My fingertip hovered over the “SUBMIT” button for much longer than what would be considered normal. I fretted. I worried. I walked away and came back. I knew that once I hit the button, there was no going back. No changing our minds.
We’ve decided to give up our unlimited data plans on AT&T.
I know you just shuddered too, right? (Not.) It may sound crazy and overly dramatic, but my husband and I have been back and forth over and over, trying to decide what to do. I guess the finality of it just bothers me. You can’t even get unlimited data plans on AT&T anymore. Only those that had them originally were ‘grandfathered in’ and allowed to keep them. We are heavy data users, but the undeniable truth is that we were paying WAY TOO MUCH STINKIN’ MONEY each month on our cell phone bill. For four iPhones, we were paying $226 per month. Aye, aye, aye. (I know. That’s outrageous. We may be budget-minded, but we’re Apple people, okay? So shoot us.)
I kept getting these annoying little messages from AT&T to join their new “Mobile Share Value Plan”. There must be something in it for them. So every time I read one, my stubborn alter-ego emerged……
“I WON’T BUY INTO YOUR EVIL PLAN AT&T!!! I WILL DIE BEFORE I LET GO OF MY UNLIMITED DATA PLAN! I AM NOT YOUR PUPPET, AND I WILL NOT BE MANIPULATED!!!”
I beamed with pride (at myself). I will NOT be a drone. I will NOT give in to slick advertising. I will stand valiantly atop the unlimited data plan hillside, with my “I WILL NOT SURRENDER!” flag staked firmly in the soil.
Before I go any further, let me declare that I’ve officially revealed a part of my personality I’m not proud of. That is, if I detect that I’m being manipulated somehow, I will do everything I can to NOT do whatever “they” want me to do. And by this point, AT&T was causing my manipulation-radar to go bananas. But after a few weeks of these annoying messages, I decided to step back and analyze it rationally; the way you should always approach financial decisions. I needed to think about this expense with my head, and not my manipulation-radar.
AT&T estimated that with the new “slick” plan, our bill would be about $130 + taxes/fees, including my 23% corporate discount. And if you remember from a few paragraphs back, we’re currently paying $226 a month. The key to the new mobile share plan, is that instead of unlimited data, our 4 devices would share 10GB per month. The next obvious question is…is 10GB enough? Would we go over? Would we be in a constant state of possible-data-overage-induced stress? I had no sense of current usage, so I went on the AT&T website and reviewed our data usage for the last 12 months. On average, we used a little less than 5GB monthly. So even if we doubled our data usage, we still wouldn’t reach our maximum. (And I do realize that there is something in it for AT&T; data usage will only increase over the years, so the fewer number of customers on unlimited data plans, the better it is for them.)
At this point, I knew what we needed to do. It only makes sense for us to give up our unlimited data plans. So we did. We put up our imaginary white flag of surrender, and clicked “SUBMIT”.
Am I still a little uncomfortable with the idea that I can no longer be a wasteful glutton at the AT&T data buffet? Yes. Am I a little worried that my bill will not be as AT&T “estimated”? Yes. Am I afraid I’ll have a case of “SUBMIT button” remorse? Absolutely.
Only time will tell…I’ll be sure to give you an update when I get my first ‘normal’ bill…
Nature abhors a vacuum. You will use what is available to you. If you have more of something you will tend to use it up. If you have less you will tend to cut back as needed. It’s really that simple. Bottom line – you did the right thing, even if a tad late! 🙂
I know. I’m already dreading the moment (even if it’s years from now) where we’re creeping towards that 10GB limit. We all know that data use will only increase over time (as advances in games/pictures/movies require more data, etc). To the point that eventually the same activity we do now at 5GB monthly will later require 10GB. Ugh. But I guess that’s one of those “cross that bridge when we get to it” kind of things…so until then… 😉
So the day that you reach the point that you will require 10GB is when you then will have to pay a little more for (a) exceeding your limit or (b) going for an upgrade limit. either way, just look back and consider all the money that you will have saved by not continuing to pay that excessive fee for unlimited access. I’m sure even then you will still be well ahead of the financial game. I’ve never paid for more than what I needed, paying more only when I eventually needed to – out of “regular” (not one-off) necessity. Follow me?
Exactly. What’s really interesting is that it was actually cheaper to get the 10GB plan than the 6GB plan. When you select the 10GB data package, the per-device charge drops from $25 to $15, and the 4 extra GB of data was only an extra $10. With 4 devices, it dropped the bill $40, then added $10. No-brainer there. And I’m still kicking myself for being stubborn when they first rolled out their ‘Share Value Plan’, but like you said, better late than never!
Well Mrs. Nickels, as I like to quote in the motto that I live by:
Don’t sweat the small stuff for in life it’s all – just small stuff! 🙂
Yes sir, that it is!
Seems like you made the right decision for your family, but I totally get it, I would’ve been freaking out too! My husband and I share 2GB and we’re on Verizon. We’re considering switching over to Republic Wireless when out contract ends in September, but we’ll see how that goes.
I checked into Republic for us, and by the time we added just the data we use, it was right back up with the new AT&T plans. If our kids weren’t such data-sponges, Republic might have worked out nicely! Let me know if you switch, would ya?