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The Cell Phone Bill Thread

Eric

Eric

Well-Known Member
May 18, 2001
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Washington D.C.
If there's one bill that can vary price-wise every billing cycle (aside from a credit card), it's the cell phone bill. How well do you manage your cell phone usage?

I do not ever have a problem going over my minutes. In fact, I have rollover minutes (being that I am with Cingular) and I have nearly 6,000 minutes accumulated from the beginning of 2007. I probably use an average of 200 minutes during peak hours when my max for peak is 750, I believe (something I'd never reach). I have unlimited text messages, and unlimited data for internet usage. All of this comes to a grand average total per month of $115.00 per month. I feel like getting unlimited everything plans prevent me from ever going over (mostly concerned about text messages and internet usage). I don't find a problem paying over $100.00/month on my phone because...I dunno, I use it for more things than the average person--including work-related purposes as of recently.

But now I am re-evaluating my cell phone spending. For unlimited data, it's about $40.00 and the only times I'm using the net is when I'm on the metro (train for foreigners), Google Maps GPS in the city walking, or on the toilet. Other than that, I always have access to a computer. Whatever...I am just writing this to figure it out with myself...

bye
 
Here in the UK with T-Mobile you get unlimited data for £7.50 ($15) a month, they call it Web N' Walk.

My plan with my Sidekick 3 is Flext 25 (£25) + Web N' Walk (£7.50) , so £32.50 ($65) a month, except T-Mobile UK agreed to slash £5 a month off my bill because they had an offer on at that time (think its on again now but it's not always on) .So I pay £27.50 ($55) a month.

With this type of account, it's flexible, there's no fixed amount of minutes or texts. They give you an "allowance" amount and everything you do comes out of that, so one month you might send twice as many texts as usual and call people less, but it's all the same.
 
Mann, I cannot WAIT to get rid of Nextel. I have a 2 year contract with them and it's up in like February-March. Bet your ass i'll be waiting for that day and i'll have a new planned lined up elsewhere. I got like 400 minutes a month, free incoming calls and I guess free calls after a certain time on nights and weekends. The amount of minutes I got blows for the price I pay. But I guess the free incoming makes up for that in a big way? I know alot of people offer ALOT more minutes than that for a WAY cheaper price. Plus I have unlimited text for like an extra $15 a month. I pay like $95 a month for my phone bill. Too much.
 
I pay $40 on my personal. But that's with pretty much zero calls.... I am waiting to switch in December...


My work phone is usually $800 a month... I don't pay it.
 
I had bills of average 200$-300$ montly but now I switched to pay as you go which is much cheaper here and I pay about 50$ per month now calling even more than before.
 
Big Easy said:
wtf 800 how is that achieved?
Click to expand...

Well... My company get raped as they are huge..

I have made 30 minute calls and checked the itemised bill.... They were charged $18...


I also get no free minutes or texts....


I send 100's of texts a day and I'm on the phone for a good few hours...



My personal plan is just as shit, but I rarely use it and I'm changing in December... When I was roaming I was paying $1000 a month... And I used the phone for 8 hours tops.
 
I work for the largest telecom operator in the country. They are like the AOL of Norway, only not as sleazy. I can actually reason my supporting of this operator by more than just being employed by them and receiving ridiculous discounts, from a moral point of view.

For me it's not about what it says on the phone bill. I have the high-end corporate subscription they offer. I pay for data usage, Norway still haven't come to the point where we really have a lot of free usage subscriptions. some have unlimited sms, some have free calling after six and on weekends, but there are no subscriptions like the one you mentioned Eric. i don't even think once about my phone usage. I use it when I need it and if it's high or not, I don't even think about it when the bill comes. I'm nonchalant towards money.

i fucking hate people who switch back and forth between companies.
 
Big Easy said:
Why? Just curious...
Click to expand...
Several reasons.

It shows that you have problems making up your mind, and always try and find the cheapest solutions. I am known to be Freudian, so let's just say I make assumptions about people's general persona a lot based on little things they do, because I really do have a good intuition and I can read people well when I am able to look them in the eyes and talk to them.

I consider myself a fairly egoistic, but very selfless person. I am a man of principles. I'll explain why I support my operator. There are two larger operators in Norway who have their own networks. The one I work for is the largest. Due to various regulations, other companies are allowed to use these two operators' lines paying a fee. Meaning, I could start a phone company myself if I wanted to, pay a regular fee, and any potential income I get goes straight to me. The owner of the line does not get a percentage. There are a lot of these small-time operators over here, and they are parasites. They offer cheap subscriptions because they never had to pay the expense of building an infrastructure. My operator has done so. If it weren't for them, Northern Norway would not have internet or phone lines pretty much. I support this operator because despite what the typical, perspectiveless, self-absorbed idiot might think, they actually understand the value of a customer, and are doing the best they can under any circumstance, and any bad experiences anyone has ever had with this company has been due to human error and misunderstandings, not a real twist. For the most part.

Still, people up here in Northern Norway drift off to other Tele operators. It's good, because they keep pushing the prices down, and after a while, the larger operators have to follow. It's essential for the market to develop, so while I appreciate it's neccesity, it ticks off my moral compass.

Another aspect of it all is developing a relationship with your operator. I believe in buying all my shit in one place. I don't go around to different stores looking at prices before i buy. I go to the store I have had good experiences with, I find the product I am looking for, and pay whatever price they ask for it. Am I being naive? No, I am being loyal. The only thing I get out of it is that. That I can call myself loyal. I can feel good about doing something good. The fact that I put this reasoning behind my choice of something so trivial as a phone operator should be a statement in itself, that I'm a loyal person. I make an effort to be a loyal person, I AM a loyal person, so I have no problem just saying that I am probably more loyal than a lot of people. In general. Towards friends, family, operators, stores, websites, whatever. I believe in sticking with whoever treated you good etc etc etc.

Drifters are like a whole nother breed. I try to think what could force a person to care that much, to spend time investigating prices and going around to find the cheapest subscription or ware from a store, for a marginally lower price, when in the end, whether your paid $300 for the phone or $330, in three months you are not gonna be any more or less happy. It shows that maybe you are confused about who you are as a person, or you haven't defined yourself as a person. You know what you like and what you dislike, but you (and all the you's in this post aren't directed at you Eric, but to any individual who feels struck) probably never formed a sentence in your head about who you are, what you stand for, or why you stand for these things. Drifters think that changing operators and saving a penny here and there is gonna give them happiness or gain them something in the long run, but all you gain is spending time and energy thinking about decisions that you could make on the spot and just not give a fuck about. In the end, it's not a source for neither happiness nor deep depression, so the fact that a person uses energy on it, like I said, tells me that person is just an idiot.

Of course, if someone can give an as thorough explanation as to why they drift between operators like that, I'll read it and respect it and none of what I said above probably applies to you. I just don't see the point, and anyone who does has a persona that I couldn't get along with, because little things would annoy me and tick off my "moral compass" all the time probably. I just make it simple and say that I hade drifters, period. I understand that in some cases though, it's a matter of meeting a budget and if you have like a family and you're poor, I'll understand it. But when you are the manager of Starbucks, you have no excuse.
 
European networks suck as hell - especially in middle/eastern europe. I worked for Orange as somebody like deputy director in one of their dealers here (yeah I'm young but I've got some major knowledge about gsm systems and mobile phones from technical side). They didn't give me ANY bonus or anything, they paid me shit and actually they don't give a shit about customers. It's just about easy money, they don't come with any good plans as there's no real competition on our market. there's a still price of 0.40$/min and 0.10$/sms no matter what kind of plan you own. You can pay like 30-50$/month to have free weekends or free calls (on your network) after 6pm or 8pm depending on how much will you pay.

It's better to have a pay as you go phone, you can buy sms packets which are 3$ for 600sms or 4$ for 40 minutes/month (only on your network too) so somehow it turns out to be much cheaper.
 
My bill is $90/month but only because I have to play Scrabble (laugh all you want) I have unlimited texts and my nights start at 6 p.m.
 
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