How much is your cell phone bill each month?

Last December, I wrote a bit of a love letter to my new-at-the-time phone and plan — Project Fi by Google. I had retired a couple of months prior and no longer had data at my fingertips paid for by an employer. 14 months later, I’ve paid an average of $23.41 per month for the service. 

Are you paying more for your cell phone plan? Why? Don’t you want to retire early?

I do anything and everything I need to do with Hester and never think twice about any of it. Text has always worked for me everywhere I’ve gone. Super handy. I can make calls when I’m traveling internationally for $0.20 a minute. That’s saved me a time or two. I’d be lost without Google Maps. Hester does whatever I need her to do in most countries.

Oh, Hester is what I call my phone.

I thought about some of your potential objections (taken from my last post) and judged the quality of the excuse. From acceptable to silently judging you.

You live in an area where T-Mobile and Sprint coverage stinks.

Okay, that’s understandable. If Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular all have patchy coverage where you live, you won’t get great service because those are the towers Project Fi uses while in the States. I do remember being annoyed with Hester occasionally in Anchorage.

She also had a bit of trouble in Uruguay, Argentina, Romania and Bulgaria. I think I’d get frustrated if it was always like that.

You need a plan that gives you a discount for multiple devices – a family plan or the like.

Okay, so I don’t really have that type of family, so I’m not allowed to have an opinion on this. Mostly because I’ve never researched it. Project Fi does have a group plan option though. Or you can consider Republic Wireless.

You’re a customer of Republic Wireless and are happy with your $10/month plan and don’t travel abroad very often.

Okay! My parents have Republic Wireless and love it pretty darn much. Their bill never goes above $12 per month. I’m pretty sure they do whatever they want with it.

You thirst for data and regularly use many gigabytes whilst out and about, while never near wifi.

Okay. I guess.

I shouldn’t give you advice on this subject. As much as I try to embrace the technologies, most of our interactions end with more of a shoulder squeeze. I don’t quite get the appeal of using your phone for entertainment. I’m an old man.

Personally, when I’m mingling with the real world, I prefer to focus on the mingling. If I’m not mingling and want to do Serious Thinking on the internet, I want my laptop. I don’t play with Hester to try to relieve boredom. She’s for convenience. Texting, calls, Whatsapp, directions, Uber, and Instagram when I remember that thing exists.

I don’t use much data on my phone. That’s what I’m trying to say. If you want to retire early, it’s not hard to train yourself to not use too much data.

You are an Apple loyalist and you envision some unscrupulous undertakers prying your iPhone from your cold, dead hands.

Right. Okay. Have you ever heard of stoicism? It’s a religion invented in the time of Zeus. I just read a book about it. One of the basic tenets of that religion is the commandment to not be a connoisseur of anything. You’ll be a lot less happy with life if you can only have the best.

Which, I kind of understand. Kind of. I wrinkled my nose when reading that part of the book because the author uses the example of food. I’d rather have delicious food than not delicious food. I don’t care if that means I’m a snob.

But I do kind of understand the warning when it comes to other material things. My sister is an Apple lover, frequently snarking about my Android operating system and making googly eyes at her iPhone 5c.

Her phone died recently and, as predicted, her loyalty to Apple only made her miserable.

She liked her current plan, unlimited text and calling and 1 GB of data through Sprint. With the discount she got with her employer, she’s never paid more than $40 per month for her service in the last three years.

The first Sprint store she visited didn’t have any phones on display. The holidays, y’all. No biggie. Luckily, she found the phone she wanted at the second store. Whipping out her wallet, she eagerly tried to throw money at the employees. Instead, they advised her to buy it online. It’s easier, they said.

Easier than standing here and doing it now? That doesn’t sound easier.

But, okay. She works in computers. She can do stuff online. So she went home and popped open the internet and found a phone number. Sweet! Human interaction! She called and the representative on the other end of the line politely told her about the most expensive phone.

Fine, they try to upsell. That’s their job. She’s an intelligent consumer and knows to look out for herself. She asked about the phone she wanted and he gave details. Before she ended the call with the dude, she asked, clearly and specifically, “Are there any other fees I should be aware of?” I was sitting right next to her. I heard her ask.

He assured her she would pay only $200 for the phone itself and $67 for the taxes on the phone. That’s it. He also advised her to buy it online. Still an enthusiast and a connoisseur, she went back to Sprint.com. $267 for the phone and a new two-year contract. She checked out and rubbed her paws together in anticipation.

The next day she logged into her account and saw that her plan had changed and was now $60/month. What the what? That’s a 50% increase! Yes, she had a new 2-year contract, but she didn’t think the terms changed from her old contract. She asked the guys at the store and on the phone. She read through the process when she bought it online. Nowhere did anyone ever tell her that she now had to pay $60 per month for unlimited texts and phone calls and 3 GB of data. She didn’t want that! She barely used the 1 GB from her previous plan.

Grrrr. She called customer support again and they told her (for the first time) that the old plan is not available for new phones. Annoyed, she canceled the upgrade and the new phone.

Now, my sister is an open-minded chick. Perhaps she was wrong. Maybe this cost information was on the website somewhere. It had to be, right? She went through the motions online and ordered the phone again, stopping just short of actually purchasing it.

Nowhere and never did it transparently give the cost of the service. Grrrrrr.

This is the abbreviated version of the saga. I omitted the 90 minute call she made when they decided to charge $80 for her last bill; the activation fee nonsense; the representative not canceling it when she initially asked and her calling back later that day; the double charging on her credit card for the phone and the slow diminishing of her joy.

At this point she was ready to listen to me. Her delight in being a connoisseur officially dead, she asked for my advice. Of course, I sent her my article on Project Fi. The cost of the new phone (a Nexus) was roughly the same ($263), but the transparency Google provides puts it miles ahead. Plus, her monthly bill will go down. She had never come close to using that whole 1GB of data with Sprint.

It’s about customer service.

You don’t want to give Google more power over your life than what it currently has.

Okay, that’s your right. Google’s motto is “don’t be evil.” They wield their power for not evil. They’re also really sweet to me! While walking around an airport recently trying to get in 10,000 steps before my flight took off, I found this beauty.

A vending machine from Project Fi. It gave me a free pair of playing cards! Oh, Google. You just get me.

Google’s “fast, friendly 24/7 customer service” was a kind of throwaway bullet point in my last article about this thing, but it’s really quite good. You can chat with customer support online. That gives you a paper trail. If you want another reminder of their other customer service wins, go read my old post. Their sweet nature gifted me $110 the first couple of months I had Hester.

Also, Google Fi gives holiday presents. Last year they mailed me a Lego set and an extra USB cord. This year, they gave me $10 to use in the Google Play store. Suggestions on what to buy?

Want Project Fi? Be one of the first nine people to use my referral code and you’ll get a $20 credit. I will too. Referral code: 9F238C