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Ting Update

December 8th, 2013 at 02:50 pm

Things are going well on the Ting front.

**Since we were Sprint customers we were able to all keep our current phones. Of course, our switch was motivated by the new Nexus 5, which dh was able to buy directly from Google and then brought it over to Ting. The phone is $349 new but is a top tier phone. About half the cost of anything my dh was seriously considering up to that point.

Moto G also has a $179 price point? Which would probably be more my style than the Nexus. Ting is not supporting this one yet, but I assume they will work it out (would be a great match for Ting service, due to its reasonable price).

It will be interesting to see what other phones start to flood the market in the next few years.

**In the end, I took dh's android. It was a refurbished phone he bought for about $100 when his phone broke this summer. He hates it, but it's a nice step up from my windows phone. Of note, I can use our bank apps on the android (means immediate deposit of my payroll checks - I had just been using dh's phone when I got home). This phone also has 4G, if we ever get that service... Probably better for the long run.

We are keeping my old windows phone for the kids. It will only cost $6/month to activate it with Ting. In fact, we can activate it and unactivate it at will. Which is nice for this age. I don't see us having any use for the kids having a cell phone for a couple of years, but it is nice to have such a simple option we can activate today if we decide we need it for a special situation.

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**We are shifting our mindset on this Ting plan because are moving from virtually unlimited everything to "charge per tier". The charges are so inexpensive that it will be fine either way. BUT, of course we want to be efficient.

I also checked the details of our landline today. We have been averaging about 20 of our 300 minutes and so we will work on using the landline for some of our calls. If we do so, I think we can keep in the lower minutes tier with Ting.

{I find the landline necessary, particularly for the kids, and it is *free* anyway with our internet service}.

Sprint Monthly Charges:

1600 minutes (calls to each other were not counted), unlimited text and data

$105 for first phone
$ 25 for second phone
$ 25 for third phone
$ 15 for non-smart-phone
$ 20 Taxes
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$190 - Our split was $100 per month


Ting Monthly charges:

$24 for 4 phones
$ 9 for 500 minutes (Medium)**
$ 5 for 1000 Texts (Medium)**
$13 for 500MB (Medium)
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$51

**Texts and minutes to each other now double counted (versus not counted at all before).

+ Taxes and fees = ??? I somehow doubt more than $10 per month. Maybe only $5.

So, let's just say $60/month. For now we are splitting 50/50 for simplicity. We may re-evaluate later but I don't think either of our families uses a lot more minutes or data than the other. That makes our half at $30 per month.

I think the data usage is realistic given the lack of 4G service in our city. I am not sure on the minutes.

It is possible this will bump up to $80/month when we get 4G. I am expecting that to be the worst case. Only $40/month for us (half):

Higher End Projection:

$24 for 4 phones
$18 for 1000 minutes (Large)
$ 5 for 1000 Texts (Medium)^^
$24 for 1000MB (Large)
$ 9 Taxes
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$80

So, either way we save $60 - $70 every month.

Big Grin

I think the best part of Ting is they only charge you for your actual usage. That, and no insane penalties for going over. (They have reasonable rates if you want to use more data minutes or texts than their XXL "buckets").

^^Our texting is nowhere near 1000 but the tier below that was only 100 texts.

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If you don't have Sprint, Ting sells new and used phones directly, as well as they help you buy compatible phones from third parties. (A personal shopper service).

They also have a service for selling your old phones. Overall, they try to make the switch as simple as possible.

Here is a referral for $25 off if you decide to make the switch:

Text is https://z181d126bt4.ting.com and Link is
https://z181d126bt4.ting.com

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In other news, we got our final Sprint bill. I was expecting to pay last month's charges + early termination fee.

I forgot we had been pre-paying that bill all along. I was utterly confused until I pulled up our very first bill, which was the only one that indicated it was a "pre payment". The rest of the bills didn't seem to have any indication. Kind of annoying, but I guess it was a nice surprise.

I don't know if my accounting was terribly grand with my folks, but I think they are all paid up. They owe me $175 in early termination fees. My mom had been paying me every other month for their half of the phone bill. At this rate I think I will just ask for reimbursement once or twice per year. Since the amounts will be so much smaller... But I will probably draw up a spreadsheet and keep better track!

Ting also reimburses 25% of early termination fees, up to $75 per device. I submitted for that credit yesterday - super easy and it took less than a minute.

When that hits we should have $140 in credits, so I don't expect to pay a cell phone bill for a few months, until we run through all the credits.

My first referral will be a $50 credit so I am also really talking it up until I get that $50 - might cover a month of service for all four of us. We have a few friends we can probably get to switch, so hope to have a few referrals roll in during 2014.

I am not expecting to pay much of anything for cell service during 2014.

{Reminds me, dh was telling me one of his friends was paying like $120 per month cell service for a single dumb phone. You got me!?! He will likely be our first referral. It was a terrible network too - one far worse than the Sprint/Ting network}.

2 Responses to “Ting Update”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1386524926

    Looks like you're going to be getting some great savings!

  2. MonkeyMama Says:
    1386641813

    P.S. The referrals are totally anonymous. I got my $50. Thanks!!! {I have no idea who!!}.

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