Cell phones have become an important and convenient channel of communication, especially between parents and their children as they become increasingly active away from home. My son got his first mobile phone about a year ago, and both my wife and I are happy he has it.
A very obvious example of why occurred to me recently.
Organized chaos is the best way I can describe the scene at my son’s high school as I turned onto the road that approaches the main entrance. This was a new scene for me, as my son usually rides the bus home. Today was different because he needed to bring his Cello home from school to complete an orchestra assignment and the instrument was too big to carry home on the bus.
Cars were parked three wide along the side of the road and backed up nearly to the highway waiting to pick up their students. I came to a stop several hundred yards from the entrance as a steady stream of students began exiting the school, staggering along the roadside with confused and anxious faces looking for their ride home. I knew my son had his mobile phone in school, so I dialed him up and told him where I was located. He found me quickly, and climbed in the van.
Having a line of communication to your children is a great thing. However, with a family of four a cell phone bill can get out of hand quickly so we’re always on the look out for inexpensive plan options that may be available.
My wife and I were walking through the mall last weekend as we began our Christmas shopping and found ourselves in a Best Buy Mobile Specialty Store.
The Best Buy Mobile Specialty Store Inviting Us To Come In!
It was like someone took the mobile phone section of one of their big box stores and placed it conveniently right inside the mall. It had all the latest phones and tablets, as well as cases and accessories for every phone imaginable.
Accessories As Far As The Eye Can See!
They offered products and services for all the major carriers, but as I was browsing the new phone models there was something that caught my eye. It was the new Student My Way plan from Sprint.
Many Phone Options For The Sprint My Way Plan!
This new offer from Sprint is available from now until January 4th, and offers students one year of no contract, unlimited talk, text, and 1GB of data per month for FREE. Whenever you see an offer to get something for free, you assume there has to be a catch, right? Here’s the other important pieces of information you need to know:
- Applies only to new lines
- There is a one time activation fee of $36.
- Customers are still responsible for taxes and fees
- Customers must purchase a new smart phone from Sprint
- If 1GB of data is not enough, unlimited data is offered for $10 a month
The first two are pretty standard, and the third amounts to only a couple of dollars a month. The one that concerned me was the need to purchase a new phone, as the full retail price of many smart phones can be very expensive. The good news is that Best Buy Mobile Specialty Stores have a variety of phones to fit every price range, and each phone has a special student plan price offered that is significantly less than the full retail price.
The Best Buy Mobile Specialty Store Has Tablets, Too!
I was curious how the total price would break down as a “per month” cost so I decided to do an example using a smart phone that I would potentially purchase if taking advantage of the offer.
Galaxy S4 Mini ($354) + Activation ($36) = $390 or $32.50 a month
If I were a new Sprint customer on their standard Your Way plan, even if I got the phone for free, the same unlimited talk, text and 1GB of data would cost $70 a month!
Whether my son is at a school event, socializing with friends, or in need of being picked up in the chaos that is the end of a school day, cell phones make communicating with my teenager easier. Having an inexpensive student mobile plan available like Sprint’s Student My Way Plan makes having that cell phone easier on the wallet.
We parents need all the help we can get.
I’m not gonna lie, Travis, the expenses that come with having kids are one thing I’m really not looking forward to. It’s nice to know there are things like this that can help keep costs down while also providing kids with products and services they need. Great review!
The promotion comes at a great time, too, DC. I’m sure there are many parents looking to get their kids a cell phone for Christmas. Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for doing the monthly breakdown on the cost of the phone! Sometimes having that up-front cost seems daunting, but having you break it down like that is really helpful in keeping the financial impact of this plan in mind. This would be a great way for people to “cut things out” of their budgets every month without actually cutting anything out. #client
The difficult thing about these kind of promotions is for consumers to be able to figure out if it’s really a good deal or not. They may think about the “free” months of service, and then having to pay a higher cost for the phone and just immediately estimate that they even out. In this case that’s not true, the free service in combination with the discounted price makes the offer a great one! Thanks for your kind words, Summer!
Organized chaos? Oh man, I totally understand that:)
I agree with Summer, I think your monthly breakdown is very helpful. Sometimes there can be so many extra fees it is hard to understand what the total cost may be. I cringe at the thought of my oldest having a cell phone (because he is nine), but I know we will soon need a plan for him. This is such an excellent offer. #client
I know exactly how you feel, Alicia. My kids are 14 and 11 now, but we got them phones two years ago (at 12 and 10). I was against it at first, but the only reason we did it was because of a promotion by our provider at the time sort of like this. We’re glad we did, because having that line of communication to even an elementary or middle school child is sooo very important. Thanks for stopping by!