These days the big 4 cell phone companies seem to charge a fortune for service. While they give you much more than a few years ago a lot of their features are unnecessary. These 7 tips will help to find a lower price, and you may even notice that you're paying for things you don't even use.
1. Go Prepaid
Many times they offer significant discounts on prepaid plans. First, you need to look at what you actually need. For many years I had a prepaid plan. It gave me the flexibility to change plans when ever I needed to, and I could easily reload credit with prepaid cards available at almost every store.
2. Don't Go Unlimited ~ Unless you need to
Many times people buy plans that are much bigger than they need because they don't want to have to worry about going over the limit. If you look at your plan's usage and could save money by dropping to a lower rate tier, it's usually worth while since chances are you won't suddenly change how much you're using. You can always consider the money you saved if you ever do have to pay an overage fee on a certain month.
3. Add a Line to your Families Plan
This is what I currently do. Since many plans have very cheap add a line offers I took advantage of that. This allows my plan to be essentially only $10 a month with T-Mobile, but you can allow both parties to benefit by contributing more to the overall plan than the add a line cost.
4. Check if a carrier is offering you a deal to switch
Many times reward sites offer significant cash back for joining a new carrier. Currently, Swagbucks is offering cash back on most of the major carriers. Including more than $28.50 cash back for starting new service with Verizon Wireless.
5. Go to a Smaller Carrier
Many times you can save money by going with a smaller carrier that doesn't own or maintain their own towers. This can save you a lot of money. Right now Boost offers 4 unlimited lines for $25 each. They use Sprint's network, so if you currently have excellent service from them, it might be worth giving Boost a look.
6. See if you qualify for a Student or Employee Discount
Many companies and schools have agreements that allow their member to get discounts. I've even seen discounts as high as 15% for members of certain organizations. Just make sure you read the fine print since there are often a lot of exclusions and terms to get that price.
7. Ask if your Carrier can Give you a Lower Price
You can always ask if they can make you a better offer. There is a lot of competition between the wireless carries and a lot of times rather than lose you they would rather give you a better price.