Okay so every since I let the cat out of the bag about me now using Republic Wireless instead of one of the big carriers, I get a lot of questions about if Republic Wireless is worth switching to. So I thought I’d answered this question with our little story of using Republic Wireless.
I knew it was bound to happen one day and that day finally came. I found my smartphone at the bottom of our toilet bowl. (Not sure which kid put it there.)
Immediately all of my friends’ horror stories of having to replace $600 iPhones raced through my head and I started freaking out. I grabbed my phone out of the toilet and it was still working.
Thank goodness my phone was completely undamaged by the unexpected bath it took.
My phone is the Moto G (3rd Gen) from Republic Wireless and despite its claims that it’s “water resistant” I was beyond skeptical when my phone was sunk deep in water. I mean, really what phone is actually water resistant?
Well, apparently mine is. And if you’re wondering, I don’t have a case on my phone so there was no fancy Otterbox thingy or anything like that on my phone when it ended up in the toilet. It was just my phone.
The Biggest Expense
So why am I sharing my phone-landing-in-toilet story? Well, because one of the biggest expenses most families have when it comes to their budgets is their cell phones. And if you have little kids or careless teenagers, you’re bound to have one of your phones end up in the toilet.
And I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like paying a ton for my phone. Before I switched to Republic Wireless, I was with one of the big carriers and my phone bill was over $80 a month! This was just for me – my husband’s phone is paid for by the company he works for.
That’s just an insane amount of money to pay every month for one stinking phone. Not to mention the fact that my iPhone, which wasn’t the latest and greatest model, was over $500! Our kids aren’t old enough yet for cell phones but I can only imagine how much of a financial burden having a whole family with cell phones must be.
Should you make the switch?
So if you’re in the market to make a cell phone provider switch, I can’t recommend Republic enough. I know there is a lot of concern about the lesser known cell phone providers not having great and reliable service but I’ve never been without service with my phone and I’ve traveled out of state twice and once to the boonies and had service the entire time.
Basically, Republic Wireless works like this – they first go through any WiFi connections for everything including calls and then fall back on Sprint’s network if there isn’t a WiFi connection available. So if you have a WiFi connection at home this a great option because Republic actually refunds you the unused cell data every month. (I highly recommend Republic Wireless for Stay-at-home moms. We haven’t paid for a full bill – the $25 – since we started with them because I’m always home.)
It’s an amazing thing. For me, I have the 1G data plan with unlimited talk and text which is only $25 a month and it’s perfect for me. If you’re a stay-at-home parent or you work from home and have a WiFi connection at home, this may be a great plan for you as well.
Oh and did I mention that they are contract free? Yep, you don’t have to sign a contract with Republic and can switch to another provider at any time. They’ve been a true financial blessing for my family even though I had to get rid of my iPhone and switch to an Android. 🙂 Which honestly, was the hardest part of the entire process – learning how to use a droid.
So if you’re in the market for a new phone or a new phone carrier, I encourage you to shop around and to look into the lesser-known companies like Republic to see if they may be the right fit for your family’s budget.
What’s your number one saving tip on cell phone plans?
I find the assumption that having kids with cellphones being a family burden kind of funny. It’s just the automatic thought that kids will have cellphones and it will be paid out of family money. When I was a teen I had my own phone line (at home) and a pager. Both were only available to me because I paid for them. It will be the same in my house. My SIX YEAR OLD is already talking about when she has a cellphone. I stopped that talk immediately! When they have a steady job, if their budget allows for it they can have a phone. It will be a pay as you plan so if they run out too bad. I won’t be sitting around trying to cover massive phone bills or even little phone bills. There were months that my pager bill couldn’t be paid and I just had to deal with it. I didn’t die…neither will they ?
My parents provided me with a cell phone when i was 15/16 years old. It was the green screen nokia. I was going to an out of district school and needed to be able to communicate because i couldn’t just hop a bus home. I will provide my 4 children with a cell phone when the appropriate time comes. Their generation lives in a different world than mind did. If theyre late coming home or their car breaks down or an emergency arrises I would like for them to have a means of communication. Im not providing anything fancy … Im hoping there are still dataless flip phones available when the time comes. Good information to hold onto for when the time comes.
For us it’s not everyone needs a cell phone plan. I haven’t had a cell phone plan in almost 4 years. I just bought Tracfone minutes once a year spending whatever would get me 1 year of service which was around $100. I actually haven’t had a cell phone at all in about a year. I have a Google voice number I use at home. When I leave the house people have to wait to speak to me.
My husband has a plan through StraightTalk that gives him the Verizon network, which works best where we live. It’s $50 a month. My almost 16 year old son has a Tracfone that he got 2 years ago. We put minutes on it once a year spending whatever it takes to get a year service, it’s around $100 a year and he still has minutes from when we bought the phone. He rarely uses the phone. When our 7 and 5 year old children start participating in events without us we will get them a prepaid phone too.
I’ve got an android phone; it was $30 on sale, then we paid $20 to unlock it from its network so we could go with a cheaper pre-paid network. I don’t use it much (we don’t get very good reception at home, but we do have wifi, so I’ll use it for internet if all the other devices are being used – we also have a landline which is bundled in with our internet) so I spend about $15 every 2-3 months on a recharge. It’s nice to have a cell phone but I don’t want to spend a fortune on it. When my kids are older I plan on going the prepaid route with them too.
That is a great deal for sure! But I am concerned with the reception. Also, my husband use to have Sprint and if he called home from his office (20 minutes away) we would be charged a roaming fee because there wasn’t good service in his area. We dropped sprint because of this. Have you had any of these issues?
I haven’t any issues like that – it’s always just the $25 a month fee plus the taxes but other than that I haven’t been charged for roaming.
For me its always a panic when I drop my phone. Just the thought of it breaking and having to pay a insane amount of money for a replacement. It’s great to see so many options for prepaid service available. Thanks for sharing.
I can’t believe your phone survived the toilet plunge! I love at the beginning of your comments “If you’re being ugly and not adding anything of benefit to the conversation, your comment will be removed” I used to tell my kids to stop acting ugly (mom my used to say that) and they thought I was calling them ugly. One day my daughter said we aren’t ugly mama! We are beautiful! Lol I had to stop saying it. But it works perfectly on your comment page. Thank you for sharing on Merry Monday! Hope to see ya next week!
Kim