Cell phones are an awesome part of our lives…yet they pose so many issues as well. Who in your family needs a cell phone? What age will you give your child a cell phone? Do you have an elderly parent who could benefit from a cell phone? Where will all the MONEY come from for these phones and plans? What about Facebook, Instagram, texting? I could go on and on and I know you could too. But there is no need for all those questions….I have some great news to share with you. I recently attended a Virgin Mobile Custom event at the Sprint Executive Briefing Center in the Atlanta area and I have some exciting details about the Virgin Mobile Custom Make It YOURS plan where you build your own plan. That’s right, BYOP, Build Your Own Plan.
“I participated in an Influencer Activation Program on behalf of Influence-Central for Sprint. I received a device to facilitate my review.
First, we all know that one thing is essential in our monetary lives – budgeting. We spend our days making decisions about what we need versus what we want, and which choice seems best for the entire family and ourselves. There are times when life has us reevaluate our spending by looking at ways we can reduce variable and fixed costs – like cable and cell phone plans – in order to save our money.
Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to cut a cell phone from the budget. I have been a fan of prepaid cell phones long before prepaid cell plans were cool and popular. I think they are one of the smartest ways to save money each month. I love that there are so many options available in regards to special features.
Build Your Own Plan with Virgin Mobile USA:
Here is the deal. You can get a cell phone for $6.98 per month.
I am letting that sink in for a minute.
For $6.98 a month you get 20 minutes and 20 texts (zero data, but the phones support wifi so that could be a non-issue).
You can add on extras – thus you BUILD your own plan. Here are the current add-ons:
Unlimited Facebook: $5.00 per month
Unlimited Pinterest: $5.00 per month
Unlimited Twitter: $5.00 per month
Unlimited Instagram: $5.00 per month
Unlimited Social Monthly: $15 per month (unlimited Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram for a month without it counting towards your data plan).
Unlimited Music: $5.00 per month
Maps & Navigation 1 Day: $1.00
Maps & Navigation 1 Week: $3.00
Voice Extended Coverage 50 Minutes: $5.00
Data Extended Coverage 15 MBs: $5.00
I know you are wondering “What is the catch?” Yes, this is incredibly awesome, but you figure there has to be a catch. I know I did!
You have to buy your own phone. You can purchase the ZTE Emblem for $59.99, the LG Pulse for $79.99, or the LG Unify for $129.99.
Phones are only available at Walmart.
Prepaid service allows users to pay only for what they use, and do not lock them into a monthly commitment. Virgin Mobile devices also come with great features like parental controls, which means that we are able to ensure our children use devices appropriately.
What I love about Custom
The PRICE is a STEAL. $6.98 per month without taxes and fees. A straight up $6.98 a month. That’s $83.76 per year for a phone with 20 talk minutes and 20 texts per month
It is perfect for people who don’t talk or text much, but who could benefit from having a cell phone.
It’s customizable from the web as well as the phone itself. Need more talk time? No problem, just add it from your phone or the web.
Parental controls. Need I say more? You can set a curfew on the phone.
You can customize up to 5 lines.
My Thoughts
I was given the LG Pulse to try. I have had an iPhone on a prepaid plan for years now, so using an android phone was my biggest challenge. There are two things that annoyed me. The first is that I didn’t activate my phone with a plan for a few weeks and instead used the wifi in my house to surf the internet. During that time, the phone somehow had a phone number and received texts and calls, but I was unable to place any calls. It was super weird to be texted by random people. To be very fair, I should have contacted the support people with my concern but I didn’t. As a parent who may give this phone to a child, I just wanted to share my experience so you have the chance to monitor the phone if you don’t activate it immediately. The second thing that I am not fond of is the text limit is capped at 140 characters. I sent my husband a text message that exceeded the 140 character limit. On the LG Pulse it shows as one text message, but it exceeded the character limit and technically counted as 2 texts. This could be a problem at first to the unsuspecting user. It is super easy to track how many texts and minutes have been used, so as long as you are being smart about using your Custom phone and monitoring the usage this should not be an issue.
As a frugal blogger who watched where her money goes each month I have cringed at the thought of my girls getting phones and “keeping up with the Joneses.” All I see is lots of dollar signs for the phones and the service. Both my husband and I are very impressed with the Custom $6.98 per month plan. It is definitely on our radar now. It’s such an awesome plan that serves so many purposes for a diverse array of families. I loved being able to hear directly from the Sprint representatives. They definitely have people first on their minds!
What about you? Is the Sprint Custom plan something you will consider now that you know about it?
Build Your Own Cell Phone Plan with Virgin Mobile Custom: Make It YOURS is a post by Coupons Are Great