Sprint is more expensive than AT&T???

[broadwayblue]

I'm out of contract with AT&T and am thinking about moving to a new carrier. Their phone selection (particularly Android) is terrible, and now with the data cap I've had just about enough. I currently have 4 lines on a family plan (1 with unlimited everything (mine), 1 with blackberry (wife), and 2 (parents) with just voice.)

Looking at the Sprint price sheet I picked up today it looks like the 1500 minute unlimited plan for 2 lines is $130 + $10 for 1 EVO + $20 for 3rd line and $20 for the 4th = $180 plus tax. I don't know how much taxes and fees run on Sprint, but on AT&T it's close to 50%...so that would bring the total to nearly $250. I'm paying less than $200 now. I always thought Sprint was supposed to be cheaper??? Am I missing something? There's just no winning with these wireless companies.

 

[i VTAK]

Unfortunatly if you add your parents line to your unlimited plan, they will have to have it too. Maybe try get 2 seperate plans, one unlimited one for you and the wife, then a basic voice one for your parents. I'm not sure how much the basic plans are, but for the unlimited everything with 1500 landline minutes, I pay $149 (including tax) for 2 lines.

I'm not sure if you're grandfathered into a plan on AT&T but when I was gonna switch to them, it was gonna be nearly $200 to get the same plan as what I'm getting through Sprint right now.

 

[Kelmar]

I don't have a family plan with Sprint (wife wants iphone)... but when I was on ATT our family plan was 190 AFTER my work discount.

My current Sprint plan alone is only 60 after my work discount.

 

[broadwayblue]

Unfortunatly if you add your parents line to your unlimited plan, they will have to have it too. Maybe try get 2 seperate plans, one unlimited one for you and the wife, then a basic voice one for your parents. I'm not sure how much the basic plans are, but for the unlimited everything with 1500 landline minutes, I pay $149 (including tax) for 2 lines.

I'm not sure if you're grandfathered into a plan on AT&T but when I was gonna switch to them, it was gonna be nearly $200 to get the same plan as what I'm getting through Sprint right now.

I am grandfathered in on an old AT&T data plan for 1 line, so that saves a few bucks. But I have to think the cost of 2 separate plans will cost more. I mean can you get a plan for 2 lines for less than $40? That's the reason I added my parents to my account in the first place. They were paying like $80 a month all in on Verizon and they hardly used any minutes. So it was a no-brainer to add them to my account for an extra $30/month ($10 + $10 + $10 tax.) Now I'd love to get an EVO but I'm going to have to pay a lot more for the privilege.

 

[DKYang]

If they hardly use any voice minutes, then put them on a prepaid plan. Much cheaper. Get there At&t phones unlocked by calling customer service(unless they disallowed that too), buy two T-Mobile prepaid SIM kits. I think they are about $6 each. After you activated it, then add $100 to both accounts. Now it will expire in one year, when the time comes, you can just add $10 to each line and it's extended for another year(assuming that they still have enough minutes, otherwise you can just buy a higher amount.

I do this for my parents since they usually only use the phones for emergencies.

 

[broadwayblue]

If they hardly use any voice minutes, then put them on a prepaid plan. Much cheaper. Get there At&t phones unlocked by calling customer service(unless they disallowed that too), buy two T-Mobile prepaid SIM kits. I think they are about $6 each. After you activated it, then add $100 to both accounts. Now it will expire in one year, when the time comes, you can just add $10 to each line and it's extended for another year(assuming that they still have enough minutes, otherwise you can just buy a higher amount.

I do this for my parents since they usually only use the phones for emergencies.

That is a very interesting option! Thanks for the suggestion. Any particular reason to go with T-Mobile vs the other carriers for prepaid?

 

[DKYang]

That is a very interesting option! Thanks for the suggestion. Any particular reason to go with T-Mobile vs the other carriers for prepaid?

The specific reason why I say T-mobile is because of the way minutes expire. I'm not up to date on the prepaid scene so things probably changed since a year or two ago. I remember that At&t always had expired minutes, never worked like T-mobile's. Verizon and other prepaid providers were also similar. I know some have 1 year expiration refills, but in order to get another 1 year expiration date you will have to buy that $100 refill again which is not what I wanted to do.

Hope that helped.

 

[trife]

I don't know how much taxes and fees run on Sprint, but on AT&T it's close to 50%...

What!?
If my 109 sprint bill comes out to 160 bucks we're going to have a situation.
the girl wouldn't discuss the taxes so it was a warning flag, but on my sprint aircard it was only like 2 bucks for a 60 dollar plan. so I was assuming 5-10 bucks.
They reeally dont wanna charge me 50 bucks in fee's and by the time i find out is after the 31 days i can return the phone for free. I'll go ape shit.

 

[Rhys'Droid]

Not sure how you are getting "50%" taxes and fees on AT&T. My current service plan (before taxes and fees and my work discount) is 84.98. Taxes and fees add up to 11.46. 11.46/84.98 = 13.5%.

 

[carmendiva]

T-mobile has great prepaid plans and devices for those plans

Sent from Carmen's HTC Evo

 

[Rigmaster]

Sprint is less no matter how you slice it unless you're on an older plan. No carriers are going to be able to match each other's legacy plans when switching.

You can get an Everything Data Family with 1500 or 3000 mins and 4 phones on Sprint for less than any iPhone + BB plan that includes voice and data the way you described it. You might want to try your wife and you with Evos and your parents with any of the "free" or low-cost phones that can be added to the EDF plans. And with no data caps for the Evos and none needed for your 'rents, you will save.