{"id":94682,"date":"2011-08-02T04:00:10","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=94682"},"modified":"2019-10-28T22:57:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T05:57:51","slug":"how-to-save-on-your-cell-phone-plan-with-secret-no-contract-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/how-to-save-on-your-cell-phone-plan-with-secret-no-contract-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"How to save on your cell phone plan with secret no-contract deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secret phone plans? No contracts? Unadvertised payment plans with no interest? These are all available. But you’ll never know until you ask.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"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.<\/p>\n

I was confused by what I found. The plans without<\/i> the contracts had a lower monthly cost than the plans with<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cbut you’re going to have to pay full pay price for the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The exact same plan without a contract was $110 a month instead of $140 a month, for a savings of $360 a year.<\/b> I looked for the catch, but the only catch was the no-contract plan didn’t offer the usual discount on a new phone.<\/p>\n

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<\/i> 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”.<\/p>\n

I soon learned from the sales associate that apparently no one<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n

The sales associate couldn’t believe that I was \u201cballer\u201d enough (his exact words) to pay $500 for a phone \u2014 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!<\/p>\n

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<\/i> save money by going with a no-contract plan!<\/p>\n

Again, this isn’t advertised. You just have to ask.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Call your cell phone company, cable company, or insurance company today and ask if they have any other options.<\/b> 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:<\/p>\n