Slash Your Cell Phone Bills

Real estate investors became a whole lot more productive when smartphones hit the market. For many investors, their livelihood is tied up in their phone. Between emails, phone contacts, texts and GPS directions, many investors could not do what they do without their phone handy.

Trouble is that high productivity comes with a high price. Or so it seems. Depending on what phone, what provider and what plan you use, your fees can vary greatly.

You can also add the cost of the phone to these regular monthly charges. Either you pay around $5-$600 for a fancy one up front, or you add it to your monthly bill for around $25-$30 per month. No matter which you choose, the costs add up.

Maybe you think it makes sense to pay a lot, because you’re getting a lot. But the smart investors are the ones who figure out exactly what they need, and don’t pay any extra for other stuff they don’t use.

How about a few tips to save that money each month? Think about it… If you could buy a house that has positive cash flow of $100 per month, or cut your cell phone bill by $100 per month, which would you choose?

Same cash flow, with no tenant, contractor, government, or mortgage company hassles. Seems like a pretty easy choice.

Review Your Current Plan for Savings

Take a look at all the options your plan provides. Do you need everything you are paying for?

Here are 5 tips for lowering your bill:

Insurance – Maybe you are really accident prone, but paying for cell phone insurance can quickly go above the cost of the phone – especially if you hold on to it for a couple of years. If you do break your phone, suck it up and buy a new one. Only this time maybe don’t go for the fanciest model.
Employee Discounts – Do you or your spouse work for a big company? Many of them have agreements with cell phone providers that give a discount to employees. Ask about it.
Reduce Your Data Plan – Do you really need to search the web all that often? Other than checking for the latest installment from Real Estate Mogul, you can probably wait until connected to WiFi. Reducing the amount of data you pay for can save $10-$20 per month.
Avoid cancelling a contract – Cancellation fees can be steep if you terminate early. But, signing up for a contract can save you money. If you want to cancel, try going to websites like CellTradeUSA or CellSwapper. They are communities of people trying to get out of contracts and into other contracts. You can give the remainder of your contract to someone else if you would like.
Negotiate – If you have been a good customer with your cell phone company, they are going to want your cash flow stream. Tell them you are thinking of leaving at the end of your contract, and see what goodies they will give you.
Don’t go over your minutes – Many cell phone providers give you the ability to put a usage alert on your plan. That way if you get close to your plan minutes for voice, text or data, you will receive an email or text to be careful.

The Best Plan We’ve Found to Save Money

If you are okay not having the latest and greatest in cell phone technology and don’t need unlimited everything, then we think we may have a plan for you. It’s from a company called Republic Wireless.

Republic took apart the regular cell phone company’s costs to see where they could save money. Then they pass those savings on to you. Take a look at their plan pricing to see the results:

How’s that compared to what you’re paying?

Republic realized that the big costs for cell phone companies come from the cell phone towers and data usage from those towers. If you are in an area with WiFi, the costs are MUCH cheaper.

Could you work with their plans? If you could just use your phone in an area with WiFi, you could pay just $5 per month. That may be impractical for any busy real estate investor, but it might work for your spouse or kids?

For just $10 per month, you can have unlimited talk and text over your cell phone regardless of WiFi coverage. Looking at data requires WiFi, but honestly how often do you need that? Could you pull over at the local coffee shop to check your email every so often? Do you really need the internet on your phone when out of a WiFi coverage area?

If you do need email and the internet when outside of a WiFi area, go with the ‘high-priced’ plans. $25 gets you 3G speed and $40 per month is 4G.

Another feature of these plans is the ability to change your plan twice a month right from your phone. If you only need coverage for a portion of the month, you can have your bill prorated to the lower plans for the rest of the month.

With such low subscription pricing, it’s easy to think Republic charges you an arm and a leg for the phone. Not true.

Their phones are $299 or $399. One downside is you can only use Motorola Moto phones. If you need a fancy iPhone or Samsung, this isn’t the plan for you. But you might be surprised by how well the Moto phones work.

Maybe these costs are simply small to true real estate moguls. But successful investors became successful by relentlessly controlling costs in addition to increasing revenue.

Think about your cell phone usage. Could you handle having an extra $50-$100 in your pocket each month?

Got any other tips on how to reduce monthly cell bills? Share it with us in the comments section below.