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Friday 23 November 2012

Mrs. Hutch's Sweet New Cell Phone Plan

I've had something in the neighborhood of 4 or 5 cell phone numbers in the last 7 years. I was a holdout for a long time, and was one of the last people I know to actually get a cell phone. I thought not having once gave me some kind of street cred. Eventually, it just made me an outcast. Have you ever realized that no one meets at a a pre-arranged time and place anymore?

My last phone was a blackberry for work. I ditched my own phone just paid for any personal calls I made over and above the monthly corporate plan, which was never much. That worked just fine for me, and was incredibly cheap. But when I went on my maternity leave in 2010, I threw that phone out my driver's side window at the office as I sped away from the building. Figuratively speaking. I took the bus back then.

I honestly didn't want to get a phone of my own while I was on maternity leave. But Mr. Hutch, ever the pragmatist, insisted. Something about going into premature labour with the twins. I relented.

Me: "Hi, I need a phone. I really like those flip-phones."

Phone Guy: "Uh, they don't make flip-phones anymore."

I got the closest thing to a flip-phone that I could, and told Phone Guy to sign me up for the most basic plan he had. No fancy stuff, thank you. I got a one year contract for $20/month, but ended up adding a texting plan for another $15. With taxes and fees it came in at around $40-$45 a month, not really an amount that I enjoyed paying.

Fast forward sixteen months and I was back at work with a new blackberry and yet another new number. As tempting as it was to ditch my own phone and go back to just paying for personal calls on my work phone, I just didn't want to inform every one of my contacts of yet another change in number. So I kept paying more than was necessary to keep my own phone. But a couple of months ago, while surfing through the internal employee website, I came the awesome corporate reates for  personal cell phones offered through my employer.

Here's what I got:

I went with the most basic plan of $13.50 per month. This gives me free evenings and weekends, free local calls any time to any phone on the same carrier (which includes Mr. Hutch), free unlimited incoming text messages and 1500 outgoing text messages (which for me, might as well be unlimted). I get no weekday minutes, but that suits me just fine as I'm usually sitting right beside my landline at work during that time anyway. Any calls I do make during the weekdays are only 4 cents per minute, so the very few daytime call that I do make do not add up to much. I also got the $35 activation fee waived, and a $50 credit to my bill (that's like three months free!). PLUS, because I was already a client of this carrier and not tied into a contract (I was just going month to month following the expiration of my one-year contract) I was eligible for a free super-fancy Samsung smartphone. Granted, it has no data plan, but at least I look cool in front of my friends. Just kidding! I have no friends.

Not only that, but I use it to record my mustachian meal plans in the calendar. Next stop: financial independence!

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