Cingular cell phone service - Are family plans always cheaper?

Author

Are family plans always cheaper?

Marcia R.spamlessinlasvegas@cox.net

2006-09-12, 10:33 pm

I have a very old nokia phone and a Cingular plan I still pay $19.99 +
tax a month for. I mostly have my phone with me in case of
emergencies. My fiancé is about to move here to Las Vegas, and we were
thinking of getting a family plan for both of us. I can't seem to get a
lot of information out of the Cingular people over the phone. One just
told me that the $59.99 plan would cost $71.00 a month with taxes, which
seems like more money than we're paying now with 2 separate plans. My
fiancé uses his phone a lot more than I do, so he'd use most of the
minutes. I'm just wondering if we'd be better off keeping 2 separate
plans. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Marcia

Joe

2006-09-12, 10:33 pm

Marcia R. spamlessinlasvegas@c
ox.net wrote in news:45074C05.2EA25CE2
@cox.net:

> I have a very old nokia phone and a Cingular plan I still pay $19.99 +
> tax a month for. I mostly have my phone with me in case of
> emergencies. My fiancé is about to move here to Las Vegas, and we
were
> thinking of getting a family plan for both of us. I can't seem to get
a
> lot of information out of the Cingular people over the phone. One
just
> told me that the $59.99 plan would cost $71.00 a month with taxes,
which

> seems like more money than we're paying now with 2 separate plans. My
> fiancé uses his phone a lot more than I do, so he'd use most of the
> minutes. I'm just wondering if we'd be better off keeping 2 separate
> plans. Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
> Marcia

You're probably still on TDMA which is going away. Until then, Cingular
will charge you around $5 more per month (or thereabouts) to stay on
TDMA. After TDMA is gone you'll have no choice but to go with a new
plan for more money.

As for a new plan, shop around for the best deal - compare carriers,
phones, and plans. The good thing is that most plans will include free
long distance and free roaming. Family plans are good, especially if
you get free mobile-to-mobile. If you can get any kind of company
discount, that's the way to go.

Regards,
Joe

Todd Allcock

2006-09-13, 4:33 am

At 12 Sep 2006 17:08:37 -0700 MarciaR. spamlessinlasvegas@c
ox.net wrote=
:
> I have a very old nokia phone and a Cingular plan I still pay $19.99=
+
> tax a month for. I mostly have my phone with me in case of
> emergencies.

How many minutes a month do you use? If it's less than 100, you're
probably better off going with prepaid service, assuming you don't tak=
e a
family plan. Even Cingular prepaid, which is fairly high as prepaid
plans go would run you about $9/month if you use 30 minutes/month.

> My fianc=E9 is about to move here to Las Vegas, and we were
> thinking of getting a family plan for both of us. I can't seem to g=
et a
> lot of information out of the Cingular people over the phone. One j=
ust
> told me that the $59.99 plan would cost $71.00 a month with taxes, w=
hich
> seems like more money than we're paying now with 2 separate plans.=20

Are you sure? Your fiancee's plan is probably $40 or morebefore taxes=
-
that plus your $20 is $60.

> My
> fianc=E9 uses his phone a lot more than I do, so he'd use most of th=
e
> minutes. I'm just wondering if we'd be better off keeping 2 separat=
e
> plans. Any thoughts?

Usually family plans allow unlimited calling between family members, s=
o
if you anticipate using more minutes talking to each other, it's proba=
bly
a better deal to be in the family plan.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Marcia R.spamlessinlasvegas@cox.net

2006-09-13, 4:33 am

Todd Allcock wrote:

> At 12 Sep 2006 17:08:37 -0700 MarciaR. spamlessinlasvegas@c
ox.net wrote:
>
> How many minutes a month do you use? If it's less than 100, you're
> probably better off going with prepaid service, assuming you don't take a
> family plan. Even Cingular prepaid, which is fairly high as prepaid
> plans go would run you about $9/month if you use 30 minutes/month.

I doubt that I use 15 minutes a month, but that might change if I had a better
phone and more minutes available. It's only recently that I can get cell
phone service inside my house.

>
>
>
> Are you sure? Your fiancee's plan is probably $40 or morebefore taxes-
> that plus your $20 is $60.

I'm not sure. He had a pre-paid plan for a while and now he's using a
friend's phone. We need to go into a store and figure it all out, but I've
gotten a lot of great info from newsgroups, so I thought I'd put it out there.

People I know in this area seem to think Cingular is the best, so I was
leaning towards keeping what I had. We will look around.

Thanks,
Marcia

>
>
>
> Usually family plans allow unlimited calling between family members, so
> if you anticipate using more minutes talking to each other, it's probably
> a better deal to be in the family plan.
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Thomas T. Veldhouse

2006-09-13, 10:33 am

Marcia wrote:
>
> People I know in this area seem to think Cingular is the best, so I was
> leaning towards keeping what I had. We will look around.
>

My sister-in-law used T-Mobile when she moved there [from Minnesota] and loved
it, but I think she had to switch to Cingular, which hasn't given her any
trouble either. I have used a Verizon phone there in 2000 without trouble and
a Sprint phone there just last year without any trouble anywhere that I went.
In short, unless there are specific locations in town that might give you
trouble, all carriers seem pretty decent in the Las Vegas area. Consider
shopping around before making your decision.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

user@domain.invalid

2006-09-13, 12:33 pm

Marcia R. spamlessinlasvegas@c
ox.net wrote:
> I have a very old nokia phone and a Cingular plan I still pay $19.99 +
> tax a month for. I mostly have my phone with me in case of
> emergencies. My fiancé is about to move here to Las Vegas, and we were
> thinking of getting a family plan for both of us. I can't seem to get a
> lot of information out of the Cingular people over the phone. One just
> told me that the $59.99 plan would cost $71.00 a month with taxes, which
> seems like more money than we're paying now with 2 separate plans. My
> fiancé uses his phone a lot more than I do, so he'd use most of the
> minutes. I'm just wondering if we'd be better off keeping 2 separate
> plans. Any thoughts?

I have a family plan with Cingular right now. We get 450 minutes for 4 lines for $69.99/month.
$39.99 was the original non-family rate, then we added 3 extra lines for $10/each. That number of
minutes is fairly low, but we mostly call each other so those minutes are free. We can go to 700
minutes for an extra $20/month, or get extended hours for $14/month. This is a GSM plan, not an
older TDMA plan.

-Jason

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