unlimited vs tiered

[mlc331]

I have been with Big Red for over a decade in some form or fashion. I am now on an iphone 4, the wife is on an X and my daughter is on a BB. My son is soon to be in the smart phone world. One of my biggest gripes/arguments for putting my children on a smart phone was the cost. For us, it was an additional $30 per person for the data plan.

Enter the new Tiered data plans/contracts.

Myself, my wife and daughter are all on contract with the old unlimited data spec. If I were to add my son, he would then be on a seperate plan with a tiered bucket of use. Here is the thing, if I were to go to say a 5gig bucket for all of us to use, even my son, we would save $40 right off the top of our monthly plan. If we would add our son at another $30 and include that, we would be saving $70 a month. Our average data use for the three of us has never been more than about 1.5gigs per cycle. I'm the heaviest user and nobody comes close. Even with my son, I'm thinking that we won't even approach 5gig. We don't HOT-SPOT or run out laptops or pads from phones.

It would seem to make a BUNCH of sense for our family to go to the tiered plan. We would have all the data needed and then some... while saving $40-$70 a month.

Can somebody tell me what I'm missing?

 

[iCrank]

I have been with Big Red for over a decade in some form or fashion. I am now on an iphone 4, the wife is on an X and my daughter is on a BB. My son is soon to be in the smart phone world. One of my biggest gripes/arguments for putting my children on a smart phone was the cost. For us, it was an additional $30 per person for the data plan.

Enter the new Tiered data plans/contracts.

Myself, my wife and daughter are all on contract with the old unlimited data spec. If I were to add my son, he would then be on a seperate plan with a tiered bucket of use. Here is the thing, if I were to go to say a 5gig bucket for all of us to use, even my son, we would save $40 right off the top of our monthly plan. If we would add our son at another $30 and include that, we would be saving $70 a month. Our average data use for the three of us has never been more than about 1.5gigs per cycle. I'm the heaviest user and nobody comes close. Even with my son, I'm thinking that we won't even approach 5gig. We don't HOT-SPOT or run out laptops or pads from phones.

It would seem to make a BUNCH of sense for our family to go to the tiered plan. We would have all the data needed and then some... while saving $40-$70 a month.

Can somebody tell me what I'm missing?

you would be surprised how fast you could reach the gb limit on the tiered plan. the iphone will grab a hold of you and it will wont let go. lol. I suggest keeping the unlimited just in case because you're grandfathered in.

 

[mlc331]

I fully understand what you are talking about as to the GRANDFATHER'D status.

In our history the highest data ever recorded has been 1.39gb.

It just doesn't seem smart. After the emotional, knee-jerk reaction of "I'm grandfather'd in... I'm good", you begin to look at the facts.

If I go over the 5gig limit with all 4 of us sharing the bucket for $50 a month, I then pay a $10 fee. Not a per Kilabyte fee, just 1 fee.

Even If I were to pay $70 or even $80 after the penalty, I'm still paying less than I am for just the 3 of us on Data. I really can't image using 6x's the amount of data. We don't stream movies or surf the net on our phone enought to make that much of a dent in even the 5gig bucket. Just doesn't make much sense.

Yes, I'm grandfather'd in... but in our case, that might be costing us money.

 

[gray_mouse]

U should cover ur home with wifi.

 

[Tricon7]

Once you start using video through Netflix or Hulu or whatever, you'll burn through that allotage pretty quickly. And who knows what video options for the iPhone are just around the corner. I know you want to save money, but just don't make hasty decisions and try and look down the road.