PCWorld Forums: 12 Tips To Cut Your Cell Phone Bill - PCWorld Forums

Post your comments for 12 Tips to Cut Your Cell Phone Bill here

You can also limit your voice. T-Mobile and Wallmart offer a $30 plan with just 100 voice minutes but 5GB of data. I'm teaming that with my $399 Google Galaxy Nexus. $1119 over 2 years (plus tax).

Also look at ting.com and republicwireless.com.
Both should half your monthly fees in somewhat different ways.

Hope some of them will work!

DrorMpt2z, on 14 May 2012 - 12:41 AM, said:

II've had the republic wireless service since this past December and I am pleased with it. The standard phone is the LG Optimus S and it is a hybrid smartphone with wi-fi priority, Sprint 3G is the backup. No contract.

Who wouldn't like the idea of paying only $19 a month for unlimited everything, compared to paying 4-5 times as much for Big Cell with caps? Although the service is officially in beta, it is quite usable. Get your name on the list to be notified for the next beta availability, at the republicwireless.com website.

(I have no affiliation with republic wireless, except as a satisfied paying customer.)

I use the lowest rates on Verizon for voice and data on my iPhone. I have never even have come close to using 2GB of data yet. I do all of my downloading via WIFI.

If you are not using your smartphone a lot or you're not in a T-Mobile coverage but have a VoIP phone service at home, consider T-Mobile's $3/24 hour plan.

Just make sure you turn off mobile data. In my case since I'm using CyanogenMod 9 in my Exhibit II 4G ($170 used but have to get a $2 USB cable from Amazon) with Android 4.0.3 and it's Settings, Data Usage, and turn off mobile data. You can also turn on airplane mode to save your battery and just use only Wi-Fi.

For Wi-Fi calling, I'm using an application called CSipSimple and it is connected to my Asterisk PBX system. It supports HD Voice and I'm using G.711 for PSTN-quality phone calls despite that my mom and dad only uses a cell phone.

My Asterisk PBX is then connected to two of my phone providers over VoIP: Anveo and CallCentric. Anveo is my primary provider. I'm paying just $0.01 a minute for outgoing calls and $1.99 a month for my phone number and I'm only making and receiving about 30 minutes per month. I'm not paying for 911 service due to my hearing impairment and I did not have any emergencies at all (like no injuries) and so does my mom and dad. For that, I'm paying less than $2.50 a month for Anveo phone service. But when some calls cannot go through (like 1-850-245-XXXX), I have Asterisk route the call over to CallCentric instead, which charges $0.02 cents per minute. Since I already have my 1-407 number registered to Anveo, all I have to do is show a screenshot for my phone number to CallCentric and my phone number is added to Caller ID. That way, callers will not see my 1-777-267-XXXX number.

When it comes time to leave for a trip to Disney World, I turn off airplane mode, turn on mobile data, and listen to Live365 in my smartphone.

With that said, my smartphone is used only for things when I'm not at home or not using Wi-Fi, like surfing the Internet or making phone calls to my family, but I could use text messaging instead since with $3/day (up to 24 hours), I get unlimited minutes, unlimited texting, and 200MB of 2G data. But what would be nice, however, is if T-Mobile could just change from unlimited minutes to just 50 minutes and up the data from 200 to 500MB, which is better suitable for my hearing impairment and for those who don't make phone calls that often.

Great article. Another popular free mobile texting and calling app is textPlus - always free to communicate with other textPlus users. It also lets textPlus users communicate with non-users, too. Available on Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

Great article! textPlus is another way to talk and text for free - available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

Great article but you left out a BIG one! Check with your carrier to see if your employer is on their discount list. My wife and I save 22% off our bill because she is a nurse.

You should add a note that if you are paying AT&T $9.99 a month for Navigator, you should just turn in your phone and not leave your house. You must be a complete moron.

I find that TracFone is best for me. Paid $14.95 for phone with all the goodies including camera and able to purchase the double minutes with bonus amounted to full service and 1000 minutes for full year. Use land line for local calls and cell for all long distance and while delivering Meals to the Elderly here local. The full service and minutes cost only $99.95 for full year.

This post has been edited by HeyBob: 18 May 2012 - 05:05 AM

Submitted duplicate info - disregard this reply

This post has been edited by HeyBob: 18 May 2012 - 05:09 AM

Stay off the phone when you are driving, reducing the amount of minutes you use, and making friends of those who are sharing the road with you.

I use a TMobile prepaid plan. $100 for 1000 minutes; good for one year unless you renew before end of year and then unused minutes carry forward. I use it for phone only, don't need the data. Occasional text message.

Virgin Mobile has a $35 per month unlimite plan. It runs on the Sprint network but you buy your own phone. See virginmobileusa.com

Go with Straight Talk from Walmarts
$150.00 for smartphone
$45.00 For no limited use
Have had no trouble with any bad areas and I know truck drivers that drive all over the U.S.A. with no good results
Ken

For mobile use, a prepaid plan works great. 900 minutes in a month??? I couldn't use that many in a year. So pay a little more for 900 minutes, and have no monthly fee at all.

Go ahead and get a 'wireless hot spot', instead of a phone. The sort of thing that shares your internet with every WiFi device (put a password on it, naturally). The data is limited (around $40 for 2GB), but now yow you can leave that in your briefcase/purse, and use the 'cheaper' tablet, or a 'real' notebook computer, and even share your access, when applicable, when on the road. You can use VOIP with this arrangement, even with tablets that would normally block it to 'protect' their wireless carrier, if it had the 3G or 4G built in, and of course, always with a notebook.

I really have a cell phone bill issue. I am gonna try all these, hope it will work.

You completely forgot to mention Virgin Mobile. They are owned by Sprint but have exceptionally low rates.