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Cell phones

How we lowered our cell phone bill from $118 to $15 AND we still have smart phones, can call or text anywhere, have no contracts, and we even kept our old phone numbers.  We just got rid of AT&T for Pure TalkUSA and use our own wifi (or free wifi anywhere) instead of cell data.
We have a $15 plan and if we go over our minutes/texts, it goes to the next level, up to whatever cap we set.  So it's usually $15 a month for two phones!  If we're more talkative, it's $25.  If we just can't shut up, then it's $35.  That's still a pretty sweet savings! 
(We've since upgraded two phones to unlimited talk/text and 3gb of data, so we can have data when we need it. We've also added 4 lines for our kids and the grandparents. So our bill now is $59. Still pretty great!)
When we travel, we always have our wifi with us anyway, so we don't have to go without.  If we plan to be out and about and will need data, we can take the wifi, or connect at McDonalds or any hot spot.  On occasion, I've taken a photo somewhere and didn't have data to be able to upload it to Facebook immediately.  I survived.  We've not been able to use the map app to look up a store, so we used the GPS.  We found the store.  At the very worst, it is a minor inconvenience. At the very best, we save $103 a month! 
Pure TalkUSA has phones available or you can bring your own.  They even have affordable data plans if you need to have data everywhere you go.  We're just glad we realized we didn't actually need it.
If you do switch, get my number to give them when you sign up (or click the links above) and we can get some bonus minutes.  Then we can chat more.  Or text.  Or email.  :) 

(There are some questions and answers in the comments if you're interested.)

Comments

Cheyenne said…
Thank you for this post! We are just looking into switching our cell phone plan from AT&T & are really interested in PureTalk. I wondered if you could answer a few questions for me based on your family's experience. Also, if we do decide to switch, we'd be happy to give them your number so you can get some bonus points!

1. How long have you had the service?
2. Have you found that the actual cell service/reception is good in most areas? (It's my understanding PureTalk is on the ATT network?)
3. Have you had any dealing w/ Pure Talk's customer service and if so, what was that like?
4. Was it easy to get set up (we're using our current phones)?
5. Did you just use SIM cards or did you get a new phone?
6. Our understanding is that we can divide shared minutes between my husband and myself (choosing, for example, to give my husband 70 minutes and myself 120 minutes). What happens if one of us goes over our allotted minutes? Does the amount on our account get bumped up to the next "level" of minutes (charging us more for that month) or can we go into our account and change the allotment? Hope that makes sense.

Sorry for all of the q's...I'm making you earn those extra minutes. :)

Also, we're from the Cincy, Ohio area, but now live in West Texas. What part of Ohio are you in/from?

Thanks so much. I've enjoyed your blog & we may be hitting the road full-time in the near future - discerning God's will for our next steps! :)

I sent a friend request to you on Facebook, so you could message me your phone number there if you want to keep that private.

God's blessings,
Cheyenne
The Lundy 5 said…
1. How long have you had the service?
* Since March.
2. Have you found that the actual cell service/reception is good in most areas? (It's my understanding PureTalk is on the ATT network?)
* Reception's been fine all around the east so far. It's GSM, so I think that's AT&T or Tmobile.
3. Have you had any dealing w/ Pure Talk's customer service and if so, what was that like?
* No need yet beyond setup which was fine.
4. Was it easy to get set up (we're using our current phones)?
* Super easy. Gave them our numbers and they did it all.
5. Did you just use SIM cards or did you get a new phone?
* They mailed us new SIM cards for our phones.
6. What happens if one of us goes over our allotted minutes?
* The other day Allen got a message that he was out of minutes, so I adjusted the slider and gave him more. So he couldn't call, but it didn't jump price tiers or anything.

Hope that helps. We're originally (mostly) from Troy (north of Dayton).