After two years of service, three accounts, three phones, four relocations (across two accounts), and far too much hassle with their phone system, I am finally giving up on Cingular for cell service this week.
I have to admit that it is largely not because of their service (although it has certainly annoyed me having charges appear on my bill for “toll calls” despite having long distance and roaming, among other things), but because of our usage patterns. Katie and I each have a phone at a $30/mo plan, with far too many minutes on each phone, and we use about 20 a month total. And that’s assuming we keep our phones charged. So after taxes, we’re spending $72/mo on 20 minutes of airtime – essentially more than $3 a minute.
So instead, using a pool of my birthday money and gift cards, we picked up an Audiovox 8500 with Virgin Mobile. That’s right, I’m trying the whole prepaid thing. I’m happy with the phone thus far (far more features than I need), I’m happy with the Virgin Mobile-specific features (one button to get an SMS with my account balance; all incoming SMS messages are free), and I’m happy with the no-strings-attachedness (minimum I have to spend is $20 every 90 days to keep my phone active, which is quite reasonable).
And best of all, I haven’t had this good luck number-wise ever; the last four digits of the new number is 1337. How l33t.
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