Mom Talk: Why I want to try a new cell phone service (or searching for the best wireless plan)

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First things first, I don’t like being negative here on The Sensible Mom.

But today, I’m going to share a little negativity followed by some positive thoughts (as I search for the best wireless plan).

The reason being is that I’m going to be talking about cell phone service, and I’m going to share with you my real feelings about my current cell phone service provider, which will remain anonymous to those who don’t know me in real life. 😉

Because the people who know me in real life know who my current provider is, and they know that I have not so warm and fuzzy feelings about them.

Why I want to switch providers
It’s a little crazy really. I’ve been with my current provider for 12 years, and each and every year (or every two years…since contracts are longer now), they manage to keep me as a customer.

Why? Well, I guess I can only blame myself. Every time my contract is up, I’m wooed to stay in this dead end relationship. I’m offered “new” discounts (that don’t end up getting properly applied to my account and I end up having to waste 2+ hours of my life on the phone trying to get them applied after I’ve been sucked into another contract).

Stopping the madness
This type of thing happens every time my contract is up, and for some reason (maybe it’s the passing of time), I think THIS TIME, THIS YEAR things will be different. Maybe after I’ve agreed to remain a customer with them, I won’t have to waste my time afterwards trying to go up the chain of command to get applied to my account whatever new discounts or perks I was reeled back in with.

But I’m wrong. It’s exactly the same. And I’m tired of it. I finally gave up after the last fight, and I will be changing providers when my contract is up.

Here’s one of my actual Facebook updates from last year — after I decided that our relationship was over when my contracts ends.

The only thing now is…I don’t know exactly which provider I’ll choose when I’m finally free next year. My husband and I have Smartphones, and I’d love a plan similar to my current plan which includes unlimited data and unlimited messaging.

It would also be great to have a plan that doesn’t come with a contract.

I’d like to know ahead of time which company I want to switch to in order to make the change from my current provider to a new provider easier, so I’m researching and talking to people now.

Walmart’s Family Mobile Plan
To get the ball rolling and start getting a feel for new service providers, I’ve decided to try out the new Walmart Family Mobile plan. Essentially, it’s a cheap wireless plan that’s $40 per month for unlimited talk, text, and web. There’s no contract.

The phone I’m using with the Family Mobile service is the T-Mobile Concord Smartphone. It’s a nice budget-friendly smartphone, for sure.

Getting Started
When my phone arrived in the mail, I went to Walmart to purchase the Family Mobile Starter Kit to begin service. The Walmart employee helped me to set up my new account and walked me through the entire process along with telling me what I needed to know about the Family Mobile plan.

That made getting started easy. I actually left the store with my account number and new phone number. (You can see my experience here in a Google+ story.)

All I needed to do when I got home was go to the My Family Mobile website to finish the process, and that was it. Done.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this plan works for me over the next month, and I’ll be sharing my experience with you in an update post next month.

 Are you shopping around for a new wireless plan? What are your must-haves when it comes to cell phone plans?