A few years ago, AT&T sunset our then-current plan, and aggressively forced us to switch to a different, more modern plan. Naturally, that more modern plan just happened to be quite a lot more money.

🙄

We figured we could save money by pairing our Internet & TV service with our mobile service. We switched from AT&T → Verizon. At the time, we were saving a ton of money. In fact, since we didn’t get new phones as part of the deal, we got something like $1000 in credits that we used to pay for service for the better part of a year.

Over the years, the cost of both our home and mobile plans have ratcheted up, to the point that we’re now paying ~$135/mo (❗️) for Internet and TV; we’re paying roughly $185/mo (‼️) for two phones and an iPad. The bills are too damn high.

A few listeners — apropos of me seeking a pay-as-you-go wireless hotspot^[1] — pointed me to US Mobile. They are a MVNO that actually works with all three major networks^[2]. Allegedly they’re easy to work with, which is to say they have a modern and easily navigable website.

More importantly, however, they offer darn near all the same stuff as the big three do, but for way less money. Their most expensive plan, before add-ons, is $32.50 per month.

I decided I was going to give them a shot, because I should be able to save at least $30/month by switching.^[3] So, I went to Verizon’s website, and tried to find the place where I could start the number porting process. I couldn’t find it quickly, so I searched for port number.

And I’ll be damned, but once I saw the results of my search, right there at the top, just below the search box, was an offer to save $20 per month per line. Just because.

So I clicked it. It didn’t work, because Verizon’s website is trash, but it did offer a link to a place I hadn’t previously found, where I had several offers. All of them had catches of some sort — get a new phone for free and commit to a new two-year agreement and so on.

But sure enough, there was a $20/mo/line discount offered. I clicked on it, verified I wanted it on both Erin’s and my lines, and that was that. In theory, our bill next month will be $145, rather than $185.

So, if you’re out of a long-term contract with your carrier, and are just riding month-to-month, it may be worth trying the same thing.

I get that it’s not exactly in Verizon’s best interests to give me the best deal they possibly can. I get that they’re a business designed to extract money from my wallet, so they can place it in theirs. But still, this felt gross. It was only when they [rightly!] detected they were in the midst of a potential case of churn that they suddenly found a way to lower my bill.

I hate everything, at the moment. But right now I really hate capitalism.

Well, and ICE. Screw those lawless chodes.