AT&T Dilemma....

[DmbShn41]

So I got an issue with AT&T...
Me and my wife have an iPhone each, and we both are still holdovers from the unlimited data from years back. Between the two of us, we use about 4-5GB max per month. We have a Family Plan with 700 minutes. We also have two additional basic lines on our account at $10 a month/line. These two lines are not linked to any phone, and are only there so that we can use those as upgrade lines every year when a new iPhone comes out. Our bill comes out to $200 a month. I've been looking to decrease that by going to the Mobile Share plans. BUT if I do that, I will lose my two upgrade lines, or pay a whole lot more per month to keep those upgrade lines.

FYI, I plan on buying the next mini in a cellular version so adding that to my plan at a cheap rate would be awesome.

If anyone knows of a way to get around the stupid 'box' that AT&T tries to trap everyone in, I'd be interested in hearing.

Thanks.

 

[Jades]

Research on this in advance. I know it works for corporate business accounts

Get mobile share and then activate two ipad lines for $10 per month each. Borrow n iPad from a friend or something. Then use the iPad line to do an alternate upgrade for your iPhone lines.

When you activate the iPad lines all you really need to do is switch your extra line sim to an iPad, even at the apple store, and tell att you want to update the IMEI and plan for this line. Same goes for unused line #2

Again just make sure that att will let you do this on your consumer account, and keep in mind that with this method you will not get a $100 discount off an iPad unless of course you pay another $10 a month and put a 2 year contract to it. It would be cheaper to use one of your extra lines for the iPad you plan to get and pay full price for it.

EDIT- I just did the math now and you might not even be saving much with mobile share. If you get a 6 GB shared plan plus two phones, it's $160 per month. Plus the two unused lines ($20) bumps it up to $180. Then assume about $20 in taxes. To save $20 a month- just keep your unlimited data plans and try to use one of your extra lines to convert it to an iPad only line ($30 - but since your slready pating $10, it would increase the bill another $20 per month)

 

[Adonnan]

Don't you think that's a bit wasteful $20 per month JUST so you can get the newest phone when it comes out roughly each year?

My wife and I pay right at $100 for two iphones, 700 min, mine is unlimited data, hers is 2gb, and we put a block on text-messages (and only use imessage and google voice w/an free alternate number). Granted we have a 25% discount for hospital employees, but even without the discount you'd be saving almost $80 a month. That's almost $2k over the course of the contract, which you could use to buy phones at full price, or buy lots and lots of beer.

 

[DmbShn41]

I wouldn't call if wasteful...

$20 a month for two extra lines * 12 months = $240/yr expense

We've been able to sell our previous phones for $300/phone every year so far = $600/yr income

Two new iPhones have always been $200/phone = $400/yr expense

In the end, to upgrade to the new phone every year, we pay $40 when its all said and done, not including the additional few bucks of tax.

Just a pisser that AT&T is offering option A or C but not an option B. I'd totally be willing to pay more per phone if they did a 1yr contract, so that upgrading to a new phone could happen every year.