The average American spends nearly $1,300 – $1,400 per year on their cellphone plan. If you look at your own plan, chances are it’s a noticeable portion of your monthly bills.
Your cellphone charges are probably higher or at least comparable to many other bills you pay. To save more each month, you must ensure you’re paying the lowest amount possible for your cellphone plan.
Thankfully, despite the rising cost of phone plans, you can learn how to lower your cellphone bill. If you want to stop wasting money by overpaying for your phone plan every month, it’s time to take action.
How to Lower Your Cell Phone Bill
There are numerous ways to start lowering your cellphone bill. Some strategies involve finding cheaper plans, while others are as simple as changing your phone’s settings.
1. Change Your Carrier
Sometimes, the best way to lower your cell phone bill is to switch to a carrier that offers a comparable plan at a lower price.
You shouldn’t assume that all mobile plans charge the same amount. Instead, take a few minutes to compare plans from time to time.
One affordable option to consider is Boost Mobile. When you switch to Boost Mobile, you can get unlimited talk, text, and data for $25 a month – and that price is locked in for life as long as you stay active with AutoPay. There are no annual contracts, no trade-in required, and you get access to a network offering 99% nationwide coverage. New customers can currently get started for just $10/mo for the first three months, then $25/mo forever.
2. Consider Prepaid Phone Plans
Switching to a prepaid phone plan is one of the fastest ways to reduce your monthly cellphone bill. A prepaid phone plan, or no-contract plan, is what it sounds like — you pay upfront for a certain amount of monthly minutes, text messages, and data. If you run out, you can pay for additional usage or wait until the next month for usage to reset.
Because prepaid plans let you pay month-to-month, you don’t have to worry about getting stuck with an overpriced carrier and plan you don’t need. Plus, prepaid phone plans generally piggyback off existing cellular networks from major providers, helping them remain more affordable while offering reliable coverage.
3. Stick With Older Phones
If you prefer contract plans, you can still lower your cellphone bill by sticking with cheaper phones. Contract plans usually advertise new phones costing $0 and give you a “free” phone when signing up, but that’s not the reality because they factor the phone costs into your monthly contract price. If you decide to buy the latest iPhone or Samsung, don’t expect the cheapest phone plan on the market.
Consider sticking with a slightly older model to reduce how much you pay per month. If you can bring an old phone to the plan, that’s even better. But, if you decide to upgrade your current phone, you can also ask if your carrier accepts phone trade-ins to score a discount.
4. Cancel Extra Services
Stop paying for services you don’t need. Look at your latest bill and see which services you pay for that you don’t use. Unlimited data and minutes are big ones. It may feel like you need a big plan, but look at the actual number of minutes or amount of data you use. Consider choosing the cheaper phone plan if you don’t exceed a basic, less expensive plan, especially if you are on a tight budget.
5. Consider Family Plans
You can often lower your cell phone bill by signing up for a family plan. Most providers only charge 25% of the original line’s cost to add more lines. Of course, you must keep an eye on the features to keep the bill low, but usually, adding more phones decreases your per-phone cost compared to prepaid or no-contract plans.
6. Skip Insurance
Cellphone salespeople make cellphone insurance sound like a must-have when, honestly, it’s money down the drain. Instead of paying the $10 – $20 monthly for phone insurance, set that money aside in your account. If something happens to your phone, you’ll have the funds to take care of it without lining the cellphone company’s pockets.
Ideally, you should only purchase a phone you can afford to repair or replace if something happens. Stick within your budget, and you won’t need to waste money on cellphone insurance, keeping your cellphone bill low.
7. Limit Background Data
Data overage fees are one of the fastest ways to turn a cheap cellphone bill into your worst nightmare. Although unlimited data is becoming more affordable, if you have a data cap, you should do everything you can to stay within your monthly limit.
To prevent data overage fees, get into the habit of turning your data off at home or when connected to Wi-Fi.
You should also turn off data permissions for specific apps on your phone. Shutting off permission for data-heavy apps like YouTube and other video streaming apps eliminates the chance of accidentally draining your cellphone data when watching videos. You can also restrict background data usage for apps so they only consume data when you’re actively using them.
8. Travel Smart
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a digital nomad or frequently travel for business; staying connected while abroad can be expensive.
Instead of upgrading your phone plan to include international travel, try a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot plan. Keepgo is one popular option and offers coverage in more than 100 countries. If you ditch your SMS needs in favor of a messaging app like WhatsApp, you can save even more money on international travel.
Learn more about Keepgo
9. Sell Your Old Phone
To lower the cost of owning a cellphone, you should recoup some of the hardware cost by selling your used phone.
If upgrading, see if you can get a decent trade-in value from the new carrier. Alternatively, try a used cellphone marketplace like SellCell. They pay cash for used phones and accept a range of popular models, making it quick to find buyers for your device.
Sell your phone with SellCell
10. Negotiate
When did you last call your mobile carrier to ask for a better rate? If it’s been more than a year, you might be missing out on the chance to lower your monthly cellphone bill. If you’ve been a longstanding customer with the same company for multiple years, call and see if you can get a better rate, and don’t forget to mention that you’re shopping around.
You could even go as far as getting quotes from other phone carriers and sharing that information with your provider. If they won’t match or beat the offer, go elsewhere.
11. Take Advantage of Cash Back
If you have a cash-back credit card, switch your monthly cellphone payments to that card. This is a fast way to recover some of your monthly expenses without much effort.
If you’re signing up for a cellphone plan online, shop through Rakuten, a popular cash back app, that pays you cash back for shopping at thousands of stores, including mobile carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Cricket Wireless, and Visible by Verizon.
Rakuten usually pays cash back as a percentage for shopping at their partners. However, some phone providers pay up to $125 rebates instead, which is a great way to start your new phone plan.
Shop with Rakuten
Final Word
These days, it’s practically impossible to avoid owning a smartphone. The days of having a landline phone are ending, and as smartphone technology improves, these devices will only become more integrated into daily life.
Fortunately, with a few simple steps, it’s easy to learn how to lower your phone bill. If you can find room to save extra money, your future self will certainly thank you.
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