You're probably paying too much for your cell phone, but you don't have to

Earlier this week I was talking to some friends and somehow it came up that we only pay $25 per month for each of our phones. They were shocked! They are currently paying $70 for each of their phones. Yikes!

How much are you paying for your cell phone plan?

I want to help you lower that amount so that you have more money to put toward debt or whatever financial goal you’re working on.

Monthly recurring bills are an excellent place to start when trying to reduce your monthly expenses or when doing a formal budget audit. The great thing about monthly recurring bills is that whatever savings you’re able to find on these bills, you will get every single month! These are savings that keep on giving every single month!

Let’s look at my friend’s family. They are paying $70 per month for each of their cell phones, but could be paying $25 for the same service. They are each overpaying by $45. Switching to a less expensive carrier will save their family $90 per month or $1,080 per year! In fact, if they use the deal I’m going to share with you, they will actually save even more!

Reasons why you might be paying more for you cell phone

Before we jump into an excellent option for cell phone service (which our family has used since before the pandemic), I want to go over a few reasons that you might be content to continue paying more for your cell service. If you have a different reason than the ones I list, I would love to hear what it is in the comments because I’m really curious!

You’re contract-trapped

A common practice in the cell phone industry is to lock people into contracts. Often, these contracts include the purchase of the cell phone itself. Companies use this method to soften the blow of the cost of a new phone, or at least make it seem more manageable by dividing the cost between 36 separate payments. If you were to break the contract, you would owe the remaining cost of the phone (sometimes forfeiting whatever “deal” you got when you signed up) and usually a contract breaking fee.

You didn’t think to shop around

Life is busy. You picked out your phone plan, set up autopay, and haven’t thought twice about it. If you aren’t actively working to optimize your budget, then you probably just continue paying what you have always paid. If you aren’t tracking your expenses and haven’t done a budget audit recently you might not even realize how much you are paying.

You didn’t realize that $25/month cell phone plans actually exist

Maybe you’ve only ever thought to look into the big name brands that everyone has heard of. You know, companies that have stand-alone stores or kiosks in the mall. In the past decade, the “budget” carriers have changed a lot. Years ago there was always a trade-off, like a data limit, severe coverage limits, or limited device options. Now, those limits and trade-offs are essentially gone. In most cases, people just don’t realize that there is a more affordable option that will save significant amounts of money every single month.

If you’re paying more than $25 per month, I would sincerely love to hear what makes a higher monthly cost make sense for you.

If you want a less expensive option, I want to introduce you to Visible, the service we have used and loved for over 6 years. We have shared them with countless friends, many of whom have switched, freeing up money in their budget month after month.

What’s included in Visible’s $25 monthly plan

If you’ve seen my budget updates in that time range then you’ve heard me mention Visible. Maybe when you hear me just mention our $25 cell phones, you think that it must be some second class service by some fly-by-night company, or that it doesn’t include the bells and whistles that you personally need.

If that’s the case then I think you’re going to be surprised!

We have been happy with Visible for six and a half years and have shared their service with lots of friends in real life. It’s time I share the details with YOU, so you can have one more way to save money, pay off debt, and reach your financial goals! Saving money is what you’re here for, right?

As a Verizon subsidiary, Visible uses the Verizon towers, but it’s much less expensive. There is no contract and no big initial outlay. Since the plan is unlimited and prepaid, there will never be any hidden costs or additional charges.

The $25 per month plan includes:

Unlimited data, talk & text on Verizon’s 5G & 4G LTE networks
Unlimited talk & text to Mexico and Canada
Unlimited use of your phone as a Wifi hotspot
And more… you can see all the details and plan comparisons here

You can bring your own compatible device or you can buy one from them. We’ve done both! We’ve done both Android and iPhone with Visible without any problems.

There is also a Visible+ plan (normally $35 but it’s actually $30 per month for the first five years) that has a few differences including a faster hotspot speed and unlimited talk, text, and data while roaming in Mexico and Canada (talk and text to Mexico and Canada is included in all plans). We changed our plan to this when we went to Mexico on vacation once, then changed back to the $25 plan.

You can see all of the plans here and even see if you address qualifies for Visible Home Internet. Our area doesn’t qualify currently, which is a bummer, because it would save us tons on our internet costs! Maybe you’ll be luckier though!

Make the deal even sweeter

I’ve been sharing about Visible for years just because I love helping you save money on everyday expenses so that you can pay off debt and reach your financial goals. I’m excited that I’m now an affiliate partner with Visible.

Visible is having a promotion right now that makes their deal even sweeter!

Right now if you pay ahead for 3 months ($75 total) you will get another 3 months free. In other words, you get 6 months of Visible’s unlimited service for a total of $75. That works out to $12.50 per month! My friends (that I mentioned in the beginning) will be saving $690 over six months with this one simple change!

How much will you save?

This promotion only goes through 10/29/26, so definitely check it out before it’s too late.

What can you do with the savings?

My favorite part of saving on monthly expenses like cell phones is that you get the constant savings every month! Unlike electricity or water bills, the expense stays the same no matter what your usage.

If you are working on paying off debt, you can put the cell phone savings each month ($90 per month in my friends’ case) directly toward debt! That will make a real difference to have those additional funds to throw at debt.

If you’re working on a savings goal, adding a monthly chunk of money toward that goal will be so exciting and not require any additional work!

What you want to avoid doing is lowering your cell phone bill and then not doing anything specific with the savings. If you just lower your cell phone bill and don’t assign your cell phone savings to a different budget category (debt, savings, etc), then it will just get lost and you’ll have a little bit of lifestyle creep instead.

So instead of just lowering your phone bill with Visible, use the savings to help you reach your goals faster!