Sprint's Anytime, Any Mobile Plan

[NooraK]

I recently realized that DH and I are eating away at our rollover minutes with AT&T, and if we don't change plans in the next couple of months, we'll be paying overages. It got me to looking at what all the different companies have to offer. My contract has expired, DH has until March.

I called Sprint, and was told about their Anytime, Any Mobile plan. It allows us to call any mobile phone, on any network for free. We'd also get Night & Weekend minutes startingat 7 PM, and there's a Everything Data option which includes unlimited websurfing, email, etc.

The cost for this plan is $129.99 for two lines with 1500 minutes (which according to the plan would only be used if calling landlines). Similar plans with other providers were giving me quotes closer to $160-180.

Does anyone have this plan? Am I missing something? It just seems like there's a catch somewhere. Maybe I'm really not getting comparable quotes from the other providers.

 

[kdangel518]

Would you really use 1500 minutes to landlines in a month between your two lines? That would be my question. Do they offer a smaller plan? 800 minutes or something?

We have Verizon, we have five lines with 700 shared minutes and rarely go over. That's because most of the lines we call are other Verizon customers, so they are included, and the next highest volume of calls that we make are after 9 pm, so included in our nights and weekends. I believe our plan starts at $79.99 with $9.99 for each additional line.

If you go up to the 1400 minutes (I believe it's $129.99) you can also get the friends and family- 10 numbers you can make unlimited calls to.

 

[NooraK]

Well, with Sprint the 1400 is the lowest for a shared family plan. I do think we'll use more than the 850 we have now (since we're currently going over, but being saved by our rollover minutes), especially since I use my cell to make my daily calls during my lunch.

What the Anytime Any Mobile plans has that intrigues me is the data plan. I've been tempted to upgrade to a smartphone, and with all the other carriers, it seems, they charge an extra $30/month for that service. So that $130 plan just changed to $190 (for two of us). That's why the Sprint plan seems so cheap and I'm curious as to what I'm missing.

 

[chefjeanine]

I would check with people in your community to see how Sprint does as far as connections. When we first got our phones we had Nextel. Then, Sprint & Nextel merged and my husband needed the services that Sprint provided (he needs to get his email through his phone and at the time we couldn't stay with Nextel and have this service). Anyway, I can't tell you how many times I didn't have service.

 

[wadesgirl]

What about when people call you? Everything you listed is about you calling but nothing about them calling you. Will that take up your minutes?

 

[jbarnhill]

I just switched to that plan for a single phone. I used to have the plan where it was unlimited everything for $99. No i pay $69 with everything unlimited except for calls to or from land lines. I only have 450 minutes a month for the land line calls. Plus they have the option if you think you are going to go over your land line minutes you can call and add 50 or 100 minutes (i can't remember which) for an additional $5 otherwise if i go over my 450 land line minutes it is like 49 cents a minute.

JoLynn

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Do you realize that Sprint is a Pampered Perks partner, and you can save 18% on the cost of your plan if you let them know you are a PC consultant?

We have Nextel, and love it. But that's because it's most convenient for my husband and I to two-way each other, and we would miss it if we had to actually use the phone when we wanted to talk.

 

[NooraK]

What about when people call you? Everything you listed is about you calling but nothing about them calling you. Will that take up your minutes?

The unlimited minutes apply to inbound and outbound calls from any mobile phone.

Do you realize that Sprint is a Pampered Perks partner, and you can save 18% on the cost of your plan if you let them know you are a PC consultant?

We have Nextel, and love it. But that's because it's most convenient for my husband and I to two-way each other, and we would miss it if we had to actually use the phone when we wanted to talk.

Yes, that is one of the considerations too. I also am eligible for a disocunt through several carriers with my 9-5 job, and I have to see which one's better.

 

[topchef.heather]

I recently realized that DH and I are eating away at our rollover minutes with AT&T, and if we don't change plans in the next couple of months, we'll be paying overages. It got me to looking at what all the different companies have to offer. My contract has expired, DH has until March.

I called Sprint, and was told about their Anytime, Any Mobile plan. It allows us to call any mobile phone, on any network for free. We'd also get Night & Weekend minutes startingat 7 PM, and there's a Everything Data option which includes unlimited websurfing, email, etc.

The cost for this plan is $129.99 for two lines with 1500 minutes (which according to the plan would only be used if calling landlines). Similar plans with other providers were giving me quotes closer to $160-180.

Does anyone have this plan? Am I missing something? It just seems like there's a catch somewhere. Maybe I'm really not getting comparable quotes from the other providers.

I have Sprint, I have this plan. And yes, Sprint does Pampered Perks, but I think it's 17%. It comes out to $22 a month I save on my bill. I have been with Sprint for probably about at least 10 years now, so ask away!

 

[jbarnhill]

I am going to have to call sprint now because i was told that with the everything plans that they will not do an additional discount because they are such great plans.

JoLynn

 

[lauriedip]

i'm going with the new smart talk phone at walmart, no contracts! $30 mth 1000 minutes
or $45 unlimited

 

[Ginger428]

If you do some research on ALL plans & Companies, they are saying right now it is best to get pre paid or pay as you go ( whatever the company calls theirs) DH & I bought our phones ( a 1 shot deal ) for 79.00 each. We chose Verizon ( they do have the best) once every 2 months we pay 30.00 on each phone & we have roll over minutes as well. No plans, no fees, no hidden anything. Look into it. I think its Consumer Affairs or something like them that said its the way to go....HTH

 

[NooraK]

I appreciate all the feedback.

The pre-paid plans are something to look into, but I'm not clear if they have the same smartphone and email capabilities as the regular plans do.

I've been chatting with some co-workers to get opinions on the different plans' coverages around here.

 

[Ginger428]

I hear ya...also DH & I don't really use our cells that much. We also have our home phone which has 11 extra features call waiting, caller ID etc....& its through our Cable company & its 19.95 a month unlimited everything. We have the TV, Internet & now the Phones all through Cablevision.

 

[PampChefJoy]

We have Sprint and it works great. We have a grandfathered old family plan where we share 700 min (I think). I am thinking of switching to the Everything Data plan and getting new phones and adding my son. I hope the discount still applies to the Everything plan! I looooove the 18% off!

 

[NooraK]

I went through Pampered Perks, and it did reflect the discount on the Everything Data Plan, but it only gave individual options. The lady at Sprint also told me that there's a referral bonus where the referrer gets $50, and the referree gets $25, and it applies to adding people to your own plan. So I can get a total of $75 for referring DH to my plan, and Joy you should be able to do the same with your son.

 

[SpiritdancerIA]

I recently realized that DH and I are eating away at our rollover minutes with AT&T, and if we don't change plans in the next couple of months, we'll be paying overages. It got me to looking at what all the different companies have to offer. My contract has expired, DH has until March.I called Sprint, and was told about their Anytime, Any Mobile plan. It allows us to call any mobile phone, on any network for free. We'd also get Night & Weekend minutes startingat 7 PM, and there's a Everything Data option which includes unlimited websurfing, email, etc.The cost for this plan is $129.99 for two lines with 1500 minutes (which according to the plan would only be used if calling landlines). Similar plans with other providers were giving me quotes closer to $160-180. Does anyone have this plan? Am I missing something? It just seems like there's a catch somewhere. Maybe I'm really not getting comparable quotes from the other providers.

Our family is on the "Everything" plan with Sprint, at the 1500 minutes per month (there wasn't a family plan with lower minutes for the unlimited data/text deal). I got a Palm Pre, my husband got a Blackberry, and we're pretty happy customers right now (and we were upgrading from a different plan - we looked at other companies and stayed put)I don't use the PC discount, since my husband's employer gets a better discount (23%!), but it is available (the folks at the store checked the PC discount vs the other one). You can't get two different corporate discounts on the same service Our monthly total is running right around $117/month for the two phones, including taxes, fees, etc.

 

[ChefGwendolyn]

I have sprint and have the unlimited plan. Because this plan is already discounted the Pampered Perks do not apply. It's great, I know exactly what my bill will be every month and don't have to worry about going over!

 

[SpiritdancerIA]

Because this plan is already discounted the Pampered Perks do not apply.

I'm beginning to think whether or not the discount applies depends entirely on who you talk to at Sprint. At our local Sprint store (and at the kiosk at Sam's Club), they were quite happy to apply the discount for me (we renewed our contract the end of July). We ended up taking my husband's employer discount, because it's more (23% vs 18%); they won't apply two discounts on the same service plan.

It may be worth talking to someone at a store and asking

 

[NooraK]

It's looking more and more like we'll be going with Sprint. I went into a Verizon store yesterday, and after about 15 minutes walked out without having talked to anyone. We went to a Sprint store, and talked to a very nice gentleman for quite a while. He even asked for a catalog because his roommate has PC stuff and he wants to add to it.I've looked at it every which way, and there's no other plan out there that will even come close to the price. I was told that we could apply the discount (and as I mentioned before, if you go through the Pampered Perks link, it shows it). He even told us that since we're credit union members, through that discount we can get no activation fees. The monthly discount is only 10%, but I plan to sign up with the CU discount, and then switch to our 9-5 employer's discount which is 23%. In the end, it comes out to about $100/month for pretty much all-inclusive coverage.Now it's just a question of picking a phone. I find myself drawn to the Palm Pre because I've always been a fan of Palm's products, and because it would be easy to transfer all my data from my PDA to my phone. The sales associate did say though that something like a BlackBerry would have a very short learning curve. Plus there's the price difference.Decisions, decisions, decisions...

 

[SpiritdancerIA]

Well, having previous Palm experience was why I went with a Pre (my most recent Palm was a Lifedrive). I managed to get everything migrated, but it took a bit of work (I couldn't get the migration tool to work, so had to work out another way).

Once I got migrated, I've been really happy with my Pre - it seems to be a lot more capable than my husband's Blackberry (it's certainly a lot easier to navigate).

On the downside (other than the migration thing), there's not a huge selection of apps, yet. However, there's more than there was two months ago

 

[PampChefJoy]

I'm beginning to think whether or not the discount applies depends entirely on who you talk to at Sprint. At our local Sprint store (and at the kiosk at Sam's Club), they were quite happy to apply the discount for me (we renewed our contract the end of July). We ended up taking my husband's employer discount, because it's more (23% vs 18%); they won't apply two discounts on the same service plan.

It may be worth talking to someone at a store and asking

Our local store is great at customer service stuff like that. They told me once that basically anything you want, they will do for you at the store, even if it's not officially supposed to be done, because the stores want the "5" scored surveys (I always get a phone call survey the day after I take it in for service). So in order to continually score those 5's, they'll give you stuff you wouldn't normally get online or when you call the national customer service line. Make friends with your local store!

 

[NooraK]

Our local store is great at customer service stuff like that. They told me once that basically anything you want, they will do for you at the store, even if it's not officially supposed to be done, because the stores want the "5" scored surveys (I always get a phone call survey the day after I take it in for service). So in order to continually score those 5's, they'll give you stuff you wouldn't normally get online or when you call the national customer service line. Make friends with your local store!

Yep, the sales clerk I talked to said 45% of their commission is based on getting those 5s. He said if they get a 4, they get nada.