Phone tips
If you don’t need a cell phone (gasp), or you just want take some of the load off your cell phone, and you have high speed internet access then you can use VOIP (voice over IP) which routes your phone calls thru your broadband internet service. T-Mobile has a service for $10 a month which includes unlimited long distance in the US. I haven’t used these services but I know people who swear by them. However, there are two main problems. First, they’re only as reliable as your internet service. Secondly, if there’s a power outage you’ve lost your phone. That’s not the case with normal, old fashioned land lines as they don’t use your home power, but bring their own power in.
If you do need or want a cell phone then you need to decide two things:
- How often will you use it?
- Do you want muscular thumbs? (lots of text-messaging…)
If you plan on using the phone quite a bit, and would like to text message more than a couple of times a day, then your best choice is probably to go with a family plan. This has the added benefit of having the bill sent to mom and dad. How you play this is up to you. But even if they do fall for your perfectly delivered “you do want to hear from me, right mommy?” line you should at least offer to pay the $5-$15 extra a month for the text messaging service.
However, if you don’t do much text messaging and can use less than 300 or so minutes a month then you’d probably be ahead using T-Mobile’s $100 for 1000 minutes prepaid plan. That works out to 10 cents a minute (or less with bonuses,) and there is no long term contract or monthly fees and the minutes don’t expire for a year. It’s the best prepaid plan I’ve seen. We use it. The only downside is that text messages cost 10 cents to send and worse yet, 5 cents to receive. Compare that to a normal plan that,charges around a penny or so apiece.
Another nice thing about the T-Mobile prepaid is that you can use any GSM unlocked phone. One of your friends who derives a major portion of their self-esteem from the type of cell phone they use probably has a drawer full of older phones they’d give to you or sell cheap. But check out T-Mobile’s prepaid phones first. The day I wrote this they had a phone for $29 that came with a $25 pre-paid card. Isn’t that less than $5 for a new phone? It’s not the I-Phone, but then who really cares?
Another free option if both you and your folks have your computers on a lot is to use Yahoo messenger or any other chat program to stay in touch. Got a web camera? Even better. The folks will think it’s so Jetsonish and will feel reassured when they see you haven’t dyed your hair orange or blown off your eyebrows in physics lab.
We’d welcome your own money-saving suggestions. Just send them to me in the comment box below.
Bank on it.
