This has worked out so well for me, I thought I’d share this.

I’ve been on Verizon Wireless since 1999. In that time, my bill went from $40 a month to $87 as time and features went on. The breakdown:

• standard $40 entry fee just to get on the network- unlimited* calls with 450 out of network minutes.
• $10 for unlimited* texting with 500 out of network messages.
• $30 for 2 gigs of data.
• The rest to taxes and fees.

* Do I need to mention how this unlimted claim is completely bogus?

My useage made this a complete rip off. I rarely make phone calls (10 minutes tops), a good 1200 text messages a month (most friends are on VZW so I very rarely went over) and I averaged a gig a month in data. My contract came to an end in the middle of April so I started looking at alternatives around February.

Looked at the other big players, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T. ATT offered me no savings, T-M coverage is spotty where I am and the “cut your bill in half” program from Sprint was really tempting. Sprint coverage is alright around here.

Then the “new guys” Boost, Ting and Cricket. Boost is verizon and was still kinda expensive and I’ve heard their customer service stinks. I’d save a ton on Ting (they charge based on usage), but they use Sprints network. So I checked out Cricket and getting unlimited voice and text (true unlimited) and 2.5 gigs of data for $40 on ATT’s network was the clear winner.

Picked out the Motorola Moto E (2nd gen, it has 4G LTE) on sale for $80. It’s a mid-range smartphone, something like $125 new. Runs the latest version of Android (Lollipop) with nothing running on top so it arrived bloat free and runs really fast. 8 gigs internal storage with a microSD card slot (I have a 16gig card). No flash, an average camera, a good 4.5″ 720p screen. It’s not packed with the latest tech, but I can do everything I did before with my Galaxy S3 and the battery life is simply awesome. I can go a good 2 days without having to charge it. I don’t play many mobile games and take few pictures so I don’t need bleeding edge hardware.

Cricket has a bunch of cellphone options to choose from and you can bring a unlocked GSM phone to the service which is pretty great. Odds are they have the hardware to fit you. I think the only thing that would keep you tethered to ATT or Verizon is if you somehow still have a grandfathered unlimited data plan.

So with Cricket Wireless I don’t have a contract (so no threat of an early termination fee) and pay $35 a month (that includes taxes and fees) with auto-bill pay. I’m saving a small fortune ($624 a year) with a better data plan to boot. Switching is the smartest decision I’ve made in awhile. As I wise man once said, “Everything is coming up Milhouse!”