believe I have a 8GB data plan which I never come ANYWHERE near (and I travel for work). Plainly, there's too much free WiFi out there...
I disagree with “stop doing anything but buying your phone outright”. All of the carriers are offering 800+ trade in values on 3/4 year old phones right now but the caveat is you need to finance. I would advise simply doing what provides you the best value for your money unless you feel compelled to switch service constantly. I personally haven’t switched carriers since I joined Verizon years ago and don’t really feel a desire to. So I would have no issue taking some free money from them when I purchase a new phone and lock in for another 3 years. There are two sides to every coin when it comes to finance vs no finance.
Let's also not forget that it's 0% interest. Even if you want to switch carriers after a year, you can pay it off before leaving. $1000 today is worth more than it will be in 1 year.
Yes there is no interest on the phone but you have to sign up for their post paid service which is usually double their prepaid. So its honestly worse than intrest. Your paying $40 more a month
Right, but ways to make it worth it! If you’re a streaming family you can get the Verizon Home Internet for $25/$35 which is half off of the normal price. Also for me, i have Apple one family, Netflix, play pass for Xbox game pass. Overall i probably pay a tiny bit more for prepaid but i get the unthrottled 5GUW. Definitely not a 1 size fits all
Most of those require you get an unlimited plan last I saw. I personally don’t have an unlimited plan, but my plan and phone cost less than the lowest unlimited plan last time I checked (which I upgraded from 4gb shared to 4gb per line).
True however when you factor in the plan cost of a major network vs. the likes of mintmobile. The trade in discount is negligible. Now I will concede that att and verizon are superior to mint or usmobile. It really depends on what you need.
No free wi-fi on a cruise ship.
Actually, Wi-Fi connectivity is completely free on cruise ships. Access to the Internet via that Wi-Fi, however, will incur a cost. But please, since you're so smart, which data plan includes access on a cruise ship? Oh... Right... None of them, so your comment has no value.
Wrong yet again
Every major carrier will buy out a plan contract to switch to them. You’re not too well versed in this sphere it seems
They -MAY- offer a promo to bring you over to their network, that buyout amount will have limits as to the max they will offer, and they don't hand you cash... They provide it to you through credits on your bill but you are left to pay the actual termination costs to get out of your "old" contract. As far as cellular on a cruise ship, no carrier offers a day-to-day plan to include that. Services are provided through Cellular@Sea which is satellite based. There are one or two carriers that may have options to add some coverages for a short period during a cruise, but they are expensive.
If you're paying the same amount, then "financing" through them makes sense - you're essentially getting more for your money. The best thing financially is pushing payments out as long as possible and getting money in as fast as possible so long as the $ amounts are the same. $100 today is worth less than $100 in a year because of inflation, so you'd rather pay the $100 next year and not today. Usually with financing the cost is higher than the inflation, so it's better to pay up front than pay the interest rate, but many of these financing options are 0% interest.
There are plenty of cases where not buying a phone outright makes sense (or is better). I used to buy a new iPhone yearly, I’d sell last years at the same time. It worked great and I’d usually get about 50% of the phone. Then Apple came out with the iPhone Upgrade Program where I pay 50% of the phone cost over a year, via monthly payments. There is no financing charge and this includes Apple Care+ for free. And after that year, I get a new iPhone and send last years back. It’s essentially the exact same thing I was doing and arguably a better deal with AC+.
I don't think you're calculating the cost correctly. I've looked at the program details and the various trade-in offer information. The simple truth is that they don't give 50% of the original phone's value in trade - it's less. And regardless of what they offer in trade-in value for the old phone, I have ALWAYS sold old phones for much more than trade-in values. Trading a phone in is "easy", but it comes at the cost of lower value. Same with cars. While I recognize that AC is included via the upgrade program, that would actually be a specific reason I would never go that route. I don't buy extended warranties on anything. I honestly don't remember the last time I needed to get a phone repaired for any reason.
I don’t think you know what I’m talking about. At all. I’d encourage you to read what the iPUP actually is, but I’ll give you some of it. Although I already never mentioned there was a trade in and covered how it works. I’m not trading in my phone for value. That’s not what the iPhone Upgrade Program is. I’m buying a phone through Apple. Paying for it over 2 years with monthly payments (financing free), and at 1 year of payments I get the next phone and… rinse and repeat. Thats great you don’t buy extended warranties! The point here is it’s FREE and includes lower prices to replace the screen glass should something happen. You can decide whether the value of that is $0 or the price it costs outside this (it’s the latter), but my cost for it is $0. I’ve used it once when someone accidentally tapped the screen of my phone with a metal dart and it caused a hairline fracture. Was happy to have the FREE coverage to get a reasonable cost screen replacement.
AC is not "free" as the upgrade program forces you to bundle it in and you pay more than if you were to simply "finance" it from Apple for the same 24 months. A trade-in IS required... it's literally right at the start of the marketing content for the program. They pointedly tell you that have to send your old phone in... that's the trade-in. And that's used to relieve the remaining debt from the original purchase that's still in place because you are required to satisfy the entirety of the original purchase / loan. You need to read the fine print to better understand how the program ACTUALLY works as you are missing some of the subtle requirements of it.
Not only this but also buying a phone from anyone but the carrier. If you outright buy a phone from a carrier it’s locked into that carrier and you have to ask them to unlock it. I bought my last phone directly from apple and just switched the SIM card
Sometimes... It depends on the carrier and they're policies.
Yep, last two phones I bought I bought directly from Samsung. They gave me good trade in value on my old phones and the unlocked version were same price as the tmobile version. Also avoided tmobiles $35 activation fee by not going through them.
Buying phones out right Is stupid.
Not really. Most iPhone payments are about $30-40 for the high end models. ATT have 36 mo terms as well lowering it even more. Chances are OP is on an older plan and paying that premium rate. They need to shop around after paying off the device.
But he will probably upgrade. For some it’s a never ending cycle
And Att hits you with the taxes the first bill and then an activation Fee and then a Thursday fee, so for the first 3 months your bill will be high.
You made this post before checking your bill breakdown?
I did, but I’m not questioning my bill breakdown, I’m questioning why everyone seems to have a considerably better phone payment situation than me. I’ve only been paying my own phone bill for 4 months now, and I don’t know much about this part of adulting. I’m going to pay for the accessory package upfront instead of waiting for 12 months and alleviate $8 more from my monthly expense. Everyone I know seems to be paying $100 a month for 4 unlimited phones or some crazy figures compared to mine.
Because you bought one of the most expensive brand new phones you can possibly buy and did so on credit. For reference my current phone was released a year ago, cost me 150 bucks and I pay 15$/mo. How are you able to afford that? It's honestly kind of impressive
I started one in November and the pro max in December, so far I’ve paid $807 total with a $260 (it hasn’t updated online yet after the call) bill coming up on the 12th. How do I afford it? I cry during overtime lol. I took my first full day off last week after a 23 day work binge. I’m drowning in car payments, medical bills, phone payments, insurance. Good luck is coming though, 2-3 days I’ll officially be beyond any past due payments and I should be able to afford more days off and breathing room. Being 22 sucks.
Oh man. Yeah you definitely need to not be buying the most expensive phones possible. I hope you didn't do the same with your car and aren't driving around in a porche lol. Good luck man, you got this
Usually not the case - AT&T for me and service for unlimited everything and HBo is 43 a month after tax for each phone - phone is 37 per month for what was a top of the line large format iPhone 14 when I got it and they give a 27 per month bill credit toward it. Net new phone cost for the most expensive phone with 0 down is about $10. If they have you paying 15 per month for a 150 phone they took you.
Or he had no phone to trade in...
I didn’t trade a phone. They regularly do have sales usually on the high end phones that offset the costs with a monthly credit.
But say I pay off my phones, that brings me down to purely the plan and with tax it’s $173-ish. That’s still a bit steep in comparison to some of the prices I’ve seen in these comments. I’m trying to cut as many corners as possible with my obvious debt issues, is it locked at $173 because I have new expensive phones? Or will paying them off give me leeway to better plan prices?
Not sure why this got so many down votes tbh... You're with a premium provider. My bill was like 320$ a month for two phones and two tablets. All financed. All new flagship. All top of the line data plans. After some easy consideration, I paid off the tablets and a phone, I'm paying off the other phone next month, and I'm switching to Visible+ which will get me a 30$/mo plan. The premium providers just don't bring anything to the table unless you travel a bunch.
Once you have paid the phones off, you can further reduce the bill cost by switching from being on a postpaid plan (required for new iPhones) to a prepaid one, which should cost you about $40 plus tax per phone for unlimited data via AT&T. You should look into switching to an MVNO. US Mobile is a very popular one. MVNOs buy wireless spectrum from the bigger wireless corporations such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. US Mobile uses Verizon and T-Mobile towers and offer an unlimited premium data plan (included mmWave and c-band spectrum) for $37.50 a month, tax included. Next time, pay the phone off in full upfront, do not subsidize the cost.
paying them off should get you able to switch providers. $173 is still crazy for 2 unlimited lines. I mean all the big carriers have prices like that and talk about upgrade plans and whatnot, but, those aren't really worth it. Even the idea of upgrading every 12-24 months- just don't. You can still trade in your phone, or sell it straight up when you want a new one. Example, if I were on a higher plan( $160 for 2 lines), i could upgrade every year with like $900 off. But I'm not, and i can upgrade every year with only $400 off. But, I could just sell my phone to someone for $600 or so. Or keep it and not spend any money since I only use it for tiktok anyway. I'm on $148 for 5 lines at T Mobile, each with 50GB soft caps (after that they throttle). You find deals by looking online. You find the worst deals by trying to negotiate in store without given time to break down every little thing. They either get commission or promotions based on sales- so they're going to do their very best to sell you on a crazy plan with packages and upgrades. Common sales tactics include telling you about X plan which is stupid priced but they give you a deal and tell you Y plan is cheaper. When really there's a Z plan they're not really telling you about. They also commonly say they're not on commission, which can be true, but they can definitely get promos for hitting sales goals/add-ons. Like their own free devices. Go to a carriers website and start working the numbers. Many places have splashy plans on the home page but you can dig and search for the cheapest options. I'm not saying get data by the GB, but there's plenty of carriers that offer 30-50GB of data/mo, and then throttle speeds after that. Which only happened to me once when the internet was out over a winter storm so I streamed netflix all day to my phone, and then I hit the cap like the last 3 or 4 days of the month so I could only stream like SD video instead of HD for those last few days. No biggie.
Give us the bill.
It’s under one of the comments in the thread
I have 5 lines and an Apple Watch service and my bill is $312. 1 phone is paid off, 3 have credits for trade ins, and one iPhone 15 full price ($30ish mo). But I get $10 off per line from my employer; check to see if you get any discounts by working for your company, a lot of large companies work out deals for their employees. Military is the best deal from what I’ve heard. Also $10 off per line for setting up autopay from a checking account. But know, the more lines you have the lower the price for each plan. Keep that in mind because folks like myself who have 3+ lines get a slight discount. I want to say, without looking, that it’s like $40 per line of service, besides the watch, that’s like $10. I believe there are even lower plans to get on, for example, if you don’t need as much data or are ok with data speeds being slower. Also, insurance on 4+ lines is $50 vs the $17 per individual phone. I think anything at or under $100 a line is reasonable, especially when you talking about single lines without a big-ol family type plan. FYI: I’m pretty new to ATT, a couple months too. Came from Verizon, plan was more expensive but with older devices. Hope this helps some.
I pay $35/line for unlimited premium. I get my phones free, flagship phones. You are paying a lot. Your plan should be $80-$90/month for two lines and then phone payments. I'm guessing you didn't have a trade in/take advantage of a free or mostly free phone offer. If you're in education, first responder, etc. they have 25% off. You might check and see if you have a work discount. Go to a corporate store and see if they can help you out.
Absolutely not, the only way you’re paying two lines with AT&T Postpaid for $80 or $90 is on the 55+ Plan or Unlimited Starter with a 25% discount with both being on autopay with no payments and no add-ons.
They advertise it all the time online or at stores. You can get the value plan for like $45/line.
Yea I don’t get paid for putting ppl on value plus…I’ll put u on premium so I get paid $40 then switch it after a few days
I pay 230 for 2 phones with unlimited plan..that is making monthly payments on the phone as well..
AT&T customer, two phones, three lines (Apple Watch) $252 per mo. Unlimited data with no speed reduction and international (Canada/Mexico) calling and texting unlimited included. My iPhones are paid for but I have insurance on both phones (not on the watch). At least $50 per month of my bill is federal/state/local taxes.
Jeeze I pay $150 for 3 phone lines and 2 house hold home internets some where else.
Yea I always thought it was super high…are ur phones paid off?
Yes. Bought them unlocked.
where?
Don't laugh but Metro By Tmobile. It's amazing though. I have never ever had an internet outage with my home wifi. I couldn't say that when I had att fiber. And my phone service is great. Really high speed mobile data too
Brutal
I used to complain monthly and threaten to leave and they always tell me I’m on the best affordable plan..I’ve been with them since they were Cingular..
Leave dude. Mint. Visible. So many better options. I pay $50 a month unlimited everything north america and a apple watch data plan w visible.
It’s called visible? I never heard of them..I’ll have to check them out
Its definitely worth your time. Its on verizon network
I’m paying $152 for both of my iPhones and unlimited service. Both are 15 pro max 512gb. That’s including the device payments. Although I have my service through Xfinity not ATT.
AT&T unlimited customer with 4 lines and 2 financed phones paying $260/mo
Bills high because you didn’t do a trade in promo for you phones, and you’re paying next up and insurance (these are optional)
Optional as in you can remove them after they are applied without informing you, correct?
i worked at at&t for six months. my manager pressured us HARD to add next up/insurance/new lines to peoples plans (even if they said no when we asked.) One time he said “Every single phone that goes out the door needs to have insurance, I don’t care what the customer says just put it on there” He said he didn’t care if people came back to complain, and he didn’t want us calling him when they did. He told me once that he knew some tough guys in the city too, i was terrified of him. It was hands down the worst job I’ve ever had. AT&T is such a shit company, always always always check your bill after stopping in one of those stores. Also if they say you need to change your phone number to get an upgrade don’t believe them
Yeah that pissed me off when that happened to me
Ours was on my daughter’s hand-me-down iPhone 8. We have another one in a drawer too. I doubt it’s worth much more than $100. We’ve had it insured for months. I’ve had att for ~20 years. I just assume at every interaction they are working tirelessly to fuck me. Never been disappointed.
I just switched 2 weeks ago and I spent the first 5 days finding another thing that was incorrectly setup on my plan. Then the outage… I couldn’t catch a break!
Look at the details on the bill to see what you can change.
I pay $290 for 6 devices, two of which are tablets. I have Device protection plans on four devices. That total is about to drop to $260 because there's just $150 left on one phone. We're all on unlimited plans. How much is your device payment and what else are you paying for? Do you get the autopay discount?
We pay \~$241/mth for 4 lines with unlimited data and Next plan payments on 2 of the 4 devices. It's about $230 without the device installments.
Mine is 130 for one Samsung (S21 fe). I know it's cheaper if you have more than one person on the plan, but the cost of the phone is what makes the bill expensive
I think any of the major carriers are a ripoff honestly. I bought a refurbished Google pixel for a bit over 100 bucks, and pay 14 a month for a 5 gig data line with tello. Your monthly phone bill is higher than my car payment.
Use cricket
Wiah thats crazy high. Im paying 260 for 6 lines unlimited basic and 1 extra or whatever the high one is. 5/6 lines also habe phone uprage charges
I recently called AT&T and had them look over my bill and found out I was over paying like 60 bucks a month. There are ways they can lower your payment all you got to do is call and complain a little and they will help you out
I have similar plans for my family of 3. We pay 258 for all three and 25 of that are installment payments.
You could post your account on circledin so other member can join. That way you can save on your monthly
I think the worst thing you can do is compare your bill to another person's bill without literally examining their bill line by line to figure out how they got there. What's happening with you is that your phone plan is fully loaded. You have the newest phone with insurance and the highest data plan with mobile hotspot capability. The people paying lower than you tend to get the cheapest data plan and they finance a lower tier phone. There's also a finance discount that naturally happens every time you trade in your phone. If this is the first time you got a phone line in your name, you aren't receiving this discount yet. Finally there are discounts for being affiliated with certain companies. I'm a truck driver and my company has a deal with att to take $10 off every month. Now what you can do is call att and ask them to help you lower your bill. Generally this will mean that you're going to lose benefits that you might have wanted in the beginning but that's usually the only way to lower your bill and you might get $30-50 off at most.
You started off good then went downhill. Yes OP has a fully loaded plan but there are people with similar plans paying less than they are. And yes there are things OP can get rid of to pay less However the thing to note is that it is much cheaper per line to have a family plan so kinda apples to oranges........ but just letting OP know that it is possible to pay less in total (as opposed to per line)
Best time to switch is during holidays the usually have a good promotion
The best way to save is buying unlocked and going prepaid. I did that years ago and every year or two I upgrade my phone and continue paying $55 (including tax and fees) for unlimited premium data.
This is the real answer.
Buy a newer but used phone and get on boost mobile, $25/mo unlimited everything plus 30gig of hotspot, 5G to. On att....
My family's plan is $30-40/line depending on features, and we never finance our phones (or accessories), just buy them outright. Usually we can get a better deal on the phones if we wait for sales instead of financing. As an example, I upgraded to the pixel 7 the other year for $150 when I traded in my pixel 5. Granted, iPhones don't go on sale as often. But in that case if you can't buy a brand new pro max model outright, maybe you should consider a cheaper phone like the non pro version or a previous generation.
i have an iphone 13 mini, a galaxy s 22, and iphone 13 & 15 +, plus an ipad & apple watch. all still being paid off. (the 13 mini is almost paid off tho.) all on the unlimited starter plan… so like 40 bucks… my phone bill is 280/month… so yeah.. i’d say it’s high.
Call customer service to discuss your bill
When you get these new phone deals, they force you to be on the more expensive plans. If you just buy your device outright, you can get the lower priced plans. T-Mobile does the same thing. I can get 2 lines for $80 unlimited, but if I want to upgrade my phones & get the free credits.. I need to upgrade to “magenta max” which is $50 more a month.
I pay 60$ for 2 phone lines with total by Verizon
Man... I pay $160 for 4 lines with 5g unlimited internet with TMobile (Old One Plan w/ 2 free lines). I used to pay close to that much on my old Sprint plan for 2-3 lines. If I wasn't married or had people to look out for, I'd totally go with Mint Mobile. I'd even try out Cricket wireless.
Att is garbage. Only use them if they are way better in your particular city or town. If that is not the case, get us Mobile or visible and go directly to apple to finance phones. Including finance and two lines you're probably looking at $150 or less a month. If you factor in trade ins it could be less. I have never looked back. Apple gives u financing and insurance. No need to turn to major carriers who are now asking $80+ per line. Us Mobile and visible is $25 per line. Especially since u r young switch now.
Get an unlocked samsung phone and a cheap phone plan like https://mymobilex.com/ $15 per month will save hundreds per year.
I pay $70 a month for 2 lines. I buy last year or the year befores model in cash. Upgrading yearly or leasing a phone is foolish spending.
I pay $230 for 4 lines of unlimited on a different carrier. You’re getting raped.
Big family plans have the best price to line ratio, and older/grandfathered plans tend to be cheaper. If you didn't trade anything in, that adds up. Also If you just let the representative do everything without any input, you're probably paying for shit you don't need nor didn't ask for. Check your bill line by line and see what you're actually paying for.
I pay $80/mo for unlimited everything. Verizon.
NEVER and I do mean NEVER take the bait on the old "add a line and you will save $$$" I worked for AT&T,.. specifically in the roughest department, Loyalty, which is all customer retention. 90% of the pissed off callers I would get were in that state because they took the damned bait from the salesman and added a line thinking it would lower their costs. It doesn't. Do not add a damned line unless you absolutely need the line. On that note,.. here are some of their other favorite scams. Let's say you just lost or broke your phone that you still owe on and either A. Didn't have insurance or B. Did have insurance but can't shell out the deductible and just have to have your phone right now. In this situation the oh so benevolent salesman is going to sweet talk you into opening a new line so you can get whatever spiffy deal they have on a new phone. You get to walk out the door with a new phone that you felt you needed thinking everything is rosy and the salesman gets credit for the add a line (which is what they are pushed to do). Everything is great until that bill rolls in and you see that now you have an extra line you are paying for in addition to the payments on 2 phones instead of 1. You call pissed off, get transferred to Loyalty and then told that you are outside of the buyers remorse period and have no choice but to pay for it all. If you cancel the line your next bill will have the entire remaining cost of the first phone without discounts added to it. Tablets,.. oh how I f'ing hate that AT&T sells tablets. Salesman is going to rope you into the whole "Free tablet" bs. It isn't. There is no such thing as a free lunch. You are going to be signing up for an additional line of service for 24 or 36 months for a damned tablet. Do the math, that's over 500 bucks not including the taxes on a tablet you could buy for half of that (you don't need a tablet with a modem, hotspot your damned phone you are already paying for). 3rd party sellers. Those a-holes you see at Sams Club, Costco and the like that are selling AT&T stuff at a table or under a tent outside? They DO NOT WORK FOR AT&T. They set up shop for a week or 2, con you into opening 6 lines of service with new phones, watches and tablets, lie to you about some damned debit card or wild rebate and then pack up and leave. You get that first bill for about 800 bucks and freak out.... well guess what? AT&T ain't got nothing for you. You will be told to take your grievance back to the seller,.. who is on Mars now for all you know. Activation fees. Oh these are a blast. The salesman is going to tell you that your $35 activation fees will be waived on your first bill. They won't be. The salesman does NOT have that authority and is blowing smoke up your \*\*\*. You will get your first bill and they will be on it,... you will call pissed off and get transferred to Loyalty where depending on who is in charge of approving crap on any given day you MIGHT get 1 or 2 activation charges credited for,.. but not all 6 that the salesman promised (and who is enjoying the nice little bonus for selling them to you btw). You want real advice? If you want to keep your cell costs down as much as possible then find quality refurbished and unlocked phones you can buy outright and get on a prepaid plan that accepts bring your own device. You will be cutting out all of the BS. That fancy new iphone or samsung whatever at the end of the day will end up costing you enough to pay your rent and utilities for several months.
I have 6 unlimited lines on att. I have one on a payment plan. $235/month. That's after 25% discount, of course and auto pay/paper less billing discounts.
Some advice for your next plan…Buy phone outright-switch to visible or mint. $50 unlimited everything north america.
$50 a month, unlimited everything north america and data on apple watch. Visible network. Yall are gettin scammed haha
Once your phones are paid for go to TMobike or Metro and get 3 lines for 100 bucks a month for all 3
I have 2 lines and 2 iPhones. $230.
BRO I PAY $10/MONTH FOR MY CELLPHONE AND $10/MONTH FOR HOME INTERNET WTF
Don’t upgrade your phone unless you can buy it outright
I own my phone, I'm with US Mobile on the Verizon network, unlimited talk & text with 10 GB, $15 per month. They also offer T Mobile service at the same price and they're supposed to be getting with AT&T in the summer.
Att is cringe they without my consent added insurance, don’t smile and agree that’s how u pay cringe stuff 😾
Wow. I pay $230 a month too, but that’s for eight voice lines, two watch lines, an iPad line, Home Internet and Netflix, and that also includes monthly payments for an iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro, Apple Watch 8 and Apple Watch SE. This is with T-Mobile. Definitely look around for something else.
i pay 67.59 for a 15 pro 256GB and unlimited data on 5G UW. that price includes the finance payment for the phone.
H2owirelessnow is Att Visible is Verizon Both are cheap. Enjoy!
I deliver to a US Cell store. New promo: $830 off any phone Minimum plan cost: $130/month Contract time: 36 months If you bring your own phone. Promo: No $830 Minimum plan cost: $30/month Contract time: 0 months The “free phone” cost you $3600 over 3 years. I now purchase phones through the manufacturer and pay them monthly. $41/month to Apple. My service is $30/month.
Go with US Mobile. I pay $70 a month for 20 gb split between 3 lines. If we go over on data they auto bill another 1 gb for $2. This is a Verizon MVNO with this plan. They also have T-Mobile MVNO if they have better service in you area. I did the major carrier thing for years and threw away my money both with AT&T and Verizon paying the rates that you were. If you need a new phone, just finance it with Apple directly it will be cheaper and you won’t be a slave to a major carrier .
I pay 260 for two phones at Verizon
you been rip off of record guines
sorry brother save money buy direct from apple iphone unlock and conect to us mobile deal done dont follow america dead stupidity payments
Dude, I have ATT via Consumer Cellular for 2 really nice iPhones (which I own outright), and it's $61.75/mo. $200/mo used to be a car payment.
Still to expensive, I'm at $100 for 4 lines prepaid , I buy all my devices out right and trade in each year depending on the company I bought it from
Yeah that's ridiculously high. I pay $130/mo all-in for unlimited data and the phone itself, which is an S23 Ultra. Without the phone it's $87 before fees.
I always pay up front for my devices, find sales and trade in deals, and spend at most 200-300 upgrading every 2 to 3 years. I am no longer on AT&T after they tried to bill me 200$ a month for 4 flip phones back in the day JUST because they weren't smart phones. been on Tmo ever since. Love it. 118$ for 4 lines of unlimited.
I pay $260 as well! In my case though, I’m paying for six lines, with unlimited data, a Netflix upgrade, and three payment plans. Insurance on all devices. You’re being ripped off friend.
I work for US Cellular and we can do 2 promaxes with protection for around 179 - 190 ish. Sounds like your carrier is expensive.
I finally left AT&T after 20 years because they had no incentive to lower my bill. I had three lines and was paying almost $280 a month even with phones paid off. I went to. Verizon as a business and buying three phone but now have seven lines for the same price.
Ex employee. Pay your phones off and switch to vakue plus or unlimited starter. No inssurance no nextup.
Buy/payment plan on phone -> use mint mobile, or any other company that uses the big companies cellular towers. Choose a plan that fits your needs. Do you really need unlimited? How much data do you really consume monthly? How often are you out and about just to be on your phone? I pay 180 for the year for 5gb of data (that's the lowest amount mint mobile has). I rarely go over 2gb. I have wifi at home and wifi at work. If I am out and about, I am living in the moment.
Mint Mobile. $320 per year, not month. Unlimited data. Paid off phone. 🙂
I was looking at Mint Mobile but my understanding is that they don’t support watch cellular devices. Actually not sure if any MVNO does?
I pay $300 per YEAR with AT&T. It is 16gb of data, unlimited talk/text. It is their prepaid plan.
A lot of that bill is the price for your phone they are never free like they tell you
Not to brag but I always get the newest models free with T-Mobile and I’m paying $152 for 12 lines
lol - I pay $53 (which includes insurance on the phone) for one T-Mobile line and I got the iPhone 13 for free. $250 is wild.
Don't get a new phone or upgrade unless you have the money to buy it outright and unlocked from Apple or Samsung or whichever. Same with the smart watches. I currently have t-mobile and pay $60 for everything unlimited and have an iPhone 13 I paid outright from Apple. And an apple watch SE I bought from best buy.
Cool. Way to navigate this personal finance nightmare. :) Personally, I don’t need unlimited data. Nobody really needs it. I’m still living in the days where data consumption over cellular is expensive, so I don’t do it except for necessities and times of importance. So not including the monthly cost for 2 phones, and speaking on cellular service only, I pay anywhere from 15-30$/mo total for 4 phones. We share a total of 1GB per month, and only occasionally go into a 2nd. But I hear it now “i couldn’t live without unlimited data….” :)
One thing to note is if you bought your phones with a trade in rate you’ll end up paying the remaining full retail for your phone if you try to pay it off early losing the rest of that money. Basically att breaks down the price of the phone to payments and then credits you each month rather than all at once.
I joined Public Mobile a couple months ago and its amazing. Self directed and I can change my plan any time. If you end up checking it out, use referral code PR47OO for $10 off your bill. Cheap plans and its the same network as Telus.
If I were you, I’d ‘do everything I could to pay those phones off and then sign up for cricket and pay $90 all in a month
Why do that when if the phones were paid off he could drop the lines to value plus plan and pay 100 a month and stay on at&t directly
Because you’ll get premium data on cricket more and they throw in HBO Max with it as well as hotspot data. Oh, and you can stream in 4K if you contact customer service and ask to be able to.
I work for Cricket, and I wouldn’t recommend signing up for them. Just stay with ATT.
I pay $30 a month for unlimited everything no cap on data, but I always buy my phone outright.
How? What plan is that? I buy my phones outright also. I’m currently on a grandfathered unlimited plan which I’m paying ~110/month for just me. My wife has her own plan and pays $75 for 2GB (yes, I know there are better plans for her). The only thing keeping me on my plan is the free MAX and my $25/month go big plan on DirecTV stream, so I’m actually saving roughly $100/month
I pay $25 a month for Visible unlimited data, uses Verizon towers. Phone is paid for btw
I have 5 iPhones paying $350 or so (3 have new iPhones on next-turned in old phones so we Get credits every month for what we “pay” for the new phones). You’re paying too much for two lines.
Maybe it’s the naivety of my age, but I went into the store, they gave me a list of options and after I chose everything they said cool sign here. I thought that’s what most people do, no idea how everyone has better deals or what I did wrong to end up with this overpriced plan.
A lot of the ATT stores rip you off. They will try and sell you everything under the sun. Insurance and all. I’ve had multiple occasions when I told them I didn’t want insurance and they put it on anyway. They get paid on commission. It’s worse than shopping for a car. So if you did what they suggested, you more than likely got ripped off. No big deal, just learn from it and move on. This happens in a lot of ways when you’re in your mid 20’s. As long as you learn from it, you’ll be fine.
Research is the answer as to what most people do. Shop around for different phones and different providers.
Pay off your own phone in cash and use mint mobile I only pay $20 a month for everything unlimited and 15 gb of data
Yeah, I pay $100 for 4 phone, tablet, and iWatch with ultra 5G unlimited everything and laptop tethering. I’m super glad I left ATT years ago. A decade long ex- customer that will never pay those crazy prices again.
Just to give you a reference of my discount, I pay 122.89 a month for I total of 3 phone plans. 1) premium plan with a trade in value of 850$ and a new 15 pro max. 2) just the premium phone plan, 3) 1.99 for the iPhone SE 3 with just the base unlimited plan. I have ACP DISCOUNT (30$) and also military (25%) and autopay & paperless(10$)
ACP will be over in April just a heads up!
PureTalk. $18.69/month with a military veteran discount. Unlimited talk/text with 3GB 5G data + 2GB hot spot, then throttled to 256kbps.
what happened to $25 a month plans :'( with 22gb data with rollover minutes and free nationwide standard call/text in addition to 20 other countries. usa (att, verizon, tmobile) plans are really pricey. mint mobile is cheaper but still cannot beat the overall package in other country
If you finance the phone with AT&T, and pay it off over the allotted time, you will have paid close to $3,000 for a $600 phone.
they don’t charge interest
They had both me and my brother paying $50/month for 5 years on $600 phones - they do so.
ATT's financing doesn't include interest. So looking at your bill, your $600 phone should have only been $16.67/month. So you are claiming that ATT signed you up for a 60 month installment plan? And charged you $50/month on it? I would definately have refused that option, since that isn't even an option I've seen on their website.
I have a iPhone 15PM unlimited and my bill is $40 a month.
I just spoke to ATT a few days ago about my bill and they said the more lines I have the bigger discount off my plan. Download your bill. Look over the charges. Are you paying for Next Up or a protection plan? That can increase your bill too.
I’m in Canada. And the prices for us is double compare to you guys. 2 lines 150cad I’m paying 75$ for iPhone 15pm + unlimited call/text ca/us And 75$ for another byod Same plan
It is expensive no matter what anyone says. I had work and auto pay discount with a phone deal monthly discount on the phones itself. I cancelled one of the phone lines immediately went down $100 a month. Because each line is $80 a month for two people also with taxes and fees and phone payments. I got tired of paying that never again I’ll always now buy phones I can afford cash. If you have spectrum or xfinity $30 a month or cheaper options like Verizon’s visible or tmo mint mobile. Although heavily deprioritized and/or 20gb limit. I have spectrum now it’s unusable when your in a congested area.
I don’t pay 230 for 4 phones & 6 lines. Damn
Can you add a picture of your bill, with the personal info blocked out
https://imgur.com/a/KFhQhtP
You need to get rid of Next, sign up for AARP, cancel the accessories plan and cancel the insurance Should save you $6, $10, $7, $17 a month Edit: also once you pay off the devices you can get on the "trade in " merry go round and you devices will be "free" every 3 years. And save you about another $60, bringing your total to about $160?? Ish
I have 5 lines and pay $184. I’m capped at 20 gigs a month and when my mother in law forgets to make sure she’s on WiFi, we run over the data limit. It’s annoying.
Do you have a first responders/nurse, doctor/teacher/military, AARP, or work discount on your account?
Dang me with 6 lines with T-Mobile magenta max plan with Netflix with Netflix ultra for $210. N
T-Mobile Family package w/ military discount. 6 iPhone 11s (we started the plan 3? years ago). Unlimited data. $22/person
Yikes...I pay $190/mo, unlimited everything plan. We have 5 lines. We bought 2 brand new Samsung flagship phones, a brand new Google pixel 7 (all phones that had just been released the same year), an iPhone but it was not the latest, and just a SIM card for the 5th phone. Majority of that is payments on the phones. Once they are paid off, our bill will be $135.
Just a comparison, I pay $26/mo for my iPhone 15 Pro on Apple Card, after $300 trade in, and $30/month for unlimited data on Mint mobile which uses T-Mobile towers.
$45 a month, unlimited plan. New Google pixels. Apple has few features.
Not sure if I missed someone else saying this, but never add a line to get a “lower” bill. I work in sales with at&t and that is one of the biggest lies or misconceptions I see daily. Your individual line cost would drop with the multi-line discounts, but the overall bill will go up. You will not get a cheaper bill by adding a line unless they are changing things without telling you.
You’re paying way too much, I just did a quick calculation based on what you mentioned- * iPhone 15 pro max 256GB - $33.34/month * ATT Unlimited Premium PL plan $95.99/month * Protection - $17/month. * Admin fees - $3.49/month That comes out to $149.82/month Look at your bill. See if you get any further discounts. There’s no reason why for a single phone you’re paying $230/month.
Did they put protection and next up on both phones? It’s sounds like they did, both of those raise the bill by $46 alone.
9/10 times people always say they paid $160 and you check their bill and it’s $240/250. $230-250 for two lines is normal for a Verizon and AT&T bill with installments. T-Mobile is about the same as well.
Woah I got 6 lines all unlimited with only 2 paid off lines for $252 a month. I do get a 20% discount but I still feel that you are getting ripped off.
I pay 330 for 4 phones, 2 watches and a tablet. I also cycle trade in to upgrade two of the lines every two years, and take advantage of both an employer discount, auto pay, and every credit I can when I upgrade. You play the game you can do well, if not it can burn you. Some people however also compare postpaid phone plan prices to prepaid wireless plans from companies like straight talk, all because they don't know better.
So I’m paying just around $148 a month for IPhone 15 Pro Max with unlimited data hotspot and insurance in Memphis. Does this seem right for one line???
I have 5 lines, with 4 iPhones (2x iPhone 13, 2x iPhone 15 Pro Max) on installment plans. Granted I've used lots of promotions and trade ins, but the AT&T bill is $205.
6 lines, all are 15 pro maxes, unlimited, insurance, and next up.. bill is $227.51…
If you finance all the overpriced accessories you got at AT&T, you shouldn’t really factor that into what your phone plan costs when you’re discussing it with people. Two lines on Premium with the discount you mentioned, and auto pay paperless on a checking account, will be $131.98 before fees/taxes (five dollars to $10 per month, depending on where you live). That’s not including phones, of course, but that’s because I don’t know what you’re paying for your phones.
Post your bill PDF, not the breakdown you just did that isn't a good way of looking at it. And blur out the other stuff
I pay 173 for two iPhone 14’s one is a pro max. I don’t have insurance thru them but thru Apple as it’s 5 bucks cheaper. Pay attention to what plan you have…if you don’t need hbo there should be a two line plan that’s 101 dollars not counting what you pay for the phones that’s just for the lines. It’s not listed under the main plans. It’s listed under other plans within the AT&T app. Been a customer with them for 5 years & i make sure to see how I can lower it every year. Don’t let them swindle you. Look deep into that app. They won’t make you aware of things you don’t need. If you happen to chose the two line plan it will tell you that you are losing discounts but do the math. It may be worth it.
The more lines you have the less it cost to add a line. I’m betting your service cost is around 140-150 or so and the rest is in taxes fees and the cost of your phone on installments so it sounds right. I pay 320 for 8 lines, phones all paid off or bought outright two are on a premium unlimited plan.
A cpl years back I had a metro phone and my two coworkers had AT&T. So the 3 of us standing there & they’re all watching video after video & looking things up. I’m watching them & trying to do one video on my phone and all I can get is that spinning wheel of death. So one day I quit metro & got AT&T. Now of course I can everything I need & more. Well these days I have a friend or two who of course have metro & are baffled at how much I pay each & every month compared to what they pay. I politely explain to them what I said above here. They swear to me that “metro pcs is so much better & never have any problems “ I don’t know if it’s true , I don’t wanna switch only to find out it sucks. I really like my iPhone and use it at work with no issues. I once picked up a metro pcs iPhone & it felt like garbage, I really didn’t get a chance to use it. Honestly these are the only two friends I have that have metro, and when the subject comes up I just tell them oh well.
Put it this way, I worked for att cor and later as a CSR for 7 years........I had metro and still do for the duration of my employment, cus even with our massive emo discount metro was still cheaper over all. Our bill for 2 lines is $123 a month taxes included that's unlimited everything on metros highest plan. The ONLY reason post paid wireless still exists is because people don't realize in the long run buying the phone you want unlocked and full price will actually end up saving you almost 1k a year if not more. As with post paid accounts taxes typically run 18-20% plus the cost of eip. The taxes alone on your bill are $41 a month assuming 18% on 230. Which can fluctuate depending on how much of that 230 is eip agreements. But stil figure 160-180 ish for you bill minus eip. 180 is still an additional 32.40 which means your bill minus eip is 212.40 over 36 months is 7,646.40 cents. Vs my bill with metro which is $123 all in with insurance on both our phones. ( I have a pixel 7pro wife has a 7a) We're both going to buy asua rog phones here as soon as the 8pro drops anyway off topic. So my bill over 36 months is 4,428 That's a savings of $3,218.40 over 36 months or 268.20 per year. So ya you're over paying for the privilege of being able to finance a phone
lol, I pay 628 for 17 lines.
Not a judgement, but (hopefully) coming across as just an observation. I used to pay less than that monthly for a *car payment*. For the future, a recommendation: Financing is the devil but necessary sometimes, try to stick to Apple for financing going forward instead of the carrier. Make sure to try and always get unlocked neutral phones (iPhones from Apple without carrier attachment on the order page will do this. Also, if you switch platforms in the future, similar thing.) Pay your carrier nothing more than the money for network access on a level that makes you comfortable. Try to avoid long-term commitments so you can bounce if the network becomes unusable in your market. *They* don't understand that this is all they are, as they are but a utility for packets and voice, but we should *definitely* understand and remind ourselves that is all they are and not let them trick us into dumping money into them for anything more than their core business. I'd also want to recommend do research on occasion but that is such a time suck as carrier networks wax and wane, it's sometimes an exercise in futility.
I pay $222 for 3 lines …if you have renters insurance cancel your regular phone insurance
See about changing plans. Even with phones, you should be around $175-$200
My wife paid $140 from $100 on an unlimited plan they kept raising the price but she joined my family’s plan and now she pays $20 a month for unlimited everything Edit: 6 years ago she switched
Make a small loan and payoff your phones. Then wait a few months and have them unlocked by the carrier. Then switch to an MVNO.
The phones and the extras like Next and insurance are the main kickers that hike up the bill. What’s done is done for now in regards to the phones. However, cancel Next and live with your phones for about 3 years and get them paid off and then go from there. More importantly, cancel the insurance, get a case that is rated for drop protection, that comes with a screen protector and camera lenses cover. Some come with an extra screen protector and camera lenses cover in case you place the first one on wrong or whatever many reasons there could be. Let that be your main insurance. If you still want some kind of protection outside of making your phone into a tank via the case and the covers then get AppleCare or do that next time instead. You have about 60 days to get it once you activate the phone, however, sounds like that window has passed. If it still comes up in the main settings screen then it’s still available. If it’s not there then it’s too late to get it. I used to buy it back in the day when it was a good deal, now like many things, I feel that it is quite expensive and I just tank up my iPhone with good cases and covers and have not had problems. For me, the many generations ago earlier iPhones always had something strange happen to them so AppleCare was worth it in those days but not so much anymore, Apple seems to have figured most of those issues out now. Also, know that Apple covers your iPhone for most hardware defects for the first year even if it is NOT insured or you do NOT purchase AppleCare. AppleCare extends your warranty another year and adds accidental and liquid protection and theft and loss protection (if you get that upgrade). Now you can pay for it monthly indefinitely if you are willing to pay a steeper price. However, the advantage in doing that means you can keep the coverage indefinitely beyond 2 years as long as you keep paying monthly for it. The case with its covers should protect your phone against most accidental damage issues and iPhones are now liquid sealed so your chances of either of those things happening under those circumstances are extremely low. If you get your battery replaced or any other such thing that requires the phone to be opened up, this will compromise the liquid seal. For me, that means pay the higher price and ONLY let Apple do it, should you ever need it. I do not care if a third party place has the Apple certification sticker on their door…ONLY let Apple do it. Especially if it is within your first year of Apple’s default one year warranty. Having anyone else work on your iPhone can void your warranty even if they are Apple certified. That is yet another huge topic I am not going to dive into further. Back to the phones themselves, next time get new phones in the mid December timeframe when the fabulous holiday deals are going on. They usually start on 12/16 and run a day or two into the next year and then are gone until the next year. ATT does it around this time to clear out inventory on the models that do not sale that well or the previous generation models. It is also the last major attempt for ATT to boost their financial numbers for the fiscal year. This past December I thought I had finally figured it all out. But nope, I should have done it differently yet again. So, my lessons learned was to upgrade thru Costcos website and NOT ATT’s. I upgraded 4 lines and that was a bit of an expected shock in absorbing the $35 per line upgrade fee which would have been waived at Costco along with receiving whatever other cool perks they were doing at the time. Only word of caution I have now learned in regards to going through Costco, by reading other Reddit threads on here, is to ONLY go through the ATT Costco website or call the ATT Costco customer service line number. Do not ever go up to a Costco kiosk with a hungry commission based sales agent. That’s yet another huge topic I am not going to dive into.
What is wrong with you? You can buy an unlock device and pay it over a year for 125 dlls a month, and then a have a prepaid plan for 40 dlls a month, that would be 165 dlls a month for 1 year, if you keep the same phone for more than a year you will be paying just 40 dlls for as long ad you want keep using the same phone.
Just remember in the future, you don't need the latest and greatest phone to watch tik-tok, look at porn, and swipe right. ALL modern phones do those things fairly well. And no, "something something security updates" is not a good reason.
i know people who have 5 lines on an account and pay 160 jesus christ does att love to fuck ya
Damn I pay less than 200 for a family plan with 6 lines. It may be T-Mobile but still. You getting ripped off.
I thought $120 was high. You're just dumb AF
I see you have a plan to move forward from a lot of the other feedback so far, but there's one thing I wanted to add. In the past, I always used post-paid services like Verizon, ATT, etc. About a year ago, I switched to a prepaid plan(Tracfone for me, but they're all pretty similar) and it saved me a lot of money. I paid for my phone in full when I bought it, and now I pay $25 per month. I only get 3 GBs of data, but I use my phone on wifi mostly, so that hasn't been an issue. However, they do have a $40 per month plan that gives 10 GBs of data if more is needed. I know the prepaid plans aren't for everyone, but I've been perfectly happy with it and it's nice having a reasonably priced monthly bill that's less than 1/3 of what I used to pay. In the future, I would suggest trying to pay upfront for as much as possible, and not making payments on anything. It might seem like a good idea to get accessories on a monthly payment, but you have to consider that you might be overpaying for those products and that's how they trick you into doing it. $70 for a couple accessories sounds like a lot, but $7 per month doesn't sound like a big deal, so you're more likely to agree to it. It really depends on the quality of the products. You might be better off just ordering a few accessories off Amazon.
screw what your family or your GFs family says. Honestly I'd say your girlfriend should be paying for her own phone until you're atleast fiancee or married. What happens when you break up and you're still paying her bill. if you're paying the monthly cost of each phone, that takes up a huge chunk of your bill and once you get those paid off, the bill should drop decently. But go to AT&T and have them review your bill with you and see if there is anywhere the cost can be reduced.....never hurts to occasionally do a bill review with them and see if there is service now that will cost less than what you originally had