Best Family Plan for Four Phones?

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Will - 01 Apr 2006 22:25 GMT

I am going to switch four individual Cingular accounts to a family plan, and
I want to identify how to get the best deal on this.

I was told my two four phone options are 700 minutes for $89.99 or 1400
minutes for $109.99. Is there a better deal than that? I suspect we
will use about 1000 minutes per month, and having some rollover would be
convenient. We will need long distance calling, and one of the callers
calls to South America often, if that matters.

In terms of how to get some free phones out of this, are you required to
sign up to a two year contract to get free phones?

I understand that Cingular tries to hide its true rate by adding on lots of
fees to each bill in addition to the sales tax. How much will I really be
paying each month on the $109.99 plan?

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Will

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Wirelessjuan - 02 Apr 2006 03:23 GMT

All of the Family Talk plans come with DOMESTIC long distance and no
roaming in the US. You will have the ability to travel abroad as well
as just call to South America however you will need to have it
provisioned by customer service over the phone. Even the corporate
stores will not be able to add the international features.

Go with the 1400 minute plan and use the roll over. If you go with the
700 minute plan and have a constant overage of 300 mins at $.40 per
minute it will add up to huge overage each month.

As for the hidden fees well that depends a lot on your home state. In
PA we are tax 6% state sales tax and an additional 5% cell phone tax.
(no matter what carrier you have) as well as the federal FCC and 911
and number portability charges. I have the FT $59.99 plan with 1
additional line plus $9.99 media basics so a base total of $79.97 plus
all the other fees which ends up being $127 to $135 per month.

As for free phones the only way you could possible get them is if you
are currently out of contract with your individual Cingular accounts.
If you are not then you will have to pay for new phones or when you
combine the individual accounts wait unitl your contact is up. Since
you are already a customer they are NOT going to give you free phones
just because you want to switch plans. This should however NOT change
when your original contract end dates that were on the individual plans
just because you put them together on a Family Talk plan.

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Will - 03 Apr 2006 03:39 GMT

Is there any option for a family plan with 1000 minutes instead of 1400
minutes?

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Will

> All of the Family Talk plans come with DOMESTIC long distance and no
> roaming in the US. You will have the ability to travel abroad as well
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> when your original contract end dates that were on the individual plans
> just because you put them together on a Family Talk plan.

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lugnut - 03 Apr 2006 15:50 GMT

>I am going to switch four individual Cingular accounts to a family plan, and
>I want to identify how to get the best deal on this.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>convenient. We will need long distance calling, and one of the callers
>calls to South America often, if that matters.

Is it necessary that this user use a cell phone? If not, set
up a Skype account for this which will be far cheaper.

>In terms of how to get some free phones out of this, are you required to
>sign up to a two year contract to get free phones?

Yes. And you can get the free phones only if you are out of
contract with them.

>I understand that Cingular tries to hide its true rate by adding on lots of
>fees to each bill in addition to the sales tax. How much will I really be
>paying each month on the $109.99 plan?

They all have junk fees that irritate the hell out of me -
just like the airlines and car dealers. The taxes and junk
fees are almost always 15-20% above the quoted price no
matter who the carrier since they feel those charges are not
their responsibility beyond collecting them.

You may want to check into buying your phones off of Ebay.
You may be able to sign up w/o a contract but, plans like
the Family Plans usually require at least a 1 year contract.
You will only know any of this for sure by going to the
dealer. You can get much of this info online from Cingular

Lugnut

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