Thursday, February 23, 2012

Today I Changed Back to a Not So Smart Phone

A while back I wrote about changing up to a nice, new Android smart phone (it's the pretty one in the picture on the left).  Unfortunately, along with the upgrade, came an upgrade in the price of the monthly pre-paid fee for using the phone.  With a regular not-so-smart phone, the cost for the TMobile pre-paid plan was $30 per month for 1500 talk/text minutes and some basic internet access.  With the smart phone, I was required to pay $50 for the unlimited talk/text/internet plan because the phone used up so much internet that the minuscule amount that came with the $30 plan only lasted a few days.
Sooo...I have been paying the higher fee and enjoying my smart phone for a few months but today, when I thought about going to pay my monthly fee for next month's service, it dawned on me that I really don't enjoy my smart phone THAT much.  I pondered whether it was worth the extra $20 per month that I spent to have the smart phone and then I realized that it wasn't. 
As it is, I am online at least four or five hours each day on my computer so it isn't really necessary to have speedy internet access 24/7 on my phone.  I use very few apps, I never watch videos on my phone or listen to music on it, and, while I enjoy reading the news on my phone, the screen is pretty tiny so it isn't something I do for hours on end.  This morning I made the decision to switch back to a basic cell phone which has the important things (talk and text) plus allows me to access the internet if necessary (but at a super slow speed).  I bought a $50 basic TMobile cell phone from Best Buy (I probably could have saved more money on this by checking CraigsList first but I didn't; also note that it is cheaper to buy TMobile phones at Walmart or Best Buy than at the actualy TMobile store for some reason...) then changed my plan back to the $30 per month plan.  The smart phone will be CraigsListed soon and go to someone else who doesn't mind paying the higher monthly fee. 
Overall this will save me $20 per month ($240 per year!), and since, when I had the smart phone I felt like hubby should have one too, and in fact I was going to buy him the same phone, reverting back to a basic phone will actually save us $480 per year.
Will I miss having a snazzy, modern phone (I swear, every child I see these days has a phone that resembles--or actually is--an iPhone!)?  Maybe, but I think saving money on something that is basically there to massage my ego but actually doesn't do much more for me than a basic not-so-smart phone is well worth the savings.

3 comments:

  1. I use very few apps, I never watch videos on my phone or listen to music on it.

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  3. This is so funny. I traded down my smart phone for a "feature phone" last September and the Verizon guy said he'd never seen that happen! My husband has a smart phone; we work together and share one car. I decided that since we're together almost 24/7, we didn't need two smart phones. The thing I really miss is the free Kindle app!

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