How to Save Money on Your Phone Plan During Shutdown
If you spend most of your time at home these days, you might be able to save a lot of money on your monthly phone bills by switching to a usage-based data plan.
Unlike most modern unlimited data plans, which charge a flat fee for unlimited data usage per billing period, or ultra-restrictive budget plans that only allow calls or text messages, usage-based plans charge users only the data they need. actually use every month.
Google Fi, for example, charges $ 10 per gigabyte of mobile data used (or $ 1 per 100 megabytes if you have less than a gigabyte). There is no limit to how much data you can use, but your bill eventually reaches a limit, so you won’t be charged an astronomical amount for months when you use more data than usual. The billing limits are roughly equivalent to other unlimited plans – $ 50- $ 80 depending on the company and the features you choose – so you’re not going to spend too much money even in the months you go on.
The catch here is that you have to keep lowering a certain threshold to actually save money, which is easier said than done. According to the latest data, the average smartphone uses around 31.4 GB per month. If you’re browsing tons of mobile data, you’re likely to spend as much – and possibly more – on a usage plan than if you only had unlimited. However, as with other data plans, Wi-Fi data is not included in your monthly usage. You can use 20GB of data on your home Wi-Fi network without a single charge.
Eliminating Wi-Fi data is why usage-based plans are so attractive for those who work from home now. In fact, a recent article on Android Central shows how existing Google Fi users can significantly lower their monthly bills by spending more time on Wi-Fi. As long as your home internet plan isn’t overly restrictive, you can save quite a bit of money every month, especially if you restrict mobile data and restrict certain background apps in your device’s settings.
Is the usage plan right for you?
The best way to find out if a usage-based plan is right for you is to check how much mobile data you use on average. You can usually find this on your monthly phone bill, in your account summary on your cellular carrier’s website, and / or in your device settings. Most carriers have useful billing calculators that estimate how much money you will spend on their service plan based on your average data usage.
Who has usage based plans?
Google Fi, Ting, and US Mobile have some of the most prominent usage-based plans. Here are their billing models based on a one-line plan. (Important note: Before registering, double check if these carriers support your specific smartphone and region!)
- Starts at $ 20 per month plus $ 10 per GB of data used (up to a cent), so using 1 GB of mobile data would equate to a roughly $ 30 bill. There is no charge for data over 6 GB, meaning you pay a maximum of $ 80 if you use more than 6 GB of data (before taxes and government fees). That said, if you’re constantly taking things to the next level, the $ 70 Google Fi unlimited plan might be better.
- From $ 6 / month plus all usage fees. Ting charges a fractional fee for everything, including data, text, and talk time. The limits are scaled differently depending on each feature. You can estimate your monthly bill on the Ting website, but overall, you will probably save money even if you spend a lot of time texting and calling. For example, if you used 1000 minutes of talk time, 2000 text messages and 1 GB of mobile data, you will only be billed for about $ 48.
- The balance is designed for all uses. Like Ting, US Mobile charges calls, text messages, and data separately, and each has its own cost caps (but not usage limits). But even if you are charged the maximum for calls ($ 8) and text messages ($ 6), for a month when you only use 1.5 GB of data, you will be charged only $ 24 excluding taxes and fees.
How to make the most of your usage plan
You can save a lot of money every month, even if you happen to use some extra mobile data, if you do most of your downloads and streaming using Wi-Fi. It will take several concerts to get some value of the unlimited plan. However, if you want to really limit and make the most of your usage plan, here are some ways to reduce your mobile data usage:
- Keep your phone connected to Wi-Fi when at home and reliable networks and free hotspots when in town.
- Try to preload any podcasts, videos, music, and other content while you’re connected to Wi-Fi to reduce your mobile data streaming, which usually eats up the most megabytes.
- Limit your mobile data usage as much as possible when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi. Features such as power saving mode and airplane mode come in handy, as well as turning off mobile data or even just turning off your phone when it’s not connected to Wi-Fi if you don’t need it.
- Close apps running in the background if you are using mobile data, especially social media apps, web browsers, navigation apps, and streaming apps.
- Set limits on data usage and a warning so you don’t accidentally accumulate unnecessary costs.