Weaning Ourselves off AT&T Wireless
May 27, 2011 by Mr. ToughMoneyLove
Filed under Spending
Our days of sending ridiculous amounts of money to AT&T wireless are almost over. We have been on a four-line wireless family plan with AT&T for several years. Two of us have had smart phone data plans added in, plus unlimited family texting. We were spending $200/month for our cell phones and another $30 for a landline. I had enough.
Six months ago I persuaded one of our sons to also switch to Straight Talk. He did and likes it. Now we were down to two phones with AT&T.
Last month our youngest graduated from college. I told him we would continue to pay for his phone until he became gainfully employed, but he had to switch to Straight Talk. Earlier this week he made the switch. No problem. He likes a simple phone as well – talk and text.
The last domino to fall will be Mrs. ToughMoneyLove and her beloved iPhone. I have ordered her a $20 refurbished phone from Straight Talk to try. It is nothing like an iPhone of course but it does have a full QWERTY keyboard. She can continue to use her iPhone on wifi if she likes. (The actual “phone” part of an iPhone is not very good anyway.) Hopefully, she will be persuaded to make the switch.
Today I am pulling the plug on our last AT&T landline. This will reduce our monthly AT&T phone expenses from $230/month to $0. We will have replaced that with $90/month in Straight Talk costs. I like that trade.
This feels almost as good as dumping Bank of America for a local bank with a 3% rewards checking account.
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Congratulations on weaning your family off of the Death Star. I jumped to Cingular back in the day to get away from them and found myself right back into the blue and orange vortex of suck. Moved to Verizon but found their service not much better so I was considering moving to T-Mobile…up until last month, that is…
Jeffbone,
Your story of trying to escape the clutches of ATT mirrors my own to a tee. With Verizon, I would lean back in my chair here at home and disconnect lol….
I have been putting off taking a look at our phone situation, but maybe it is time to make the jump. Thanks for the post!
Next in line, Comcast. The day I can kiss that good for nothing business goodbye can’t come soon enough!
Peace!
Yes, I understand. A few months ago, I got rid of my AT&T cell phone and didn’t miss it a bit, but my husband kept his. We have an AT&T landline and since February I have been on the phone with their customer service, monthly, to get some wrong charges credited to my account. The only reason I am keeping the AT&T landline, for now, is that my 83 year old father-in law-knows and dials that number. He says he can’t get reach my husband on the cell — which is true, because my husband is a phone-o-phobe! When my husband’s cell phone finally breaks, though, we will check out Straight Talk. Thanks for the recommendation.
Does anyone have any experience with Jitterbug?