One of the perks that came with my former job was a company iphone 5.
I LOVED that phone.
Needing to turn the phone back in, I stopped by at&t to get a new phone and number.
While waiting for my turn, I began looking at phones.
I started with what I knew-iphones.
The pricetags were shocking.
$900 for the iphone6.
$900!
That is insane!
I looked at the iphone 4.
$399
Nuts!
I even compared prices on amazon. Not so different.
I had NO IDEA these phones were so EXPENSIVE!
I walked around the Samsungs, Window phones （guaranteed not to have Pinterest）
and finally to the lil’ phones near the restroom.
The HTCs.
$79, $139.
Hey, now we’re talking.
It turns out, I had been doing phones like a sheep. Simply accepting that “around $100 a month” for a phone was “normal”.
As Dave Ramsey says
“normal is broke”
and
“poor people ask ‘how much a month?’
and
rich people ask ‘how much?'”
While looking at the HTC phones, I remembered my Chinese phone-my Huawei!
And it’s already paid for!
All I needed was a new SIM card and for the nice folks at AT&T to configure my APN access point network to be AT&T.
And to learn the English/Chinese keyboard….
My emoticons are these:
And the monthly cost for unlimited text, talk and 3G of data and 4G internet access on the go?
$31
Moral of the story?
*Don’t be a “phone sheep”
*Ask ‘how much’ for the phone
*An ‘upgrade’ is stupid-you’re signing up to buy another phone
*BYOP bring your own phone. Most carriers can handle this
*If you’re paying more than about $50/month for service, you’re getting ripped off
Here’s a handy website to check plans:
Suzewannabe 
Really good advice. I was one of those people who signed a contract with verizon with an Iphone 6. Although I do love the phone, the monthly bill is outrageous. In turn being that I have always tried to be that person who tries to justify the cost of something I have found so many ways of using my phone on a daily basis to completes tasks that I used to use my computer for. But the bottom line is always the bottom line and it does cost dearly. 😦
Great advice! I did the same thing! We found our old used iPhone 4 with a cracked screen. Unlocked the phone thru AT&T, the original carrier, replaced the broken screen and subscribed to Cricket for $35/mo for phone an data. Happy as a lark now! Now I’ve got my parents to unlock their phones and getting them onto Cricket which will be $70/mo for the two iPhone 4’s. 🙂
Thanks.
Love it!