ATHLLC6449096121

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:01.600 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,

00:00:04.640 | a show about upgrading your life, money and travel.

00:00:07.200 | I'm your host, Chris Hutchins,

00:00:08.480 | and this week I went way down the rabbit hole

00:00:11.160 | on cell phone plans.

00:00:12.320 | I probably spent dozens of hours doing research

00:00:15.360 | to try to pull together all the information I could,

00:00:17.960 | primarily so that we could pick the best plan for ourselves

00:00:20.880 | and really feel confident in that decision

00:00:22.840 | and save as much money as possible.

00:00:24.720 | So I'm gonna share all the research I went into,

00:00:27.360 | all the tips, all the tricks,

00:00:28.960 | all the way to get your price down,

00:00:30.760 | your features up and get the best deal possible.

00:00:33.320 | So let's just jump right into it right after this.

00:00:36.000 | Do you all remember episode 122

00:00:39.440 | when I spoke to chef David Chang

00:00:41.480 | about leveling up your cooking at home?

00:00:43.600 | If not, definitely go back and give it a listen,

00:00:46.020 | but one of his top hacks was using the microwave more.

00:00:49.480 | I'll admit I was a skeptic at first,

00:00:51.800 | but after getting a full set of microwave cookware

00:00:54.480 | from Anyday, I'm a total convert

00:00:56.880 | and I'm excited to partner with them for this episode.

00:00:59.120 | Anyday is glass cookware specifically designed

00:01:01.920 | to make delicious food from scratch in the microwave.

00:01:05.040 | And honestly, using it feels like a kitchen cheat code

00:01:08.280 | because it speeds up and simplifies the process so much.

00:01:11.960 | The cookware is 100% plastic free

00:01:14.320 | and you can cook, serve, store, and reheat

00:01:17.080 | all in the same dish that happens to be dishwasher,

00:01:20.360 | freezer, and oven safe too.

00:01:22.200 | And if you need a recipe suggestion

00:01:23.920 | to kick off your Anyday adventure,

00:01:25.680 | I highly recommend David Chang's Salmon Rice.

00:01:28.480 | It is so good.

00:01:30.360 | And if you haven't checked out

00:01:31.840 | the Matte Black Ayo Collection they launched last year,

00:01:35.040 | you have to check it out.

00:01:36.720 | So to get 15% off our new favorite cookware,

00:01:40.160 | go to allthehacks.com/anyday.

00:01:43.480 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/anyday for 15% off.

00:01:48.480 | All right, I have so much to cover here.

00:01:53.600 | First off, big shout out to Francis

00:01:55.260 | who kicked this whole thing off sending a question in saying

00:01:58.120 | would love an episode or a section in a Q&A about cellphones.

00:02:01.320 | Cellphone plans are so confusing.

00:02:03.000 | Companies are not comparable.

00:02:04.560 | Feel like each one says they have the best service.

00:02:06.760 | Nothing's apples to apples and you just feel lost.

00:02:09.600 | And then how do you think about insurance and family plans,

00:02:12.200 | adding lines, and the deals you get

00:02:14.060 | for upgrading to a new phone?

00:02:15.900 | It's crazy.

00:02:16.740 | So thank you.

00:02:17.600 | That sent me down this rabbit hole

00:02:19.200 | which is gonna end up saving me a lot of money.

00:02:21.320 | So I really appreciate that message.

00:02:23.920 | It's so confusing and things are changing so much

00:02:26.400 | that I actually had to rerecord this entire episode

00:02:29.280 | because the first time I recorded it,

00:02:31.280 | the iPhone 15 had not come out

00:02:32.960 | and then plans had changed and now plans have changed again.

00:02:36.340 | So I can't promise how long all of this information

00:02:39.360 | will be relevant.

00:02:40.440 | But while I will go into the specific dollar amounts,

00:02:43.000 | I think it's really important to think about the tiers,

00:02:45.440 | the categories, the quality of the carriers,

00:02:47.600 | and the features more than the exact dollars

00:02:49.840 | because as much as when I record this right now,

00:02:52.680 | there might be some carriers that are a few dollars more

00:02:55.080 | that could change the next week.

00:02:56.640 | So I'm gonna try to put things in groups

00:02:58.840 | and not focus as much on the exact dollars,

00:03:01.520 | though I will share them so you have some context.

00:03:03.780 | It reminds me a lot of an article we wrote at Wealthfront

00:03:06.400 | when I was there about rate chasing

00:03:08.360 | and how as much as you might want

00:03:10.260 | the best possible rate on cash,

00:03:12.240 | the amount of time you spend moving your cash

00:03:14.720 | between banks chasing the best rate

00:03:16.800 | and not earning interest on those days in transit

00:03:19.520 | mean that you're actually probably better off

00:03:22.000 | just picking someone that's consistently

00:03:24.220 | paying a good interest rate and staying there

00:03:26.640 | instead of always moving around and rate chasing.

00:03:28.720 | So I think the same thing's true here with cell phone plans.

00:03:30.720 | Find a solid carrier that has good deals,

00:03:33.020 | that has good pricing, and don't focus too much

00:03:35.300 | on whether one's a dollar or more or less here or there.

00:03:37.680 | So some background on my journey here.

00:03:39.720 | I had been on Verizon for 10 years,

00:03:42.240 | primarily because when Amy and I met in college,

00:03:45.080 | we started dating and her family lived

00:03:46.720 | in the mountains of Colorado,

00:03:48.240 | and they didn't have great service if you weren't on Verizon

00:03:50.940 | and so I just wanted service reliably

00:03:53.000 | when we were traveling around Colorado,

00:03:54.600 | driving at her family's house, et cetera.

00:03:56.720 | So that was something that was really important

00:03:58.500 | and we've just stuck there ever since.

00:04:00.600 | You know, I'm really glad I did this episode

00:04:02.120 | because I think I always knew

00:04:04.120 | that we were probably paying a bit much

00:04:06.000 | and I'll get to some of the savings you get

00:04:07.960 | from cell phone purchasing,

00:04:09.560 | which actually makes me feel a little better.

00:04:11.320 | But at the end of the day, Verizon was so expensive

00:04:14.160 | that even while I was doing this episode the first time,

00:04:17.120 | we immediately tried to switch our au pair off of Verizon

00:04:20.480 | because she didn't have a device that was getting paid off

00:04:23.200 | just to stop some of the financial bleeding

00:04:25.360 | that came from that relationship.

00:04:26.800 | And so we opened her up a line on Mint Mobile

00:04:28.800 | a few months back.

00:04:29.760 | She's had a great experience.

00:04:31.000 | She actually said the data has been faster

00:04:32.520 | and more reliable than it was on Verizon.

00:04:34.420 | Cut the cost in half.

00:04:35.760 | She's happy, I'm happy.

00:04:37.200 | We actually reached out to Mint Mobile

00:04:38.680 | and tried to partner with them

00:04:39.840 | and they became a sponsor of the show.

00:04:41.540 | So you've probably heard me talk about Mint Mobile already.

00:04:44.280 | This episode though, just to be clear,

00:04:46.120 | is not sponsored by Mint.

00:04:47.680 | It is not something that they've told me to do.

00:04:49.760 | I'm doing this all on my own.

00:04:51.160 | It's all my own research.

00:04:52.720 | They're not getting any special treatment in these reviews,

00:04:55.520 | but if you do wanna check them out,

00:04:57.260 | obviously I'd appreciate it if you do it through our link,

00:04:59.720 | allthehacks.com/mintmobile.

00:05:01.720 | We are customers of Mint Mobile

00:05:03.240 | and we are fans of the product.

00:05:04.600 | And then finally, we actually did switch off Verizon

00:05:06.920 | for all of our lines.

00:05:08.040 | We were waiting for the final payment on our iPhone 13

00:05:10.820 | so that we could get all that money back.

00:05:12.360 | And I'm gonna save where we went for the end of this

00:05:14.800 | as I go through everything.

00:05:16.000 | So first off, what went into this?

00:05:17.720 | Way too much research than was probably necessary

00:05:20.800 | for the amount I personally saved.

00:05:22.480 | But I will say I love going down these rabbit holes.

00:05:25.200 | I did it for insurance.

00:05:26.200 | I did it for vacation homes

00:05:27.520 | and then spent dozens of hours on it.

00:05:29.520 | I put together a spreadsheet with 50 plus cell phone plans.

00:05:33.240 | I've been to almost every cell phone carrier website,

00:05:35.740 | read countless articles.

00:05:37.180 | I spent over an hour on the phone

00:05:39.200 | with a guy named Stetson who runs a website

00:05:41.400 | called bestphoneplans.net

00:05:43.360 | and has an amazing YouTube channel.

00:05:45.160 | He is a wealth of information.

00:05:47.160 | I'll put a link to both his site

00:05:48.680 | and his channel in the show notes.

00:05:51.040 | Definitely a fantastic resource,

00:05:53.280 | especially to go compare plans

00:05:55.320 | and dig into some of the features.

00:05:56.800 | And then I built my own table.

00:05:58.080 | That spreadsheet had 48 plans,

00:05:59.820 | had 27 different columns of features

00:06:02.040 | and requirements and pricing.

00:06:03.640 | Started out with 13 carriers.

00:06:05.780 | I'm sure someone listening is gonna point out

00:06:07.680 | that I missed a few carriers

00:06:09.400 | or there's a carrier there on that I didn't include.

00:06:11.920 | There were just only so many things

00:06:13.400 | that I could get to fill this out.

00:06:14.960 | But after I pulled out a few,

00:06:16.600 | Consumer, Cellular, Ting, Xfinity,

00:06:19.240 | which just from a pricing standpoint,

00:06:21.120 | weren't competitive compared to the rest.

00:06:22.920 | And then if you factor in,

00:06:24.000 | is Boost Mobile and Boost Infinite

00:06:25.520 | the same company, is it two?

00:06:27.040 | I think I know the answer,

00:06:28.320 | but it leaves eight carriers.

00:06:29.960 | And that's Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T,

00:06:32.400 | the ones everyone knows about.

00:06:33.720 | And then Google Fi, US Mobile,

00:06:36.320 | Boost Mobile, Boost Infinite, Visible, Mint Mobile,

00:06:39.640 | and a new carrier called Mobile X.

00:06:41.660 | I think that's eight.

00:06:42.500 | Before we jump into any of what I learned,

00:06:44.400 | I just wanna make sure I clarify a distinction here

00:06:46.760 | because there's kind of two classes of carriers in the US.

00:06:50.320 | And that's because there's what's called an MVNO,

00:06:52.760 | a Mobile Virtual Network Operator.

00:06:54.280 | And so when you look at the carriers in the US,

00:06:56.560 | it's really AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile

00:06:59.080 | that own the towers.

00:07:00.480 | I don't actually know how their arrangements work,

00:07:02.120 | but they run the towers, they run the service.

00:07:04.240 | And then all the other carriers I mentioned previously

00:07:06.720 | are all built on and partnered with

00:07:09.280 | one of those three main carriers.

00:07:10.960 | And so, yes, you might have Mint Mobile,

00:07:12.940 | but you're actually being powered by T-Mobile.

00:07:15.240 | And so there's some real nuance into how this exactly works.

00:07:18.600 | And I'm actually gonna go into it

00:07:19.680 | 'cause I kinda nerded out about it

00:07:21.200 | and it was super interesting.

00:07:22.720 | But I just wanna be clear that in the broadest sense,

00:07:25.760 | with a couple exceptions,

00:07:27.320 | a lot of these MVNOs are kind of second-class citizens

00:07:30.240 | to the main carrier, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon.

00:07:33.160 | In some cases, that's not always the case,

00:07:34.960 | and I'll cover that.

00:07:35.780 | But the biggest difference,

00:07:36.960 | and the reason they're able to charge so much less,

00:07:39.040 | is that they don't have the infrastructure of stores.

00:07:41.080 | They often have a lot more limited support.

00:07:43.080 | They don't have a lot of the marquee features,

00:07:45.320 | cell phone discount subsidies,

00:07:47.120 | international roaming, a lot of that stuff.

00:07:48.920 | So in many of the cases,

00:07:50.440 | you're not getting the full comprehensive product,

00:07:53.300 | business plans, all that kind of stuff,

00:07:55.280 | but you are getting a much better deal.

00:07:57.260 | I'm gonna go through it,

00:07:58.100 | but it's really, really incredible

00:08:00.200 | how much money you could be saving

00:08:01.920 | with a lot of these carriers

00:08:03.360 | that I wasn't completely aware of beforehand,

00:08:05.920 | and I'm kinda disappointed in myself

00:08:07.320 | that I didn't know earlier.

00:08:08.360 | One of the things I learned in understanding

00:08:10.840 | how these MVNOs work is this thing called

00:08:12.920 | quality of service class identifiers.

00:08:15.040 | And I'm gonna get a little nerdy,

00:08:16.200 | but I think it's really interesting,

00:08:17.800 | and kind of explains why you might not have data

00:08:20.280 | sometimes when you see that you have service,

00:08:22.280 | and a lot more.

00:08:23.100 | So what happens is each carrier

00:08:24.960 | has one of these different

00:08:26.240 | quality of service class identifiers, or QCIs.

00:08:28.560 | They're numbered, usually, from one to nine,

00:08:30.600 | and they're used for different things,

00:08:32.360 | and they are how the towers,

00:08:34.440 | and how the system prioritizes

00:08:36.120 | what happens on the network.

00:08:37.560 | So for example, QCI one through five

00:08:40.080 | are not really data related.

00:08:41.520 | They are, but they're not the data you get

00:08:43.200 | when you browse the web on your phone.

00:08:44.720 | And so the number one priority,

00:08:46.260 | the thing that all carriers prioritize

00:08:48.340 | over everything else, is conversational voice.

00:08:50.800 | So if you've ever noticed that it's strange

00:08:52.680 | that maybe you have no data, nothing's working,

00:08:54.880 | maybe you're at a crowded event,

00:08:56.100 | maybe you're in the middle of a city,

00:08:57.360 | but you can make a phone call and it works just fine,

00:08:59.460 | that's because the carriers are prioritizing

00:09:02.040 | that above everything else.

00:09:03.600 | So when they look at where the bandwidth goes,

00:09:05.240 | they give an extremely higher priority

00:09:07.380 | to conversational voice,

00:09:08.580 | and that does include, depending on the carrier,

00:09:11.540 | in the stack rank, but certainly over data on everything,

00:09:14.500 | voice over LTE, voice over IP,

00:09:17.720 | different voice protocols that aren't necessarily

00:09:20.280 | the original carrier talk,

00:09:21.620 | but if you've ever enabled voice over LTE on your phone,

00:09:24.380 | that also gets that priority.

00:09:25.700 | Then the next step, QCI two, is conversational video.

00:09:29.220 | So if you're making a FaceTime call,

00:09:30.660 | you're doing a Google Meet, you're doing a Zoom meeting,

00:09:32.580 | that actually takes a tremendous amount of priority

00:09:34.980 | over most other things.

00:09:36.620 | After that is a category I don't totally understand,

00:09:38.860 | and I did a lot of Googling, and there's two things in it.

00:09:41.300 | One is called V2X, which makes sense,

00:09:43.580 | it's your vehicle communication,

00:09:45.160 | if your car is communicating with the internet,

00:09:47.060 | and the other is real-time gaming,

00:09:48.500 | and I'm not quite sure, other than for latency reasons,

00:09:51.980 | why real-time gaming needs such a priority.

00:09:54.500 | I assume that it's not like

00:09:55.740 | the heavy graphics-intensive stuff,

00:09:57.540 | but it seems strange that that would be such a high priority.

00:10:00.480 | The next category is usually for non-conversational video,

00:10:04.580 | or buffered streaming, thinking Netflix, YouTube,

00:10:07.180 | that kind of stuff.

00:10:08.020 | After that's a category called IMS signaling.

00:10:10.660 | Depending on the carrier,

00:10:11.700 | sometimes these next three switch around,

00:10:13.940 | maybe IMS signaling is above buffered video or something,

00:10:16.660 | but best I can understand,

00:10:18.020 | that's kind of pairing up the phone with the network,

00:10:20.420 | and usually also things like iMessage,

00:10:22.460 | or multimedia messages, or WhatsApps,

00:10:24.760 | and that kind of stuff.

00:10:25.600 | All of those things take priority

00:10:27.140 | over all other kinds of data on all carriers.

00:10:30.140 | And then within the rest of the carriers,

00:10:31.960 | and I could get as nerdy as tell you all of them, right?

00:10:34.100 | So in AT&T, there's four categories after that,

00:10:37.220 | six, seven, eight, nine.

00:10:38.500 | And I'll just run through them,

00:10:39.700 | 'cause I just think it's fascinating.

00:10:41.020 | So in AT&T, QCI6, highest priority.

00:10:44.180 | And when I say priority, I mean,

00:10:45.700 | if the network is congested,

00:10:47.420 | if there are too many devices, what gets through?

00:10:49.580 | QCI6 is for their FirstNet network,

00:10:52.420 | which is for first responders.

00:10:53.800 | So first responders are getting all the data

00:10:55.820 | before anyone else.

00:10:56.780 | And then there's one tier of business plan in there,

00:10:58.940 | their business elite plan that seems to go up in QCI6.

00:11:02.380 | After that, QCI7 is all their business plans

00:11:05.340 | and their ultimate plans, the really premium plans.

00:11:08.020 | And then QCI8 is for their consumer plans.

00:11:10.780 | I think it's the unlimited extra.

00:11:12.300 | And then QCI9 is for their starter plans,

00:11:15.340 | their prepaid plans, and all their MVNOs.

00:11:18.180 | And I think it also includes

00:11:19.420 | all of their tethering, tablets, and everything.

00:11:22.260 | So a lot of stuff on QCI9.

00:11:24.340 | Some of the other carriers are a little different.

00:11:26.020 | On T-Mobile, they put everything T-Mobile on QCI6.

00:11:30.100 | So all their prepaid, postpaid,

00:11:31.700 | everything is on QCI6 and Google Fi.

00:11:34.380 | So something interesting about Google Fi

00:11:35.980 | is most of the time, the MVNOs are a lower tier of priority,

00:11:39.900 | except Google has some special deal with T-Mobile.

00:11:42.300 | So they're up at the top.

00:11:43.340 | After QCI6, QCI7 is all their essential plans,

00:11:46.780 | the basic starter plans, and all the MVNOs.

00:11:49.100 | QCI8 is hotspot.

00:11:50.740 | So actually all your tethering data,

00:11:52.380 | both for T-Mobile and Verizon,

00:11:54.120 | is gonna be super low priority.

00:11:56.060 | So if tethering's not working,

00:11:57.620 | that doesn't mean that you couldn't

00:11:59.140 | maybe do something on your phone, stream a video,

00:12:01.020 | make a FaceTime call, which I think was something

00:12:02.980 | I never really understood until now.

00:12:04.620 | And then last, with T-Mobile, the bottom line, QCI9,

00:12:07.460 | is just reserved for if you have a plan

00:12:10.100 | that only includes 50 gigs or something of premium data

00:12:12.860 | and you go over it, you're bumped everything after that

00:12:15.180 | all the way down to QCI9.

00:12:16.820 | And then last on Verizon, kind of same thing,

00:12:18.960 | except their categories are bunched into three,

00:12:21.300 | just QCI7, 8, 9.

00:12:22.660 | And then QCI7 is for first responders, enterprise.

00:12:26.340 | That's their priority thing.

00:12:27.440 | I think they call it frontline.

00:12:28.660 | And then QCI8 is huge.

00:12:30.180 | It's all their standard plans

00:12:32.140 | and some of the premium MVNO plans.

00:12:34.400 | And then QCI9 is high use, prepaid MVNO.

00:12:39.000 | People are over their standard data

00:12:40.700 | and QCI8 get bumped to QCI9.

00:12:42.680 | And then some of their starter and welcome plans.

00:12:44.780 | I know that's a lot, and it's probably not that relevant

00:12:47.060 | to a lot of people, but I thought it was really interesting

00:12:49.920 | to understand how this is actually working

00:12:51.960 | in the background.

00:12:52.840 | So they're prioritizing everything

00:12:54.500 | according to these things.

00:12:55.500 | One thing that's interesting,

00:12:56.500 | as I go through all these plans,

00:12:58.340 | is thinking about this concept of premium data,

00:13:01.100 | prioritization, capping, throttling,

00:13:03.540 | what does all that really mean?

00:13:04.580 | So there's two things I realized.

00:13:06.240 | A lot of the times you get this premium data

00:13:08.300 | and then after you use the premium data,

00:13:10.580 | you get dropped to a lower QCI

00:13:13.380 | or in some carriers you get throttled.

00:13:15.660 | So it might be 50 gigs of data

00:13:17.500 | and then after 50 gigs, it's a lot slower

00:13:19.860 | or it's just deprioritized.

00:13:22.080 | And I think it's important

00:13:22.920 | because if you're not in a crowded area,

00:13:24.740 | doesn't really matter.

00:13:25.680 | And when I talked to Stetson, he pointed out,

00:13:27.460 | if you're not at a game, a music festival,

00:13:29.740 | you know, very dense place,

00:13:31.180 | prioritization might never matter.

00:13:32.780 | But if it's capped and you're throttled after that,

00:13:35.260 | well, that definitely matters

00:13:36.420 | 'cause your speeds are gonna be slower.

00:13:38.140 | The 50 gigs of fast data that you might get on a plan,

00:13:41.820 | if it's not throttled after 50 gigs,

00:13:44.300 | really kicks in and matters

00:13:45.980 | if you are spending a lot of time in crowded places.

00:13:48.720 | I'm not, so I don't really care about prioritization,

00:13:50.860 | but at the end of the day, it is nice to have it.

00:13:53.540 | So back from the nerdiness

00:13:55.100 | of quality of service class identifiers,

00:13:57.540 | one other thing that's happened

00:13:58.780 | in the last five or six years

00:14:00.580 | is that phones are all adding support for eSIMs.

00:14:03.620 | So if you haven't used this before

00:14:05.260 | and you're used to the fact

00:14:06.220 | that you have a little SIM card you put in your phone

00:14:07.960 | and that stores your number

00:14:09.060 | and your connection with your carrier,

00:14:10.300 | now you can do all of that electronically

00:14:12.220 | and you can have more than one on a phone

00:14:14.060 | as long as that phone's unlocked.

00:14:15.460 | And so I actually transferred my Verizon SIM

00:14:19.220 | to an eSIM a few years back

00:14:21.180 | and that freed up my SIM card slot

00:14:23.140 | so that if I were overseas,

00:14:24.420 | it would be really easy to buy a SIM card

00:14:26.300 | and be able to plug that SIM card in

00:14:28.180 | and use that internationally for a much lower cost.

00:14:31.180 | And now, in fact, there are a lot of marketplaces online.

00:14:34.140 | I've used one called AirALO,

00:14:36.540 | and then there's another one, getnomad.app,

00:14:38.860 | but there are really easy places to go buy eSIMs

00:14:41.780 | for different countries and regions

00:14:44.220 | and get data much, much cheaper

00:14:46.680 | than you would normally get from your carrier.

00:14:48.660 | And so assuming your phone's unlocked,

00:14:50.180 | that's a really great option.

00:14:51.320 | But even if you're just looking at domestic carriers,

00:14:54.060 | if you wanted to switch to a new carrier,

00:14:56.180 | even try one of them out,

00:14:57.420 | you could do that without ever having to go in the store,

00:14:59.660 | without having to wait for something to be mailed to you,

00:15:01.800 | especially with some of these prepaid carriers,

00:15:03.320 | you could sign up, get an eSIM,

00:15:05.100 | activate it on your phone with a QR code

00:15:07.180 | and be ready to go in a couple minutes.

00:15:08.980 | So really cool and allows you to do a lot more

00:15:11.000 | from your own home or wherever you are.

00:15:12.940 | Ever since reading "Die With Zero,"

00:15:16.060 | we've been focused on maximizing our net fulfillment in life

00:15:19.700 | instead of our net worth.

00:15:21.580 | So the goal is to make the most out of every day.

00:15:24.660 | And one of the ways we do that in our house

00:15:26.820 | is to not start with mediocre coffee.

00:15:29.580 | You deserve to start your day

00:15:30.900 | with the best coffee you can make at home from Trade Coffee,

00:15:34.180 | who we're so excited to be partnering with for this episode.

00:15:37.380 | Trade Coffee is a subscription coffee service

00:15:39.740 | that makes it so simple to discover new coffees

00:15:42.580 | and make your best cup of coffee at home every day.

00:15:46.460 | We've been using Trade for over a year

00:15:48.520 | and absolutely love it

00:15:49.860 | because they partner with the nation's top rated

00:15:52.260 | independent roasters to send you the best quality coffee

00:15:55.700 | you can get all handpicked by their coffee experts.

00:15:59.400 | Whether you already know what you like

00:16:01.080 | or are new to specialty coffee and need some help,

00:16:04.020 | Trade makes it easy and convenient to discover new coffees.

00:16:07.820 | So upgrade your morning routine with better coffee.

00:16:11.220 | Right now, Trade is offering our listeners

00:16:13.460 | a free bag of coffee with any subscription

00:16:16.100 | at allthehacks.com/trade.

00:16:19.340 | That's allthehacks.com/trade

00:16:22.520 | for a free bag of coffee with any subscription purchase.

00:16:26.140 | allthehacks.com/trade.

00:16:28.840 | Did you know that some common symptoms

00:16:32.580 | of electrolyte deficiency include headaches,

00:16:34.940 | muscle cramps, fatigue, and sleeplessness?

00:16:37.580 | I feel like I'm late to the electrolyte game,

00:16:39.500 | but after getting pretty dehydrated earlier this year

00:16:41.980 | and discovering Element, I am fully on board.

00:16:45.060 | Element is an electrolyte drink mix that tastes great

00:16:48.300 | and has everything you need and nothing you don't.

00:16:51.100 | That means lots of salt with no sugar,

00:16:53.220 | and I'm so excited to partner with them for this episode.

00:16:56.140 | Honestly, I can't believe I never realized

00:16:58.300 | how important it can be to replenish electrolytes,

00:17:00.580 | whether that's after having a few cocktails,

00:17:02.420 | working out, not feeling well,

00:17:04.300 | or just to keep up with an active lifestyle.

00:17:06.700 | And when it comes to how you get those electrolytes,

00:17:08.620 | Element was an easy choice for me

00:17:10.380 | because there's no sugar, no coloring,

00:17:12.340 | no artificial ingredients or fillers,

00:17:14.260 | and on top of that, it tastes so good.

00:17:16.980 | My personal favorite is the Lemon Habanero,

00:17:19.340 | and Amy's is Watermelon.

00:17:21.420 | Element is used by everyone from Olympic athletes

00:17:24.340 | to exercise enthusiasts to everyday parents

00:17:27.020 | and even podcast hosts like me.

00:17:29.020 | And if you're not sure if it's for you,

00:17:30.660 | don't worry because Element offers no questions asked refunds

00:17:34.420 | so you can try it totally risk-free.

00:17:36.500 | And right now, Element is offering a free sample pack

00:17:39.140 | with any purchase.

00:17:40.440 | That's eight single-serving packets

00:17:42.180 | free with any Element order.

00:17:44.140 | This is a great way to try all eight flavors

00:17:46.560 | or share Element with a salty friend.

00:17:48.940 | Get yours at allthehacks.com/element, that's L-M-N-T.

00:17:53.660 | This deal is only available through my link.

00:17:55.660 | You must go to allthehacks.com/element, that's L-M-N-T.

00:18:00.660 | Let's just talk high level what this looks like.

00:18:03.100 | So top three carriers, Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T.

00:18:06.180 | I went and read a lot about how to even think about them

00:18:08.980 | because at the end of the day,

00:18:10.140 | there's two ways to pick here.

00:18:11.460 | One is picking which network you're on,

00:18:13.460 | and then the other is maybe which plan or price.

00:18:15.460 | And so one of those things might be more important

00:18:17.420 | to you or not.

00:18:18.260 | It looks like these days coverage is pretty similar.

00:18:21.780 | So Verizon was winning best coverage.

00:18:23.740 | AT&T just took that over, at least according to Wirecutter.

00:18:27.180 | T-Mobile has the fastest data.

00:18:29.100 | AT&T supposedly has the worst 5G network,

00:18:31.940 | but I think they're all pretty comparable.

00:18:34.340 | Stetson shared a site called coveragemap.com

00:18:36.660 | where people have crowdsourced coverage all over the country

00:18:39.140 | so you can get a sense of how coverage is

00:18:41.100 | in different places for different carriers.

00:18:43.300 | But at the end of the day, I would say

00:18:44.740 | the best carrier for you is gonna be whatever works

00:18:47.140 | where you go most often.

00:18:48.300 | When we switched, I didn't really think about

00:18:50.540 | anything other than who works in our neighborhood.

00:18:52.860 | And then I assume there will be spots for any carrier

00:18:56.180 | that don't work other places.

00:18:57.700 | We didn't prioritize which carrier was the network

00:18:59.860 | when we were making a decision.

00:19:01.020 | But if you live in a rural area

00:19:02.420 | or a place where there's no service in your neighborhood,

00:19:04.960 | you might definitely care a lot.

00:19:06.340 | And in a little bit, I'll talk about

00:19:07.740 | how some of the carriers have trials.

00:19:10.100 | Before you consider switching,

00:19:11.500 | you can actually try them out.

00:19:12.540 | So we'll get to that.

00:19:13.380 | So how did I break all this down?

00:19:14.820 | I'm gonna pull this spreadsheet up as I talk through it.

00:19:16.940 | And I broke things down into a few tiers.

00:19:19.180 | So the first tier is the basic tier,

00:19:21.620 | which is $5 to $10 on average.

00:19:24.020 | These are very low priced lines

00:19:26.100 | that you're probably not gonna use for anything,

00:19:28.180 | heavy data, heavy calling, but good for emergencies,

00:19:31.480 | backup lines, kids' lines, maybe parents,

00:19:34.420 | that kind of thing.

00:19:35.340 | The next tier was not unlimited, but more data.

00:19:37.700 | So think five to 15 or 20 gigs.

00:19:40.100 | These plans were typically $18 to $25 a month.

00:19:42.980 | And honestly, if you're not a heavy data user,

00:19:45.100 | probably just fine.

00:19:46.020 | After that, next tier was unlimited,

00:19:47.600 | which kind of ranges in dollars from $25 to $70,

00:19:51.540 | but I would say solid, solid options

00:19:54.300 | in the $25 to $35 range.

00:19:56.460 | Anything in that $35 to $70

00:19:58.180 | is probably not worth considering.

00:19:59.800 | And this is an area where I actually fortunately

00:20:01.840 | was able to narrow the list down a little

00:20:03.660 | by talking to all the Hacks members

00:20:05.980 | and getting their feedback

00:20:06.980 | 'cause they've used a lot of these carriers.

00:20:08.540 | The short version is people had great things to say

00:20:10.380 | about Visible, Mint, US Mobile, T-Mobile,

00:20:12.700 | and less than great things to say about Verizon and AT&T.

00:20:15.540 | And then there were two tiers past that.

00:20:17.140 | Unlimited plans that also had native international roaming,

00:20:20.740 | meaning the plan you were on could roam

00:20:23.280 | anywhere in the world.

00:20:24.300 | And then unlimited plans

00:20:25.540 | with free native international roaming.

00:20:27.540 | So the former being Verizon plan

00:20:30.060 | can go anywhere in the world,

00:20:31.420 | but you have to pay $10 a day for a travel pass.

00:20:33.640 | And the latter plan being

00:20:35.140 | don't have to pay for international travel.

00:20:37.180 | There are a handful of plans

00:20:38.640 | on almost all the major carriers

00:20:40.660 | that will let you roam internationally for free.

00:20:43.140 | Okay, so that's a bit of the overview of them.

00:20:44.520 | Let's run through them.

00:20:45.360 | So let's do the first tier, which was the basic plans.

00:20:47.900 | Within this, there are really only two carriers

00:20:49.900 | that stood out, US Mobile and MobileX.

00:20:52.220 | And if you haven't heard of MobileX, I hadn't either.

00:20:54.260 | They're a new carrier.

00:20:55.440 | They're doing a lot of interesting stuff

00:20:56.800 | when it comes to letting you build exactly the plan you want.

00:20:59.340 | They are built on top of Verizon's network.

00:21:01.480 | But for me, I felt like the pricing

00:21:03.640 | was not substantially cheaper relative to some carriers

00:21:07.280 | that I've just had more experience

00:21:09.020 | or have heard others have more experience with.

00:21:11.260 | So right now, unless you're one of those people

00:21:13.260 | that really wants to go be an early adopter,

00:21:15.420 | or by all means, go to their website, check them out.

00:21:17.380 | But if you're in the basic camp,

00:21:18.620 | I think US Mobile takes the lead here.

00:21:20.580 | And to be clear, this is a camp of

00:21:22.020 | I don't need a lot of data, phone calls, or anything.

00:21:24.260 | There's three plans that range from five to $10.

00:21:26.960 | Their light plan for $5 gives you 500 minutes

00:21:30.020 | and 500 texts and 500 megs of data.

00:21:32.700 | It's not a lot, but taxes included, five bucks a month.

00:21:35.300 | Great option for a backup plan.

00:21:38.040 | Maybe it's a plan for emergencies.

00:21:39.700 | Maybe it's a plan for kids

00:21:40.880 | that don't need to use the phone much.

00:21:42.680 | The next plan is their kosher plan,

00:21:44.640 | which includes unlimited talk and text, but no data at all.

00:21:48.000 | And then they have a shareable two gig plan,

00:21:49.880 | which is two gigs shared with however many lines

00:21:52.200 | you have on it that started at $10 a month.

00:21:54.320 | That's another option.

00:21:55.160 | So all those plans, I think this camp

00:21:57.280 | is probably not one we need to spend much time on

00:21:59.360 | other than few use cases that I've heard people bring up

00:22:02.760 | are using a basic line like this

00:22:06.060 | for all your two-factor authentication

00:22:07.860 | so that your primary line isn't the one doing that.

00:22:10.620 | So you don't have to risk

00:22:11.900 | that there's anything going on there.

00:22:13.420 | In fact, I heard a really cool tip that someone gave me

00:22:16.180 | of not just setting up a line on US Mobile for this,

00:22:19.700 | but then actually disabling that line

00:22:21.820 | so that even if someone got ahold of your phone

00:22:23.860 | and wanted to check your two-factor authentication,

00:22:26.740 | they wouldn't even know that the messages

00:22:28.780 | were coming through because the cellular line's off.

00:22:31.820 | And then if you need to get one of those codes,

00:22:33.440 | you can turn it on, get the code, turn it off again.

00:22:35.560 | And just to be clear, I'm a huge advocate

00:22:37.840 | of using app-based two-factor authentication

00:22:40.200 | over text messaging, removes any risk of a lot of issues.

00:22:43.800 | So I will just set that aside and say,

00:22:45.680 | obviously I would prefer that,

00:22:46.780 | but there are still some financial institutions

00:22:48.960 | and sites that don't support that.

00:22:50.720 | And so when you need text message, two-factor auth,

00:22:52.920 | if you wanna get a separate line for it on a separate number,

00:22:55.840 | I think the US Mobile plans are probably the best option

00:22:58.660 | because they're five to 10 bucks, taxes included,

00:23:01.280 | and probably cover enough texts

00:23:03.300 | that you can take care of this easily.

00:23:05.460 | In this next tier of plans,

00:23:07.220 | I'm looking at things that have some data,

00:23:09.460 | but not unlimited.

00:23:10.400 | And just as an anecdote, we all love unlimited.

00:23:13.000 | We all wanna make sure we never run out of data,

00:23:15.140 | but I looked over three or four months of data

00:23:17.340 | from our family.

00:23:18.520 | We have a family plan and only my sister's au pair

00:23:22.020 | ever went over 10 gigs of data in a month.

00:23:24.180 | And some months she hit 32 gigs,

00:23:26.220 | so make sure you can prepare for what you need.

00:23:28.340 | But if you go into your current carrier

00:23:30.020 | and look back over the last year

00:23:31.920 | at how much data you were using each month

00:23:33.620 | and you're never going over,

00:23:34.960 | and keep in mind, if you haven't traveled,

00:23:36.660 | but you have travel coming, that might change.

00:23:38.640 | But this band of plans is something worth looking into

00:23:41.520 | because if you don't need unlimited data

00:23:43.520 | and you're not gonna use it, why pay for it?

00:23:45.160 | And so within this bucket, Mint Mobile, Boost Mobile X,

00:23:48.240 | US Mobile kind of all had options.

00:23:50.840 | And I guess Google Fi also had an option

00:23:52.700 | where you could have a plan and you pay by the gigabyte,

00:23:55.020 | but it actually was never the best deal

00:23:57.000 | compared to all these plans.

00:23:57.960 | So I'm gonna leave that Google Fi flexible plan off.

00:24:00.640 | I'll probably also leave the Mobile X plan off,

00:24:03.740 | the basic unlimited five,

00:24:05.120 | because I just think it's a little early.

00:24:06.880 | And then that leaves Mint, US and Boost.

00:24:09.480 | And here's the thing about Boost.

00:24:10.920 | I am sure someone will message me to tell me

00:24:13.900 | they're very happy, but Boost Mobile

00:24:16.000 | was one of the most confusing carriers

00:24:17.920 | for me to actually understand what was included.

00:24:20.400 | So I put some emphasis and value for me personally,

00:24:23.760 | when I'm on a website of a cell phone company

00:24:25.440 | of whether I can understand how the plan works,

00:24:27.960 | what's included, what's not.

00:24:29.240 | And there were plans that I just still to this day

00:24:31.880 | have questions about on Boost.

00:24:33.560 | And then Boost, I guess, got spun out of the T-Mobile

00:24:37.240 | Sprint merger and moved over to be owned by Dish.

00:24:40.280 | And then instead of launching a new version of Boost,

00:24:43.160 | they launched a separate one called Boost Infinite.

00:24:45.600 | And I think Boost Infinite is the post-paid one,

00:24:48.800 | meaning you're paying at the end of the month

00:24:50.440 | and they're doing a credit check

00:24:51.520 | versus the prepaid one, which is Boost Mobile.

00:24:53.680 | But honestly, Boost was never such a better deal

00:24:56.480 | that to me, it made sense to ever consider a carrier

00:24:59.920 | that was that confusing.

00:25:01.000 | In some cases, it was the same price,

00:25:02.900 | but it was never cheaper.

00:25:04.040 | And so for me, I ruled that out.

00:25:05.800 | So if you're someone who doesn't need unlimited data,

00:25:07.880 | but wants something in the five to 15 gig data range,

00:25:11.400 | I think the two plans out there

00:25:12.840 | were Mint Mobile and US Mobile.

00:25:14.580 | And they both came in about the exact same price

00:25:17.360 | at about $18 a month.

00:25:18.840 | A few subtle differences between them,

00:25:20.720 | 'cause they are very, very similar.

00:25:22.280 | Mint Mobile's built on top of T-Mobile,

00:25:24.080 | US Mobile's built on top of Verizon or T-Mobile.

00:25:26.680 | You actually get to pick which SIM card you want

00:25:28.680 | in the signup process and you can change,

00:25:30.920 | but I think you even have to port your number

00:25:33.140 | over to the Verizon SIM card,

00:25:34.840 | which is a little bit of a process.

00:25:36.280 | But those two plans, $18 a month,

00:25:38.840 | about the same price as you scale with more lines.

00:25:42.240 | A few of the subtle differences between Mint and US Mobile.

00:25:44.760 | And I speak from experience with Mint

00:25:46.380 | because we've had a really great experience

00:25:47.920 | and others I know have had a good experience with US Mobile.

00:25:50.220 | One of the nice things about our Mint Mobile plan,

00:25:52.840 | and maybe this is unique to our use case,

00:25:54.760 | but because we have an au pair joining us for a year,

00:25:57.080 | we can just buy a SIM card for a year.

00:25:59.240 | We don't have to worry about paying again and again.

00:26:01.420 | We can prepay the entire year all upfront, plans done.

00:26:04.680 | I think for a five gig plan, the price is probably under $200.

00:26:07.920 | Even for their unlimited everything plan,

00:26:09.920 | it's under $400 for the whole year.

00:26:12.160 | And for anyone who just wants to prepay for something

00:26:14.480 | and eliminate their monthly bills,

00:26:16.000 | you could do that with Mint Mobile.

00:26:17.280 | You could prepay the whole thing.

00:26:18.440 | In fact, to get their best deal without a family plan,

00:26:20.880 | you do need to prepay for the year.

00:26:22.560 | Fortunately, it's so inexpensive

00:26:24.800 | that it actually doesn't feel as burdensome to prepay.

00:26:27.920 | I think about what it would cost

00:26:29.000 | to prepay our Verizon plan for the year,

00:26:30.760 | and it'd be thousands of dollars.

00:26:32.000 | Though, it's kind of refreshing to imagine

00:26:33.740 | you could prepay your phone plan for the year

00:26:35.560 | for a few hundred dollars.

00:26:36.760 | Other subtle differences, referral programs.

00:26:39.020 | If you're someone that likes to refer other people,

00:26:41.160 | Mint Mobile, for every referral you get

00:26:42.980 | to the unlimited plan, you get $90 of credit,

00:26:45.740 | which means you could pay for your entire phone plan

00:26:47.960 | for the year with two to four referrals,

00:26:49.960 | depending on what plan you're on.

00:26:51.120 | US Mobile has a referral plan also,

00:26:52.720 | but it's only $25 a line.

00:26:54.340 | But if you do call internationally,

00:26:55.880 | US Mobile includes free calling internationally

00:26:58.680 | on most of their plans.

00:26:59.920 | So double check which plan you're looking at,

00:27:01.600 | but I think on this plan, it does include that.

00:27:03.600 | Also, one thing that I think is worth mentioning

00:27:05.640 | is that if you look at Mint Mobile,

00:27:07.520 | you'll see that they have unlimited plans for $15 a month.

00:27:10.340 | And that's because when you buy the first three months

00:27:12.280 | of your unlimited plan, it's only $15.

00:27:14.320 | So instead of talking about it as $15 in perpetuity,

00:27:18.200 | I've amortized that price over the course of the year.

00:27:21.520 | So it effectively covers all of your taxes

00:27:24.240 | and fees for the year.

00:27:25.200 | Yes, the plan is $30 plus taxes and fees,

00:27:27.620 | but because you get it for $15 a month for three months,

00:27:30.560 | you end up saving $45, which I actually think more

00:27:33.300 | than covers the taxes and fees for the year

00:27:35.160 | and brings the plan closer to about $29.

00:27:37.400 | But I just wanna clarify that for anyone

00:27:39.040 | who's comparing the pricing I'm talking about

00:27:40.960 | to the website.

00:27:41.780 | And then last, none of the plans in this bucket

00:27:43.680 | include any international coverage,

00:27:45.880 | except the Mint Mobile plan does allow you

00:27:48.360 | to roam internationally.

00:27:49.560 | I will say that for most countries,

00:27:51.280 | it's cost prohibitive to do it,

00:27:52.800 | but you can at least do it.

00:27:54.360 | And so the one area where it seemed to make sense

00:27:56.480 | is if you're in Mexico, you can make phone calls

00:27:58.440 | for 6 cents a minute, which is actually not that high.

00:28:01.160 | So you could just add on $5 of international coverage

00:28:03.880 | and that would cover your ability

00:28:05.120 | to make 6 cent a minute calls.

00:28:06.640 | Data's much more expensive, I'd probably skip on that.

00:28:09.000 | But at least you have the option

00:28:10.340 | to make a phone call in Mexico,

00:28:11.560 | whereas on a lot of these other plans in this bucket,

00:28:13.400 | you wouldn't.

00:28:14.240 | So U.S. Mobile or Mint Mobile are the two standouts

00:28:16.520 | in that bucket of, I don't need unlimited data,

00:28:19.280 | five gigs is enough.

00:28:20.280 | There's a couple of plans that are in the 15 to 20 gig range,

00:28:23.120 | but honestly, they're all in the 23, $25 range

00:28:26.580 | when you factor in taxes,

00:28:27.960 | such that I think you're better just going up

00:28:29.800 | to the unlimited plans that start at $25.

00:28:32.200 | And taxes is actually an important thing to mention here.

00:28:34.700 | Some of these carriers, U.S. Mobile, Visible, and T-Mobile,

00:28:37.400 | a lot of their plans include taxes in the prices they show,

00:28:41.080 | and almost every other carrier doesn't.

00:28:43.000 | So to try to keep things fair,

00:28:44.760 | I went and tacked on $3.20 of taxes and fees per line

00:28:49.300 | for all these plans, which I think is a reasonable amount,

00:28:52.840 | but I think our fees were a little higher on Verizon,

00:28:55.700 | but they were a little lower on Mint Mobile.

00:28:57.500 | So there's not a perfect number,

00:28:58.960 | but I'm trying to give you ideas of prices

00:29:01.560 | that are fully included of fees.

00:29:02.960 | So when I mentioned earlier,

00:29:04.940 | U.S. Mobile and Mint Mobile were great five

00:29:06.760 | and six gig plans, U.S. Mobile was 18 fees included,

00:29:10.280 | Mint Mobile was 15 plus the $3 I added.

00:29:13.540 | So they came out about the same price.

00:29:15.040 | Okay, I think the next two tiers of plans

00:29:17.520 | are where we all wanna spend our time.

00:29:18.980 | So let's talk about this, unlimited data.

00:29:21.520 | I'll give some caveats

00:29:22.560 | 'cause unlimited doesn't always mean unlimited.

00:29:24.740 | And by the way, one of the features that's included

00:29:26.400 | on almost all of these plans is Wi-Fi calling.

00:29:28.720 | So yes, you might be overseas and not have roaming,

00:29:31.860 | but if you're on Wi-Fi,

00:29:33.000 | you can still make phone calls through your Wi-Fi.

00:29:35.920 | Though one really important thing to keep in mind,

00:29:37.720 | I learned this lesson the hard way on Verizon,

00:29:39.640 | is that if you're on the Wi-Fi and you're on Wi-Fi calling

00:29:42.760 | and you call the country you're in,

00:29:44.720 | even if you're in the middle of a roaming session

00:29:47.280 | that includes free calling within the country,

00:29:49.520 | that doesn't include free calling from Wi-Fi calling.

00:29:52.680 | So if you were like we were in London,

00:29:55.320 | trying to make a local call within the UK,

00:29:57.800 | make sure your Wi-Fi is off if you are on a carrier

00:30:01.320 | where you're supposed to be getting free calling.

00:30:03.320 | If you're on a carrier like U.S. Mobile

00:30:04.920 | and you have free calling internationally,

00:30:06.560 | you actually definitely want Wi-Fi calling on for sure.

00:30:09.340 | Okay, so let's talk about this unlimited bucket.

00:30:11.120 | These are unlimited plans

00:30:12.700 | that do not have any coverage overseas

00:30:15.360 | with a few small exceptions.

00:30:17.040 | So let's run through them.

00:30:17.920 | And in general, the bulk of the ones that I'd say

00:30:20.280 | are worth considering are in the 25 to $30 range.

00:30:23.760 | So the ones that really stand out to me here

00:30:25.940 | are Visible, U.S. Mobile and Mint Mobile.

00:30:28.400 | Visible didn't have a cheaper plan,

00:30:29.640 | which is why I haven't talked about them before.

00:30:31.360 | They are owned by Verizon.

00:30:33.120 | I should have mentioned U.S. Mobile

00:30:34.240 | is an independent company.

00:30:35.160 | Mint Mobile is in the middle of being acquired,

00:30:37.720 | hasn't closed yet by T-Mobile.

00:30:39.520 | You might've seen their ads.

00:30:41.180 | Ryan Reynolds is one of their biggest shareholders,

00:30:43.240 | so you've probably seen him talk about it.

00:30:44.680 | And so within this plan for 25 to $30,

00:30:46.800 | you can get unlimited data.

00:30:48.480 | Now, what does unlimited mean?

00:30:50.000 | It really means that you're gonna get unlimited data

00:30:52.200 | up until a cap at which you will either be throttled

00:30:55.440 | or deprioritized.

00:30:56.920 | So deprioritized doesn't mean

00:30:58.980 | you're getting slow data necessarily.

00:31:01.080 | It just means that if congested,

00:31:02.940 | you are not going to get data as fast as others around you.

00:31:05.680 | The cap for all of these plans

00:31:07.220 | is anywhere from 30 to 40 gigabytes

00:31:09.720 | in that 25 to $30 range.

00:31:11.640 | One other consideration is how much data you get

00:31:14.440 | for hotspot.

00:31:15.600 | So if you want to use your phone to tether,

00:31:17.640 | how does that work?

00:31:18.480 | On the Visible plan,

00:31:20.360 | you actually get unlimited tethering,

00:31:21.720 | but it's capped at five megabits per second,

00:31:24.160 | which for me seems way too much of a cap.

00:31:26.960 | If you're trying to jump on your computer

00:31:28.600 | and sync something before you get on a plane,

00:31:30.560 | it's just too slow.

00:31:31.520 | So if hotspot tethering is important to you,

00:31:33.740 | the Visible plans cap out at five megabits per second.

00:31:36.660 | But if you don't care about tethering

00:31:38.520 | or you don't need it to be too fast

00:31:40.140 | and you do want to be piggybacking on the Verizon network,

00:31:42.720 | I think Visible is interesting.

00:31:44.120 | It's actually one of the only truly unlimited plans.

00:31:47.000 | Yes, the data might get deprioritized,

00:31:49.400 | but there's no throttling.

00:31:50.800 | On the US Mobile and the Mint Mobile plans,

00:31:52.720 | you get 30 and 40 gigabytes respectively.

00:31:55.280 | But after those caps,

00:31:56.540 | you get throttled down to one or less megabytes per second.

00:31:59.760 | So if you care about hotspot, Visible's out.

00:32:02.040 | If you don't, Visible, US Mobile, and Mint

00:32:04.680 | are really great options here, all in the $25 to $30 range.

00:32:08.320 | The subtle differences are

00:32:10.000 | you get a little bit more premium data

00:32:11.440 | on the Mint Mobile plan.

00:32:12.600 | You get a little bit more tethering on the Mint Mobile plan.

00:32:15.160 | And then obviously all the other considerations

00:32:17.000 | I said earlier about referral programs,

00:32:18.720 | prepaying, and all that.

00:32:19.700 | You could look at Boost Mobile and MobileX again

00:32:22.020 | in this bucket, but it's all for the same price.

00:32:24.720 | I personally didn't think they were a good fit.

00:32:26.640 | Funny enough, Boost Mobile does include Mexico roaming,

00:32:30.120 | but they cap that roaming best I could tell

00:32:32.120 | at two or three G speeds,

00:32:33.640 | which is just not really worth using to me.

00:32:36.560 | So I believe you could use it for SMS and calls in Mexico.

00:32:39.600 | So if that's really important, maybe the Boost Mobile plan.

00:32:41.720 | But like I said earlier,

00:32:43.720 | carriers where I can't understand exactly how it's working

00:32:46.360 | aren't a great fit for me.

00:32:47.480 | And at the high end of this,

00:32:48.620 | you've got T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T,

00:32:51.460 | their starter welcome essentials plans.

00:32:53.720 | And they're all in the $60 to $70 range

00:32:57.360 | for really the same thing.

00:32:59.000 | It's a plan without all the premium features

00:33:01.120 | with some cap on data, some cap on hotspot,

00:33:04.160 | some no hotspot.

00:33:05.180 | The Verizon welcome plan is $68,

00:33:07.240 | includes no hotspot coverage at all,

00:33:09.500 | includes no international coverage at all,

00:33:11.760 | and costs more than twice

00:33:13.680 | all those plans I mentioned earlier are.

00:33:15.240 | So for me, it's absolute no-brainer.

00:33:17.760 | If you want a plan that has unlimited data

00:33:20.480 | and you don't need any features or roaming or anything,

00:33:23.020 | there's no real reason that Verizon or T-Mobile

00:33:25.560 | or AT&T would fit the bill.

00:33:28.440 | There's a time in every business

00:33:30.200 | when that problem you've been ignoring needs to be handled.

00:33:32.980 | If you're getting frustrated

00:33:34.160 | with how you're selling online or in person,

00:33:36.360 | I can't recommend Shopify highly enough,

00:33:38.740 | and I'm excited to be partnering with them

00:33:40.560 | for this episode.

00:33:41.560 | Shopify is the commerce platform

00:33:44.760 | revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide.

00:33:47.560 | Whether you're a garage entrepreneur or IPO ready,

00:33:50.520 | Shopify is the only tool you need to start, run,

00:33:53.280 | and grow your business without the struggle.

00:33:55.360 | And believe me,

00:33:56.200 | after starting and running three businesses in my career,

00:33:58.760 | I faced so many struggles from hiring to fundraising

00:34:01.800 | to launching a product,

00:34:03.000 | and I always came out the other side better,

00:34:05.380 | but I put so much value on any service

00:34:07.720 | that helps avoid that struggle.

00:34:09.500 | For example, if you're selling online,

00:34:11.400 | Shopify makes it easy for you to show up

00:34:13.480 | exactly the way you want to.

00:34:15.280 | You can customize your online store to your style

00:34:17.860 | with gorgeous flexible templates and powerful tools.

00:34:20.880 | And if you have a way with products but not words,

00:34:23.340 | you can use Shopify's new AI-enabled tools

00:34:25.740 | powered by Shopify magic

00:34:27.640 | to instantly write compelling product descriptions

00:34:30.120 | and email subject lines

00:34:31.560 | that will help you save time and sell more.

00:34:34.320 | Sign up for a $1 per month trial period

00:34:36.880 | at allthehacks.com/shopify.

00:34:40.240 | Go to allthehacks.com/shopify

00:34:43.160 | to take your business to the next level today.

00:34:45.920 | allthehacks.com/shopify.

00:34:48.960 | I wanna share some feedback from a listener named Mike

00:34:53.120 | who emailed me about our sponsor today, AG1.

00:34:56.300 | He said he's been taking AG1 every day

00:34:58.380 | for the past two years,

00:34:59.540 | and he's seen great results in his blood work

00:35:01.720 | for vitamins and minerals.

00:35:02.980 | And when he showed it to his doctors,

00:35:04.620 | they were impressed at the actual ingredients.

00:35:07.020 | So Mike, thank you for sharing your experience.

00:35:09.380 | I too am a big fan of AG1,

00:35:11.260 | and it's been in my routine for almost two years as well

00:35:13.700 | because just one daily serving

00:35:15.380 | gives me the comprehensive foundational nutrition I need

00:35:18.260 | and supports energy, focus, strength, and clarity

00:35:21.180 | with 75 high-quality vitamins, probiotics,

00:35:24.060 | and whole food sourced ingredients.

00:35:25.940 | So it can completely replace

00:35:27.460 | your multivitamin, probiotics, and more.

00:35:29.980 | Every morning, I mix it up with some cold water,

00:35:32.140 | add a few ice cubes

00:35:33.220 | because I think it tastes so good when it's cold,

00:35:35.260 | and head to my office feeling focused

00:35:37.260 | and energized for the day,

00:35:38.540 | which is a feeling I absolutely love.

00:35:40.980 | I also love that AG1 is raising the standard

00:35:43.100 | for quality in the supplement category

00:35:45.200 | with less than one gram of sugar

00:35:46.860 | and no GMOs, nasty chemicals, or artificial anything.

00:35:50.620 | So if you're looking for a simpler,

00:35:52.220 | effective investment in your health,

00:35:53.940 | try AG1 and get five free AG1 travel packs

00:35:57.460 | and a free one-year supply of vitamin D

00:35:59.700 | with your first purchase.

00:36:01.320 | Go to allthehacks.com/AG1.

00:36:04.780 | That's allthehacks.com/AG1.

00:36:08.220 | Check it out.

00:36:09.060 | I just wanna thank you quick for listening to

00:36:12.540 | and supporting the show.

00:36:14.040 | Your support is what keeps this show going.

00:36:16.860 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,

00:36:19.580 | and discounts from our partners,

00:36:21.340 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals.

00:36:24.900 | So please consider supporting those who support us.

00:36:28.040 | So before I go forward,

00:36:29.140 | I wanna talk a little bit about international roaming

00:36:31.140 | 'cause that's the next line is

00:36:32.700 | where I think you get a big feature unlock there.

00:36:34.740 | I think unimportant part of that is considering the value

00:36:37.580 | of being able to get data internationally

00:36:39.920 | versus to be able to have your phone work

00:36:41.680 | without any changes.

00:36:42.900 | So for all these plans, if your phone's unlocked,

00:36:44.700 | you can get an eSIM.

00:36:45.620 | So when you're traveling internationally,

00:36:47.260 | you can just add an eSIM for as low as sometimes $10 a week

00:36:51.380 | and get unlimited data.

00:36:52.780 | So if you're gonna travel once a year

00:36:54.500 | and you don't mind that your phone number's not gonna ring

00:36:57.620 | because you're actually gonna turn your cell phone line off

00:37:00.720 | and just activate a data-only SIM on another carrier,

00:37:03.880 | then you could save a lot of money

00:37:04.960 | and then get on one of these $25 to $30 a month

00:37:07.260 | unlimited plans, rely on eSIMs

00:37:09.600 | when traveling internationally.

00:37:10.940 | You could even turn on your Wi-Fi

00:37:12.300 | and do Wi-Fi calling to use your number.

00:37:14.340 | And honestly, I think it might be the best option

00:37:16.100 | if you're willing to pay a little bit more

00:37:17.540 | just to not have to deal with that.

00:37:18.940 | There are some really great options

00:37:20.260 | that are still way more affordable

00:37:21.740 | than we were once paying on Verizon.

00:37:23.340 | But I just wanna flag that it's a lot easier now

00:37:25.540 | with all these marketplaces for eSIMs

00:37:27.260 | than it was in years past.

00:37:28.740 | And then one more thing I forgot to mention

00:37:30.260 | about a lot of the carriers, especially the MVNOs,

00:37:32.660 | is that there are features

00:37:33.980 | that you might come to expect a carrier to have

00:37:36.780 | if you're on Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T,

00:37:38.740 | that you might find out don't work on some of the MVNOs.

00:37:41.460 | For example, I was talking to someone with US Mobile

00:37:43.620 | and I don't believe they support call forwarding.

00:37:45.940 | Now, if you've never used call forwarding

00:37:47.420 | to automatically forward your calls, it doesn't matter.

00:37:49.740 | But if that's a feature you use a lot,

00:37:51.220 | you might wanna look into whether that's supported.

00:37:53.140 | If you have an Apple Watch

00:37:54.220 | and you wanna use it with cellular data,

00:37:56.060 | I believe the only one of these MVNOs

00:37:57.980 | that bubbled to the top of my list was Visible.

00:38:00.540 | So that's something you might need to look into

00:38:02.540 | if that's important.

00:38:03.460 | And then one other thing is around auto pay.

00:38:05.660 | So this is not usually a requirement

00:38:07.900 | for a lot of the MVNOs, but it is for the major carriers.

00:38:11.140 | Nowadays with T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T,

00:38:13.620 | if you want their best rate,

00:38:14.980 | you have to set up auto pay

00:38:16.380 | and you have to pay with a bank account

00:38:17.980 | or with a debit card.

00:38:19.020 | For T-Mobile, they'll add $5 a month

00:38:21.420 | if you pay with a credit card.

00:38:22.820 | And for AT&T and Verizon,

00:38:24.340 | they're gonna charge an extra $10 a month

00:38:26.420 | if you pay on a credit card.

00:38:27.540 | So I'll come back to why that matters at the end

00:38:29.780 | when we talk about cell phone insurance and coverage,

00:38:31.940 | but just something to keep in mind

00:38:33.300 | that if you're thinking, "Ooh, I wanna earn some points,"

00:38:35.400 | all the major carriers are gonna be more expensive

00:38:37.460 | and I don't think it's gonna pay off

00:38:39.340 | unless you're factoring in cell phone coverage,

00:38:41.140 | which I'll get to.

00:38:41.960 | So let's talk about these major plans

00:38:43.820 | that have all the bells and whistles,

00:38:45.100 | all the features, a lot more premium data and everything.

00:38:48.020 | This first tier,

00:38:49.060 | I'm actually not a fan of anything in this first tier,

00:38:50.920 | to be honest.

00:38:51.760 | This is the T-Mobile Magenta Go 5G,

00:38:54.840 | the AT&T Extra, the Verizon Plus.

00:38:57.380 | They're not the number one plan.

00:38:58.980 | They're the lower premium plan.

00:39:01.180 | And the reason I'm not a fan of them

00:39:02.500 | is because I don't think they have enough bells and whistles

00:39:05.260 | to make it worth it over an MVNO.

00:39:06.940 | And you can get better plans on some of these carriers

00:39:09.660 | for cheaper in the top tier.

00:39:11.540 | So there's not a case I could make

00:39:13.260 | for a single one of these plans.

00:39:14.700 | And that's the T-Mobile Magenta Go 5G, AT&T Premium,

00:39:18.020 | AT&T Extra, Verizon Plus, AT&T Starter.

00:39:20.700 | So I'm actually just gonna skip over them and point out why,

00:39:23.820 | but there are two things worth calling out.

00:39:25.340 | One, AT&T has three plans.

00:39:26.980 | They have Starter, Extra, and Premium.

00:39:28.600 | And the Starter, I don't think makes any sense

00:39:30.780 | because it's almost $70

00:39:32.260 | and it doesn't seem to include much more

00:39:34.300 | than the $25 plans you can get on a lot of other carriers.

00:39:37.140 | So skip.

00:39:38.020 | And then on T-Mobile, for just $10 more a month,

00:39:41.020 | you get AT&T Premium.

00:39:42.380 | But AT&T Premium is eligible for a $10 a month discount

00:39:46.420 | if you have an employer that has a partnership with AT&T

00:39:48.940 | or you have AARP, which anyone can sign up for.

00:39:51.820 | Yes, you have to pay for it,

00:39:52.860 | but I'm guaranteed $10 a month will make up for it.

00:39:55.380 | So no one should be on the AT&T Extra plan

00:39:57.780 | because it's the same price as the AT&T Premium plan

00:40:00.660 | if you have AARP membership,

00:40:02.460 | which you should be able to get very inexpensively.

00:40:04.540 | Also, you probably haven't heard me talk much

00:40:06.660 | about family plans yet.

00:40:08.200 | And the reason for that is that most of the MV&O plans,

00:40:11.080 | which are really all the plans we've been talking about,

00:40:13.120 | don't really offer a bulk rate for more lines.

00:40:16.360 | The exception being U.S. Mobile does offer a discount

00:40:18.640 | when you go to three lines or more.

00:40:19.800 | And Mint Mobile, you don't get a lower rate,

00:40:21.560 | but when you're on a family plan with multiple lines,

00:40:23.320 | you get the annual pricing at quarterly payment intervals.

00:40:26.560 | So you don't have to prepay the whole year

00:40:28.160 | if you don't want to,

00:40:29.120 | but you can still get that annual pricing.

00:40:30.600 | So I'm gonna skip over this tier of can-go international

00:40:33.720 | if you pay for it and jump straight

00:40:35.800 | into the can-go international and it's included.

00:40:38.640 | The one caveat to that is that AT&T Premium plan,

00:40:41.540 | because if you want to be on AT&T,

00:40:43.360 | they do not have a plan, at least as a time of recording,

00:40:46.360 | that includes international travel to the world.

00:40:49.040 | They do let you travel to Latin America and Canada,

00:40:51.840 | which I think all in means

00:40:52.880 | you can go to about 20 countries free,

00:40:54.840 | but that is much smaller of a number than the other plans,

00:40:58.800 | which are anywhere from 102 to 200 plus countries.

00:41:03.080 | Now, that AT&T plan will let you go to those countries

00:41:05.360 | for $10 a day,

00:41:06.400 | but I just want to caveat that even though it is priced

00:41:09.360 | with that discount $80 a month, which is a lot,

00:41:12.240 | you don't get that international travel.

00:41:14.080 | So huge knock.

00:41:15.260 | There aren't a lot of other bonuses and perks that you get.

00:41:17.440 | So not actually a fan of the AT&T plan at all.

00:41:20.880 | Within the international is included,

00:41:23.220 | there are T-Mobiles, Magenta Max, Go 5G Plus,

00:41:26.480 | and this new plan they launched called Go 5G Next,

00:41:29.300 | which is really designed for people

00:41:30.800 | who want to trade in their phone every 12 months,

00:41:32.680 | but still get subsidized discounts.

00:41:34.560 | So if that's you, take a look at it.

00:41:36.160 | Otherwise, I think it's too expensive.

00:41:37.780 | That includes Verizon's Ultimate plan,

00:41:39.760 | Google Fi's Plus plan, and US Mobile's Premium plan.

00:41:42.960 | So I know that's a lot of stuff.

00:41:44.000 | So let me talk a little bit about takeaways here.

00:41:46.640 | From a pricing standpoint,

00:41:47.920 | the Verizon Ultimate plan never makes sense.

00:41:50.120 | At $93 a month, going down to as little as $55 a month

00:41:53.680 | on a family plan with five lines,

00:41:55.320 | it's just significantly more expensive than every other line.

00:41:58.700 | It does include 10 gigs of high-speed data

00:42:01.120 | when you're traveling,

00:42:02.000 | but it doesn't include a lot of other perks.

00:42:03.720 | In fact, I used to be on this Verizon plan,

00:42:05.780 | which I believe was their middle-tier plan,

00:42:08.120 | and one of the perks it included

00:42:09.500 | was you got one free day of international roaming,

00:42:12.360 | but you could bank those days up to 12 total

00:42:15.600 | and then use them all at once.

00:42:16.960 | And if you didn't want that,

00:42:18.280 | you could be on another one that included Disney Plus,

00:42:20.360 | but the Ultimate plan,

00:42:21.520 | everything except international roaming,

00:42:23.480 | I think is a la carte.

00:42:24.480 | So if you want Disney Plus, if you want Walmart Plus,

00:42:26.760 | you pay all these different packages

00:42:28.520 | that you can add on for $10 a month.

00:42:30.080 | So at the minimum with tax,

00:42:32.160 | $93 a month for one line is just a lot.

00:42:34.920 | And I should mention, like I said,

00:42:36.220 | these are all one line prices.

00:42:37.440 | So 55 is as low as you'd pay.

00:42:39.360 | So I think that's off the table.

00:42:40.800 | So if Verizon's out,

00:42:42.220 | let's go to the other end of the spectrum and see who's in.

00:42:44.200 | So you've got Google Fi with their Plus plan,

00:42:46.640 | which is really interesting because like I said,

00:42:48.400 | they're fully prioritized on the same QCI as T-Mobile.

00:42:51.040 | The best feature of the Google Fi plan,

00:42:52.800 | aside from its pricing,

00:42:53.900 | is that you get unlimited 5G international data.

00:42:56.940 | There's no five gigs a month, 10 gigs a month,

00:42:59.120 | it's everything.

00:42:59.960 | You've got a couple of perks.

00:43:00.920 | They'll give you one year of YouTube premium,

00:43:02.760 | a hundred gigabytes of Google One data storage,

00:43:05.440 | and it's really reasonable.

00:43:06.600 | So unlike when I was saying Verizon is 93 a month

00:43:09.480 | for one line, AT&T 78,

00:43:11.760 | with no international roaming other than Latin America,

00:43:14.400 | Google Fi gives you all that for 68.

00:43:16.720 | And again, this is me estimating taxes.

00:43:18.960 | And if you scale that up,

00:43:20.240 | it goes from 68 all the way down to $43 a line,

00:43:23.080 | which makes it, in my opinion, the most compelling plan

00:43:25.540 | if you want true international coverage.

00:43:27.680 | Now, US Mobile has a premium plan

00:43:29.640 | that is also really interesting.

00:43:31.560 | And just to be clear,

00:43:32.560 | if you choose it on the GSM T-Mobile network,

00:43:35.600 | it will work internationally.

00:43:36.760 | If you do not,

00:43:37.680 | then I don't think it's a compelling option in this bucket,

00:43:40.160 | but that plan includes a hundred gigs of fast data

00:43:42.560 | and will let you roam to 102 countries for free

00:43:45.040 | at 10 gigabytes a month.

00:43:46.320 | So that's awesome.

00:43:47.160 | I'll get to the list of countries.

00:43:48.560 | It is missing a few,

00:43:50.460 | and depending on what kind of travel you're doing,

00:43:52.680 | it might not be the best fit

00:43:54.380 | because it's not all the countries,

00:43:55.800 | but it is pretty compelling.

00:43:57.260 | That's at $50 a month.

00:43:58.660 | The price per line does go down from 50 to 45 to 40

00:44:02.240 | as you scale up the numbers of lines,

00:44:03.900 | but where I think the US Mobile premium plan is exciting

00:44:07.020 | is in that one to two line range.

00:44:08.720 | So I was talking about Google Fi,

00:44:09.840 | saying that's my favorite,

00:44:10.880 | and I haven't mentioned T-Mobile yet.

00:44:12.440 | And here's why.

00:44:13.280 | Google Fi, I think, is a really great option.

00:44:15.560 | It's built on T-Mobile, same priority,

00:44:17.560 | and you're getting it for anywhere from $43 to $68 a month,

00:44:21.560 | depending on how many lines you have.

00:44:23.060 | T-Mobile, on the other hand,

00:44:24.400 | is somewhere between $44 to $85 a month.

00:44:27.220 | In fact, the Go 5G Plus plan is $90 a month,

00:44:30.360 | which makes it not too far off from Verizon,

00:44:32.620 | except there is one incredible deal

00:44:35.760 | that I don't hear spoken about often,

00:44:38.080 | but I have found in all of my research

00:44:40.080 | and taken advantage of,

00:44:41.400 | and that is T-Mobile's insider pricing.

00:44:43.880 | Best I understand this,

00:44:44.920 | the reps that work at T-Mobile stores

00:44:46.720 | have the ability to give insider pricing,

00:44:49.740 | which ends up being 20% off their premium plans for life,

00:44:53.800 | to customers who move over from other carriers.

00:44:56.360 | You can get this by finding someone online.

00:44:58.460 | You can get this by just walking into the T-Mobile store

00:45:00.740 | and asking, and usually having luck.

00:45:02.580 | Or if you're an AllTheHacks member,

00:45:03.820 | I'll share the contact information

00:45:05.420 | of the people I worked with in the membership portal

00:45:07.900 | so that you can get access to that as well.

00:45:09.820 | I don't wanna overwhelm them,

00:45:10.940 | or I would just share it with everyone,

00:45:12.300 | but they asked me to keep it limited,

00:45:13.820 | so you'll have to go find your own.

00:45:15.660 | There are some threads on Reddit

00:45:16.980 | that I use to find a couple people.

00:45:18.900 | I'll send you there if you want to.

00:45:20.660 | Or, obviously, you can go to allthehacks.com/join

00:45:23.540 | and join us on the membership.

00:45:24.700 | So with that discount, if you add that 20%

00:45:27.240 | and taxes being included,

00:45:28.740 | that brings the price down for T-Mobile's plan

00:45:31.220 | to anywhere from $37 to $68 a month,

00:45:34.740 | which is actually the same or cheaper than Google Fi,

00:45:38.140 | except you get all the extra perks that T-Mobile includes.

00:45:41.440 | That means you're getting free Netflix,

00:45:43.340 | free Apple TV+, a year free of AAA,

00:45:46.660 | and free Wi-Fi on American, United, Delta, and Alaska.

00:45:51.180 | So throwing in all those perks,

00:45:52.740 | the only trade-off that you're giving up over Google Fi,

00:45:55.580 | of course, is that your international data

00:45:57.700 | is capped at five gigs per month at high speed,

00:46:00.660 | and then unlimited at like a 3G speed,

00:46:03.300 | which is usable, but not great.

00:46:05.260 | And so for me, I thought that was

00:46:06.620 | definitely worth the trade-off,

00:46:08.420 | and the plain Wi-Fi easily saves $10 every time.

00:46:12.540 | And if you want the hack here,

00:46:13.860 | I believe that T-Mobile Wi-Fi

00:46:15.580 | is only supposed to be for mobile devices.

00:46:18.060 | It is not supposed to be for a computer,

00:46:19.660 | but if you switch your computer to browsing

00:46:22.140 | in mobile view using the inspector on developer tools,

00:46:25.660 | which I will find an article on the internet

00:46:27.740 | that shows you how to do it,

00:46:28.620 | and you refresh the page on all those websites,

00:46:31.780 | you will now see the option

00:46:32.940 | to activate your T-Mobile account

00:46:34.420 | and use that free unlimited data.

00:46:36.180 | And if you have a family member

00:46:37.420 | who's not traveling with you, but on your plan,

00:46:39.260 | you could use their number

00:46:40.300 | to activate your Wi-Fi on your computer,

00:46:42.140 | and your number to activate it on your phone,

00:46:43.980 | and get two devices.

00:46:45.020 | So pretty awesome perk.

00:46:46.660 | That insider discount not only applies

00:46:48.940 | to the consumer lines, but it applies to business lines.

00:46:51.620 | It stacks on top of the third line free.

00:46:54.020 | So if you look at the pricing for three lines

00:46:55.860 | with that insider discount,

00:46:57.020 | you're getting T-Mobile's Go 5G Plus,

00:46:59.180 | international data, Netflix, Wi-Fi, Apple TV Plus

00:47:02.340 | for $40 a month.

00:47:03.780 | So 10 to $15 more than the unlimited,

00:47:07.660 | no international, no perks plans,

00:47:09.620 | which depending on your situation

00:47:11.340 | may seem like a great deal

00:47:12.780 | or may seem totally unnecessary.

00:47:14.540 | So spoiler is we switched over to that T-Mobile plan

00:47:17.780 | and have had a fantastic experience.

00:47:20.180 | We were able to do all the swapping remotely.

00:47:22.140 | We didn't need to go into any stores

00:47:23.620 | and everything's been really easy.

00:47:24.900 | So I guess the takeaway, if I try to summarize all this,

00:47:27.540 | because I'm sure some people are completely overwhelmed

00:47:29.900 | from everything I threw out at you.

00:47:31.300 | If I'm going through these tiers,

00:47:32.820 | it's at basic, if you want a spare line

00:47:34.980 | or someone doesn't need a lot,

00:47:36.140 | you can spend five to 10 bucks a month on U.S. Mobile.

00:47:38.740 | If you don't use that much data

00:47:40.140 | and you need a five gig plan,

00:47:41.740 | I think U.S. Mobile or Mint Mobile are great options.

00:47:44.380 | We happen to have picked Mint Mobile.

00:47:45.940 | We're very happy.

00:47:47.020 | We're not planning on switching off of it.

00:47:48.980 | They're all in that same ballpark of around $18 a month.

00:47:51.980 | If you want unlimited data

00:47:53.180 | and you don't need any extra features

00:47:55.100 | or you're willing to just use an eSIM when you travel,

00:47:57.740 | for 25 to 30 bucks a month,

00:47:59.620 | I think you can go on U.S. Mobile, Mint Mobile, or Visible.

00:48:02.740 | Visible is not a great option

00:48:04.300 | if you need to tether to your phone ever.

00:48:06.420 | It is a great option if you want an Apple Watch

00:48:08.300 | because it's the only option.

00:48:09.540 | And then Mint Mobile and U.S. Mobile are also great

00:48:12.580 | with Mint Mobile offering a little bit more hotspot

00:48:14.980 | and a little bit more fast data coverage.

00:48:17.140 | And then on the roaming side,

00:48:18.860 | if you do want a fully baked premium plan

00:48:21.140 | with all the features, all the roaming functionality,

00:48:23.620 | if you can go to a T-Mobile store

00:48:25.300 | and you can get the insider discount

00:48:27.060 | or find someone on Reddit,

00:48:28.340 | I think that's the way to go.

00:48:29.740 | You're gonna get a price as low as $35 a month

00:48:33.020 | if you have five lines, which is incredible.

00:48:35.420 | But if for some reason you can't get that insider discount,

00:48:38.180 | your options are Google Fi, which I think is great.

00:48:40.940 | Or if you're one or two lines,

00:48:42.260 | I think U.S. Mobile's premium is another contender,

00:48:44.980 | as long as you don't need to go

00:48:46.020 | to all those other countries,

00:48:47.300 | which I'll get to in a second.

00:48:48.260 | So the one area where I probably

00:48:50.180 | didn't give enough coverage to

00:48:51.540 | is if you don't care about the international travel,

00:48:53.980 | you don't wanna go all around the world,

00:48:55.500 | you do want unlimited data,

00:48:56.900 | but you do want something that covers Canada and Mexico,

00:48:59.100 | 'cause let's say you go there a bit.

00:49:00.300 | There are a few options that I think are worth considering.

00:49:03.180 | However, I'll just flag that they're not

00:49:04.980 | that much less expensive than the plans

00:49:07.300 | that cover you internationally.

00:49:08.460 | So for example, if you're one line,

00:49:10.420 | that U.S. Mobile premium plan is gonna cover you

00:49:12.940 | in 102 countries.

00:49:14.260 | And yes, you could save money

00:49:15.900 | by getting the Visible Plus plan,

00:49:17.700 | and it's only $45 a month.

00:49:19.340 | It includes Mexico and Canada,

00:49:21.260 | but for five more dollars,

00:49:22.860 | you could get a lot more coverage.

00:49:24.420 | It really depends on what matters to you.

00:49:26.500 | You can also get, I believe, $10 off

00:49:28.820 | for your first six months.

00:49:29.860 | That brings the average cost for the year

00:49:31.340 | on that Visible plan down to $40.

00:49:33.060 | But all the other plans that include Canada and Mexico

00:49:35.420 | for one line are at 53, 60.

00:49:38.180 | So it just doesn't make sense.

00:49:39.380 | Now, if you jump down to how low could you get a plan

00:49:42.060 | that includes Canada and Mexico,

00:49:43.740 | if you had five lines,

00:49:45.220 | there's at least a couple options worth looking at here.

00:49:47.700 | The Google Fi Simply plan

00:49:49.820 | and the T-Mobile Essentials plan,

00:49:51.660 | both include Canada and Mexico.

00:49:53.580 | At five lines, they're down to 23, $24 a month.

00:49:56.900 | So those might be good options for you.

00:49:59.260 | But I will just caveat that at one or two lines,

00:50:01.500 | they're about the same price as the premium plans

00:50:04.100 | on either U.S. Mobile, Google Fi, T-Mobile

00:50:06.540 | with the insider discount.

00:50:07.740 | So there are a couple options there,

00:50:09.180 | but honestly, they might not make as much sense

00:50:11.100 | as one of those premium plans.

00:50:12.460 | Once you factor in things like limited speed on hotspot.

00:50:15.060 | So like I mentioned,

00:50:15.900 | I wanna share a little bit about countries

00:50:17.500 | because I thought it was really interesting

00:50:19.820 | to go through all of the countries

00:50:21.940 | that these different plans cover.

00:50:23.660 | So they all say 200 plus countries.

00:50:25.940 | It was very difficult to find that list.

00:50:28.060 | When I tried to sum them all up,

00:50:29.540 | AT&T came with 223, Verizon and T-Mobile with 211

00:50:34.100 | and U.S. Mobile with 105.

00:50:35.740 | And just one anecdote that was very interesting

00:50:37.620 | going through this list was that many of these plans,

00:50:40.660 | in fact, I think at least every plan

00:50:42.780 | had multiple countries listed twice

00:50:45.340 | in some way, shape or form.

00:50:46.820 | So they would say we include the Northern Mariana Islands

00:50:49.940 | and then they would individually list out all three islands

00:50:52.340 | or they would include Great Britain, the UK and England.

00:50:55.500 | One included the British Virgin Islands twice,

00:50:57.820 | one included Tanzania and Zanzibar,

00:51:00.220 | one included Tahiti and French Polynesia.

00:51:02.620 | So I wouldn't put a lot of emphasis

00:51:04.740 | into the actual count of countries

00:51:06.960 | because if one has five more countries,

00:51:09.060 | it might just be that they've listed the same country

00:51:11.220 | twice, five times.

00:51:12.320 | But I will flag a few of the notable countries

00:51:14.940 | that are missing from some of these plans.

00:51:16.580 | And I'll start with the U.S. Mobile plan

00:51:18.260 | 'cause I mentioned that the U.S. Mobile plan

00:51:20.460 | only includes about 105 countries.

00:51:22.380 | So there are definitely a handful of countries missing.

00:51:25.100 | Many of them might not be countries you go to that often.

00:51:27.660 | So I'm not gonna read the entire list of 100.

00:51:29.940 | I am gonna focus on a few of the notable exceptions.

00:51:33.640 | So a lot of the honeymoon destinations were missing,

00:51:35.940 | Fiji, the Maldives, French Polynesia, the Seychelles.

00:51:39.180 | A couple of countries that I was just surprised,

00:51:41.340 | Monaco, Morocco, Jordan, Botswana,

00:51:45.460 | Bermuda and Belize were all missing.

00:51:47.500 | So that's just a few.

00:51:48.900 | Obviously, you need to go look at the list,

00:51:50.740 | think about where you're traveling

00:51:51.940 | to determine whether 105 countries from U.S. Mobile

00:51:54.940 | is enough or 200 plus is better.

00:51:56.740 | When it comes to comparing Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile,

00:51:59.300 | there were really only a couple things that differed

00:52:01.800 | when I looked through the list.

00:52:02.940 | Only T-Mobile includes coverage in the Maldives,

00:52:05.260 | if that matters to you.

00:52:06.280 | And then T-Mobile is missing Ethiopia,

00:52:08.980 | Namibia and Zimbabwe.

00:52:10.360 | So AT&T and Verizon cover those, but T-Mobile does not.

00:52:13.420 | Given how infrequently you'll probably go to those countries,

00:52:16.240 | at least the average person,

00:52:17.320 | if you need an eSIM for that one trip in your lifetime,

00:52:19.780 | I think it's probably okay.

00:52:20.880 | But in general, I think T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T's

00:52:23.700 | kind of 200 plus country list covers just about everything.

00:52:26.400 | So there are a few other things we didn't mention

00:52:28.100 | that I said I would cover at the end,

00:52:29.540 | which actually could have a big impact

00:52:31.980 | on some of this pricing.

00:52:33.220 | It's mostly gonna be around the deals and discounts

00:52:36.300 | and credits you get when you switch.

00:52:38.080 | So the one thing I didn't mention,

00:52:39.380 | which I think is really necessary,

00:52:41.420 | is some of the deals you'll get

00:52:43.300 | from many of the large carriers

00:52:45.460 | and some of the small carriers for coming over,

00:52:47.500 | because when you look at those deals,

00:52:49.440 | they can really have a big impact.

00:52:51.480 | So for example, if you look at coming over to T-Mobile,

00:52:55.580 | there are deals to pay off your old phone

00:52:57.560 | on your previous plan or give you $200 credit

00:53:00.180 | that I can't assume will be relevant to everyone,

00:53:02.460 | but they were offering a $200 credit

00:53:04.540 | to port your line over,

00:53:05.640 | which if you spread that out over a few months,

00:53:08.300 | could really be a big deal.

00:53:09.860 | I would be totally remissed if I didn't talk about

00:53:12.580 | some of the discounts you get as a veteran,

00:53:15.640 | a first responder, or being 55 plus.

00:53:19.040 | When I was looking at T-Mobile,

00:53:20.300 | all those camps basically got the insider pricing

00:53:23.540 | effectively without needing the insider discount.

00:53:26.220 | So if any of those apply to you

00:53:27.580 | or someone on your family plan,

00:53:29.300 | I believe you get those perks as well.

00:53:31.020 | So definitely worth considering those

00:53:33.380 | if you also want a discount that's even easier to get

00:53:35.940 | than needing to find someone with the insider deal.

00:53:38.300 | But the big discounts,

00:53:39.540 | and especially with the launch of the latest iPhone

00:53:41.420 | that I think everyone needs to be considering

00:53:43.580 | is what kind of deals do you get for getting a new phone?

00:53:46.700 | Because they can really change the dynamics here.

00:53:49.600 | So there's really a few different options.

00:53:51.660 | Most of the MVNOs don't have the big subsidized pricing

00:53:55.140 | on iPhones and contracts and all that stuff,

00:53:57.420 | but they do offer deals.

00:53:58.860 | So for example, if you bring a new iPhone over to Mint Mobile,

00:54:02.400 | they'll give you six months free

00:54:03.780 | over the course of your first year,

00:54:05.100 | which is worth up to $180.

00:54:06.540 | So you get $180 off an iPhone.

00:54:08.420 | But another way that you can save a ton of money

00:54:10.140 | is around when new phones come out.

00:54:12.180 | And usually this focuses all around new iPhones.

00:54:15.040 | The MVNO carriers don't usually have deals in this space.

00:54:18.600 | And frankly, Google Fi, while they do support the iPhone,

00:54:22.020 | definitely doesn't have any iPhone deals.

00:54:23.940 | In fact, is the only premium plan I would put in that bucket.

00:54:27.100 | And also, by the way, doesn't support an Apple Watch either.

00:54:29.460 | But Mint and US Mobile do have deals.

00:54:31.940 | US Mobile will give you $200 off spread out over a year

00:54:35.460 | if you bring a new iPhone to them.

00:54:37.140 | And Mint Mobile will give you 50% off

00:54:39.380 | their unlimited plan for the year

00:54:40.980 | if you buy an iPhone from them,

00:54:42.460 | which you can do upfront or finance through them.

00:54:44.940 | So those are two options.

00:54:46.040 | But the really big deals are from T-Mobile, AT&T,

00:54:49.060 | and Verizon, where you're gonna get 800 to $1,000

00:54:52.180 | off your new iPhone, usually with a trade-in,

00:54:54.660 | over two to three years,

00:54:55.980 | which ends up being, minus the value of your trade-in,

00:54:58.980 | $22 to $33 a month.

00:55:00.900 | Verizon, I believe, has this crazy promotion going on

00:55:04.100 | where you can trade in any iPhone, literally any iPhone.

00:55:07.460 | You know, you can trade in your old 3G iPhone.

00:55:09.620 | I don't know who's tested it at what tier,

00:55:11.580 | but you can get some real value there

00:55:14.500 | depending on how much your trade-in is worth.

00:55:17.180 | So keep in mind, if your iPhone's only a year old

00:55:19.380 | and you could sell it for $600

00:55:20.820 | and they're gonna give you $800,

00:55:22.140 | well, it's not that different from a $200 plan.

00:55:24.420 | If you can trade in a phone that's worth $100

00:55:26.700 | and get $1,000 off an iPhone, then it's really worth $900.

00:55:29.860 | And if you can average that $900 off

00:55:31.940 | over two or three years, that's 25 to 30 bucks a month.

00:55:35.380 | And what's crazy is if you look at the plan we looked at,

00:55:38.300 | the T-Mobile plan, at $35 a month for five lines,

00:55:42.060 | if you can get $800 towards your iPhone

00:55:45.340 | spread out over two years, that's $33 off a month.

00:55:49.580 | And I say this because this is the deal we got,

00:55:51.540 | which I'm still in shock about.

00:55:53.140 | So we opened up a line with T-Mobile.

00:55:54.980 | We actually did it on a business plan.

00:55:56.780 | So I can't promise that the deals

00:55:58.340 | are exactly the same as a consumer plan,

00:56:00.660 | but we got an $800 credit to buy a new iPhone.

00:56:03.620 | We didn't even have to trade in an iPhone.

00:56:05.980 | The consumer deal was get a $1,000 credit,

00:56:09.580 | but you have to trade in an iPhone,

00:56:11.420 | but you also got a $200 credit to port in.

00:56:14.260 | So it was actually pretty similar.

00:56:15.740 | But when we amortize the cost of that $800 over two years,

00:56:19.180 | it's $33 and our plan is somewhere around $35 a month.

00:56:23.860 | And so as crazy as this sounds to say out loud,

00:56:27.180 | if you want a new iPhone and you're willing to pay for it,

00:56:29.660 | and you're gonna pay for it

00:56:30.700 | whether or not you get a new carrier,

00:56:32.780 | if you do it through T-Mobile,

00:56:34.540 | you can potentially get the net cost of your plan

00:56:37.700 | down to under $5 a month for two years.

00:56:40.860 | And that's what we did.

00:56:41.700 | So yes, we bought new phones.

00:56:43.220 | You don't have to pay them off over time.

00:56:45.060 | You can pay them off right away.

00:56:46.220 | You do have to buy them with a financing plan.

00:56:48.500 | But as soon as the financing plan set up,

00:56:50.220 | you can pay them off.

00:56:51.060 | I think our phone bill right now

00:56:52.180 | looks like it's 35 a line plus 45 for the phone,

00:56:56.100 | minus 33 for the credit.

00:56:57.940 | We ended up getting phones

00:56:59.260 | that were more than the $800 credit they would give us.

00:57:01.780 | Though if we didn't, you know,

00:57:03.140 | then we wouldn't have any Delta there.

00:57:04.980 | But if we just pay the phone off,

00:57:06.980 | then our plan will look like 35 a month,

00:57:08.900 | minus 33 in credit, it'd be $2 a line.

00:57:11.300 | So obviously those credits

00:57:12.620 | are not gonna be given to you right away.

00:57:13.940 | They're gonna be given to you over two

00:57:15.060 | or even three years in the case of Verizon,

00:57:17.540 | maybe even AT&T.

00:57:18.740 | So you are going to be locked into those carriers

00:57:21.660 | if you want those device credits.

00:57:23.340 | Obviously you can leave at any time.

00:57:25.060 | You don't have to pay termination fees like you used to,

00:57:27.620 | but those device credits

00:57:28.740 | are not gonna continue to come to you.

00:57:30.220 | If you don't wanna mess with any of that,

00:57:31.380 | you can still do US Mobile, Mint Mobile, Visible,

00:57:34.300 | Google Fi, T-Mobile, any of those plans

00:57:36.500 | and not buy the devices.

00:57:38.300 | But I do think that some of the crazy promotions

00:57:41.060 | they're offering for iPhones

00:57:42.740 | make it such that some of these premium carriers

00:57:45.460 | can get discounted to the point

00:57:46.860 | that they're actually competitive

00:57:48.100 | if you're comfortable kind of being locked in

00:57:50.100 | for two or three years to get that credit,

00:57:52.140 | which means that it'll hurt your upgrade cycle.

00:57:54.460 | I guess I'll end on the one plan I didn't mention,

00:57:56.340 | which was that Go 5G Next plan,

00:57:58.460 | which is that it'll let you enter

00:58:00.740 | into another one of these deals with T-Mobile

00:58:03.460 | without having to wait two years to get all those credits.

00:58:06.060 | Haven't looked into the nuance of it

00:58:07.540 | because I just didn't think it made sense.

00:58:09.900 | I usually don't upgrade my phone every cycle.

00:58:11.780 | It's usually every other cycle, so it doesn't matter.

00:58:13.660 | So that's what I learned there.

00:58:15.060 | A few last things.

00:58:15.980 | For free trials, T-Mobile, Google 5, Visible, and Mint

00:58:19.340 | all offer various forms of free trials.

00:58:21.700 | You can activate them with an eSIM.

00:58:23.580 | You don't need to port your numbers over,

00:58:25.700 | and you can get some amount of text, data, and voice

00:58:28.820 | to use on their network

00:58:30.220 | without having to transfer your line for free.

00:58:32.900 | So definitely recommend if you're interested

00:58:35.100 | in checking out whether you have good service

00:58:36.940 | from those carriers,

00:58:37.780 | don't worry about trying to switch everything right away.

00:58:41.140 | Add them as an eSIM.

00:58:42.340 | You can turn the data network to be using that eSIM,

00:58:45.140 | and you can see how it works before you switch.

00:58:47.700 | The last thing that I wanna touch on

00:58:49.340 | is around cell phone insurance.

00:58:50.640 | Because of the changes with the autopay,

00:58:52.940 | it's made a lot of the benefits

00:58:54.560 | of getting free cell phone insurance on your credit card

00:58:57.340 | negated by the extra cost you have to pay.

00:58:59.740 | So for example, AppleCare+ is $9.99 a month.

00:59:04.080 | If you have to pay $10 a month

00:59:05.420 | to be able to pay with a credit card,

00:59:06.900 | it might not actually be worth it

00:59:08.260 | over just getting the insurance policy from Apple

00:59:10.820 | where it's a lot less hassle

00:59:12.580 | and usually a lower deductible to get things fixed.

00:59:14.940 | But for some of these carriers

00:59:16.500 | where you don't need to worry

00:59:18.180 | about paying extra for autopay,

00:59:20.460 | there are a bunch of great options.

00:59:22.700 | The FreedomFlex, the Platinum and Business Platinum

00:59:25.660 | from Amex, the VentureX from Capital One,

00:59:28.180 | and the Inc. Business Preferred

00:59:29.580 | all have solid credit card insurance.

00:59:32.100 | I think the built card as well.

00:59:33.800 | You're all gonna get about 800 to $1,000 per claim.

00:59:37.620 | You're gonna get two to three claims per year

00:59:40.100 | or per 12 month window.

00:59:41.900 | And they're probably gonna cover

00:59:43.300 | somewhere around one to $3,000 in total.

00:59:47.020 | Usually the more premium cards have more premium coverage

00:59:49.900 | with deductibles somewhere between 50 to $100.

00:59:52.780 | And so the Inc. Business Preferred

00:59:55.220 | actually also gives you three points per dollar

00:59:57.260 | on cell phone plans, which is cool.

00:59:58.780 | So I definitely think that's the better deal

01:00:01.900 | if you don't have to pay to put your plan on your card.

01:00:05.180 | If not, then I think AppleCare+ is a decent option.

01:00:09.860 | You could do it for 9.99 a month for a new iPhone

01:00:12.680 | or 13.50 a month if you include theft and loss coverage,

01:00:16.460 | which means if someone steals your phone,

01:00:17.900 | you lose your phone, that's great.

01:00:19.660 | But a really great tip from Nat who wrote in to say,

01:00:23.740 | just a reminder to everyone,

01:00:25.780 | AppleCare theft and loss coverage will not be honored

01:00:29.340 | if you remove your phone from your Apple ID

01:00:32.340 | because then it's removed from being linked to you.

01:00:34.920 | So if someone steals your phone or you lose it,

01:00:37.500 | go ahead and mark it lost, lock it down,

01:00:39.820 | request a remote wipe,

01:00:41.340 | but don't remove it from your Apple ID.

01:00:43.780 | Otherwise it's unlikely that you will be able to get them

01:00:46.040 | to cover your phone.

01:00:47.300 | So something important there.

01:00:49.380 | Also Lars wrote in just to say that had a phone broke

01:00:52.740 | and he'd been paying his cards on his credit card

01:00:55.260 | and was able to get it reimbursed easily.

01:00:57.740 | I've taken advantage of that three or four times

01:01:00.560 | and it totally makes sense in my opinion.

01:01:03.380 | The cost to get a new iPhone screen with no coverage

01:01:05.920 | is over $300, with insurance it's 50 to $100,

01:01:09.980 | with AppleCare it's $30.

01:01:11.980 | The only last thing I'll say,

01:01:13.820 | we actually, when I said I got a business plan on T-Mobile,

01:01:16.660 | they have a business plan that includes AppleCare Plus,

01:01:19.540 | ends up being about $39 a line for five lines

01:01:23.540 | for all the full features plus AppleCare Plus.

01:01:26.180 | So if you have a business that could be an option,

01:01:29.060 | if not, just do the math about whether it makes sense

01:01:31.780 | to pay a fee to put it on your credit card

01:01:33.700 | or to get coverage somewhere else,

01:01:35.620 | or to self-insure and just roll the dice.

01:01:37.980 | If you've never really broken an iPhone screen

01:01:39.820 | and you use a really heavy case, maybe it doesn't matter.

01:01:42.540 | I hope that was helpful.

01:01:43.660 | If you have any questions or feedback,

01:01:45.820 | please send an email to podcast@allthehacks.com.

01:01:49.500 | For the last two years, I've tried my best

01:01:51.180 | to respond to all of them.

01:01:52.420 | I will do my best to try to respond when I can,

01:01:55.060 | but I wanna set an expectation going forward

01:01:57.060 | that I won't be able to reply to every single email.

01:01:59.740 | I do have a separate inbox for member emails.

01:02:02.340 | So if you are a member of All The Hacks,

01:02:04.060 | please keep those emails coming.

01:02:05.540 | I will make sure to respond.

01:02:06.980 | If you're not and wanna join,

01:02:08.500 | you can go to allthehacks.com/join,

01:02:10.620 | but I will still continue to take the questions

01:02:13.020 | from listeners and bring them up in mailbag episodes.

01:02:15.580 | So even if I can't get you a quick reply

01:02:17.740 | and you're not a member,

01:02:18.700 | I will consider the questions that make sense

01:02:21.660 | to be content for future shows.

01:02:23.660 | So keep an ear out and listen for those.

01:02:25.740 | Thank you so much for listening.

01:02:28.380 | I really hope people listening

01:02:29.860 | save a ton of money on cell phones.

01:02:31.500 | I would love it if you end up saving a lot

01:02:33.860 | to let me know how much.

01:02:35.140 | I'm gonna do a quick share in a future episode

01:02:37.700 | of how many people we've helped get off

01:02:39.820 | really, really expensive, big wireless plans.

01:02:42.340 | If one of the plans from Mint Mobile makes sense,

01:02:45.340 | just like it did for us and for our au pair,

01:02:47.860 | I'd really appreciate it if you use the link

01:02:50.060 | at allthehacks.com/mintmobile

01:02:52.380 | to help thank them and support them

01:02:54.140 | as a partner of the show.

01:02:55.580 | We've had a great experience with them

01:02:56.940 | and we've really enjoyed working with them

01:02:58.460 | and we'll continue to have their coverage

01:03:00.340 | probably for a long, long time.

01:03:01.860 | That's it, I will see you next week.

01:03:03.700 | (upbeat music)

01:03:06.280 | (birds chirping)

01:03:09.040 | [BLANK_AUDIO]