Hi I'm hugely amazed by your post. Being involved in telecom regulatory matters (as a citizen stakeholder) in my country. I'm surprised that consumers in yours tolerate such nonsense.
Just to provide some reference points In India: The average postpaid mobile commitment cost is about US$3 per month (which is instantly refunded with equivalent talk time). For prepaid it gets even better with zero (0) commitment and bonus talk times for every balance top-up. Call costs are about 1 CENT (US) per MINUTE to call anywhere within my vast country (ie. for about 1 US$ I can speak for 1 hour) All incoming calls are free. We have per second billing. At regulatory hearings I participate in, my fellow consumers are always griping that there are allegedly other countries in the world where mobile telephony is even cheaper. PS: We can buy any handset from te open market and the telco's vie with each other to connect us free (or a very nominal) charge Sarbajit On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 9:30 PM, Victoria Hughes <victo...@toryhughes.com>wrote: > Gist of this is an interesting buried T-Mobile cell-phone service, > inexpensive and month-to-month. No contract, no penalties. > > Link: > How to Save on Your Cell Phone Plan with Secret No-Contract > Deals<http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/08/02/how-to-save-on-your-cell-phone-plan-with-secret-no-contract-deals/> > Post: > > *This is a guest post from social-media maven Laura > Roeder<http://www.lauraroeder.com/> > . Laura first told me this story in January, and I used it as the basis > for one of my columns for Entrepreneur > magazine<http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219354>. > Over lunch recently, she offered to write a guest post about her experience. > I told her I’d be glad to share it.* > > Secret phone plans? No contracts? Unadvertised payment plans with no > interest? These are all available. But you’ll never know until you ask. > > I recently decided to switch carriers to T-Mobile, so I jumped on their > website to start doing the math of the different plans that they offered. > > Just when I felt I couldn’t possibly calculate the details of one more > plan, I came across a section on the website that featured plans without > contracts. This section was buried; in fact, I had to be logged on a > friend’s account who was already a customer to be able to see the plans at > all. > > I was confused by what I found. The plans *without*the contracts had a > lower monthly cost than the plans *with* contracts. I figured there would > be a premium fee to not be locked in to a two-year contract, but I was > seeing just the opposite. > > I went into a T-Mobile store and asked about the plans. They didn’t show me > any plans without a long contract. So I asked about a no-contract plan but > the sales person was dismissive, saying “but you’re going to have to pay > full pay price for the phone.” > > I insisted that I wanted to see the plan anyway, and he went to the back of > the store to dig up the brochure for me. > > *The exact same plan without a contract was $110 a month instead of $140 a > month, for a savings of $360 a year.* I looked for the catch, but the only > catch was the no-contract plan didn’t offer the usual discount on a new > phone. > > The phone I wanted to buy retailed at $500, but cost just $200 with a > contract. (That’s a savings of $300, in case your math muscles aren’t > working.) I quickly did the math: I could save $360 per year without a > contract, but would have to pay $300 more for the phone. That still left me > with $60 in my pocket for *not* having a contract, meaning no insane fees > if I wanted to leave the contract or switch carriers. Plus, everything after > the first year was pure “profit”. > > I soon learned from the sales associate that apparently *no one* had ever > bought a phone outright and taken them up on the no-contract plan. It’s not > advertised and therefore usually not asked about. They just assume that no > one will want to pay more now in order to save later. > > The sales associate couldn’t believe that I was “baller” enough (his exact > words) to pay $500 for a phone — even though I was actually saving money > within a year. He even asked me what I did for a living to be able to afford > such an extravagance! > > It gets better. When he went to ring up the phone, he asked me if I wanted > a payment plan. I asked for the details and he told me that they offer > no-interest payment plans so that people don’t have to shell out the full > cost outright. Meaning that if you didn’t have the $500 for the phone, you > could *still* save money by going with a no-contract plan! > > Again, this isn’t advertised. You just have to ask. > > It made me wonder what other companies aren’t telling me about ways that I > can save because they assume that no one wants to pay more up front. > > *Call your cell phone company, cable company, or insurance company today > and ask if they have any other options.* They might have something without > a contract, a AAA discount, or other ways to save. Many companies have plans > they don’t publish publicly. Check out these past Get Rich Slowly articles > for more ways to save: > > - Save on cell phones with employee and student > discounts<http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/02/04/save-on-cell-phones-with-employee-and-student-discounts/> > - Prepaid phones can save you > money<http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/05/05/prepaid-cell-phones-can-save-you-money/> > - Don’t Wait for a Discount — Ask for > One<http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/05/04/dont-wait-for-a-discount-ask-for-one/> > - How I cut my cable bill by 33% without losing any > service<http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/12/16/how-i-cut-my-comcast-cable-bill-by-33-without-losing-any-service/> > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
