I feel like every two years I need to call my carrier and complain if I want a decent deal. They will do things like upgrade my plan on their website to have 10 extra gigabytes of data but won’t upgrade me to it until I contact them. There’s also all the new member exclusive deals that I feel make it impractical to just sit on one plan for an extended period of time.
You might be European as well (as am I). I supect the poster is from North America. And North America is a little special when it comes to phone/internet service (as in: almost universally, they pay a lot but always have the latest devices on their contact). Afaik, prepaid is mostly dead at least in the US, always was more expensive than in the EU and always had a bad rap due to usage for “burner” phones.
I’ve looked at “low-cost” mobile providers like Ting some time ago and shuddered at the prices.
Also, I feel like your information on how Americans feel about prepaid phones is somewhat inaccurate. Almost everyone I know who doesn’t have kids uses a prepaid plan, and there is definitely no stigma against them. Perhaps the Americans you talk to are more high class than I, but the working class uses prepaid more often than plans (at least people 40 or under).
Ok. I got the stigma thing mostly from movies, so I guess I need to watch fewer crime procedurals. :) I’ll edit the comment…
There are a lot of prepaid services through MVNOs, even Google sells one, they’re just not as mainstream. Ting has always been on the higher end.
I pay $25 a month for unlimited everything, but it doesn’t include the device. There is cheaper available, but more vulnerable to sim swapping attacks.
Nope. I live in Tennessee and use Cricket Mobile. Admittedly I don’t have children/family whose phones I pay for, which means I can avoid a family plan. That simplifies things. My husband also uses Cricket. $30/mo each (no extra taxes) thanks to using auto pay. (It would be $35 otherwise.) Unlimited calls/texts and 5GB data. That’s very low, but I have WiFi at home and the office, so I hardly use mobile data other than for GPS. Cricket uses AT&T’s towers, which have made great strides in cell service in rural Tennessee since I fist tried them a decade ago.
This reads like an ad, and I’m sorry for that. But, you should try this out if you can, fellow Americans.
One downside is that I don’t get free phones routinely as a plan would allow. But my phone was like $150-$180 and I’ve had it for… 2 or 3 years? Can’t remember. That is like an additional $6/month-ish.
Unlimited calls/texts and 5GB in Germany is currently around 8,99€/28d on prepaid (incl. VAT). Yet Germany is one of the more expensive countries in the EU. Prepaid plans from most other EU countries would likely not be cheaper but include more data. E.g. 3 Austria has a postpaid plan for 12,99€/m that includes 40 GB of data and unlimited calls/texts (that’s randomly the first provider I looked at).
Back in Germany, you can also get super-expensive postpaid plans with a device included of course. Economically, for private users that usually makes no sense though. These plans are often used for corporate phones or by people who want bragging rights.
(On the flip side, I guess the pricing pressure may be part of what apparently drives telecom companies to outsource even more of their business functions here than they do in the US.)
You don’t need to sell me on Germany. I’d move there in an instant if I had the resources.
Sorry if my comment came across overly braggy. Couldn’t help myself.