Wise Money Decisions About Your Cell Phone and Cell Service
Whether you want it to be or not, chances are fairly likely that the cost of your cell phone and your cell service is one of your big-budget items. So, if you’re trying to trim the fat around your budgeting, make sure that you start with your cell phone and cell phone related expenditures.
A few of the wise decisions that you can make would be to buy a refurbished phone, always look carefully at your cell phone contracts, buy family plans when possible, and switch providers if it makes sense. Following those general pieces of advice can significantly reduce a big ticket item on your monthly expenses.
Buying a Refurbished Phone
If you choose to buy a refurbished phone, you can save a ton of money. Especially if it’s a slightly older model, you can get a phone for a fraction of the price the cost originally, and refurbished phones have all of the capability of new ones. You do need to shop around for a good place to purchase them from, but once you do, you can probably save up to 80% on the purchase of the phone itself.
Looking Carefully At Contracts
Cell phone provider contracts can be both mysterious and dense. There’s a lot of fine print. In the past, there were time aspects of the deals that would confuse a lot of people. Cell service providers weren’t exactly transparent when they put out agreements for extended warranties or things like that. Some of the ways that you can buy your cell phones now set you up with an extremely low monthly cell phone bill with no contract. Though you might not get the perks of a longer deal, at least you understand what you’re paying for every time you get it.
Buying Family Plans
When possible, buy a family plan. The more phones and the more services you have on a single account, the better deal you’re going to get. You can save potentially hundreds of dollars a month, which leads to thousands of dollars of savings in the long run. Being smart about choosing your family plan is one of the better decisions you can make to help keep your budget reined in.
Switching When It Makes Sense
Even though you want to remain loyal to a particular cell phone provider, at some point it may make sense to switch. If the different company gets more towers in the area, or if there is a significantly better deal on phone purchases, it might be time to make that change. There are lots of advertisements on TV about switching this way or that way, but it’s best to avoid the hype and instead go with the logical details that you can find on their websites.