I walked onto the baseball field and squatted behind home plate to warm up my son who was pitching. It was the last game of the end of the season tournament, and my eyes watered as he hurled the first pitch at me. Next year he will be trying out for the high school team. Is he good enough to be a pitcher at the high school level? Will he even make the team? These are questions I cannot answer, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this is the last time I would watch my son wind up on a pitcher’s mound. After the game I took a picture of his entire team holding their trophies for taking 3rd place for the tournament, and posted it online for the grandparents to see. My kids are growing up, and in a blink of an eye they’ll both be in college or starting their own lives as adults. As I took the picture, I realized just how valuable a cheap wireless plan can be for capturing, savoring, and sharing moments just like this.
Captured Memory: Celebrating A Great Season!
For the past month, I’ve been trying a mobile phone plan through Walmart Family Mobile. Using a Galaxy S4 I activated at Walmart, I’ve been evaluating the service to see if it could be a viable alternative to the plan I currently have through a major carrier. #cbias
Reception
I have encountered times when I was not able to get a network signal. This did not appear to be related to location as I would be able to get a signal later at the exact same place. The good news is that these occurrences have been extremely rare and actually occur less often than similar issues with my AT&T service.
Captured Memory: My Wife’s 40th Birthday!
Data Download
The download speed using Walmart Family Mobile is 3G, which is adequate, but noticeably slower than what I’m used to with the 4G AT&T network. Also, only the first 1GB of data is at 3GB speed, after that the speed is reduced. I’m connected to wi-fi almost everywhere I go and in my first month I used less than 500MB of data, therefore neither of these limitations affected me much. If I really needed more data at 3G speed, booster packs can be purchased for an additional $10 per GB.
Captured Memory: First Summer Trip to the Ice Cream Truck
Support
Walmart family mobile does provide a customer support number, as well as a support website. Fortunately, I never had to use either one.
Price
If I were to switch all four of my family’s lines to Walmart family Mobile, our bill would be $145 a month compared to over $230 a month we’re paying with AT&T right now.
Captured Memory: Inspiring Sunrise On an Early Morning Run
Conclusion
The two main things I need to get out of my mobile phone plan is the ability to reach and be reached by my family as well as capture and share special life moments online. While there are limitations on the data download in both speed and quantity, they affect me very little, and the price difference between Walmart Family Mobile and my AT&T plan more than compensates for those limitations.
If I wasn’t locked into a contract with AT&T for another fifteen months, I would seriously consider changing carriers. How about you, would you consider a no-contract plan through Walmart Family Mobile?
Travis, I’ve been debating changing my phone service from Verizon to a Wal-Mart brand for a while now. I don’t even use data plans (only unlimited txt and I talk on my phone about once a week). I feel like for what I use I WAY overspend. Unfortunately, I opened a two year contract last summer so I still have one more year left before I can close out that account.
The great news is that WalMart has a talk and text plan only for even cheaper Rich! You can check it out on their website! Thanks for reading!
I’m shocked that you have 4 (really, FOUR?) lines for your small family.
Four people, four lines, Jenn. With one teenager and one soon to be teenager, it’s very convenient to know we have a way to get a hold of each other at all times (as we increasingly find ourselves in four different locations at once). 🙂
Glad to see that the phone is working well for you! Your family is adorable, by the way 🙂 I have been using the Walmart Family Mobile Plan (well, trying to), and I’m supposed to get getting a new phone and SIM card because I think I got a defective card. BUMMER, but I can’t wait to jump back on the plan! Thanks for sharing!
And wow, that’s a huge price difference for your family if we could actually switch!
Serena
Get Your Life Straight
Aw, thanks, Serena – they ARE adorable. 🙂 it really is working well for me….to be honest with you for awhile I carried both my AT&T phone AND my Walmart Family Mobile phone. But as of late I just carry my Galaxy S4. I like the phone better, and there’s no noticeable difference in service – but you’re right, the price is WAY cheaper!
We would totally go with this plan, Travis. It’s all about saving money for us. 🙂 Great pics, BTW. Thanks for sharing!
They make it easy to want to switch, Laurie, since I don’t feel like it’s any “less” of a service. Don’t you just love that picture of the sunrise? I couldn’t believe how well it turned out!
I’ve been looking to switch to a smart phone after having a pay-as-you-go Virgin for YEARS. $25/ month is hard to give up, as I’m looking at at least $100/ month with Verizon, AT&T or US Cellular. I’ve narrowed down the phone – I really want the Samsung Galaxy – but am stuck with which carrier to go with. So – with the Walmart plan – is that for any smart phone?
And so funny – my 14 yr old just played his very last Rec game last week Friday – & was the starring pitcher all season. He wants to try out for the HS team, but one of the coaches for the Select team very snootily indicated that if he never played Select ball, that he won’t make the HS team. So, in essence, because I wouldn’t spend $500 + for my son to try out for the elite Select team, that means he’s not good enough to play for the HS team? We’ll show him!
My understanding, Michelle, is that the $40 a month (for the first phone) is for any smart phone – I do not claim to know if there are any incompatibilities with any phones that came from any other carriers. You may want to check with them. I do know that they are advertising that they work with the iphone. They have a variety of phones to choose from that you can purchase, or you can bring you own in. You’ll have to come back and let us all know what you ended up going with.
That sucks that the coach would say that….unfortunately there’s a similar undercurrent in my own city….unless you try out for and play on the traveling team you won’t make the high school team. I think it’s a bunch of crap, and hope my son show’s them too. 🙂
I’ve been with terrible providers before where I was locked into a contract. Last time I got a phone with a plan I decided to spend a little extra money (about $5 a month) and went with the premier provider in Australia (Telstra). I have had no problems with them, I get great reception and great speeds. I don’t think I will move away from them any time soon.
I’m glad you’re happy with your current plan, Glen. My main issues with contracts are a.) they are getting longer (used to be one year, now they’re two) and b.) it forces you to stay with a provider even if your life circumstances change, or if you find a better deal somewhere else. The more I think about it, no contract plans are looking better and better – but everyone has their own preferences. Thanks for stopping by!
My kids are very busy with sports and other activities – always on the go. We’d be lost without great service to help capture all those special moments. Glad to hear the Walmart Family Mobile plan is working so well for you! I’m intrigued and very excited about how much my family would save by making a switch. Thanks so much for sharing your experience!
As my kids get older, life is only going to get more hectic, Terry – that’s why having affordable wireless is SO important. Not only to be able to manage and juggle all the activities but to capture them as well! thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for posting about this. I’ve been considering making the move to this plan. I was content before without a smartphone, but now I need one to stay on top of time-sensitive emails for my website and occasionally use the web. I started with Metro PCS, but got rid of them since the service was so unreliable, it wasn’t worth the low price I was paying (no contract, but I ate the cost of the phone). Now I’m back to ATT, which is ridiculously expensive. Did you receive your email on your phone or use the web very much? If so, was it reliable?
Yes, Felicity, I do use the web, social media, and receive email on my phone. Since it’s 3G (as noticed) it is noticeably slower than my AT&T 4G connection – but is IS usable. With wifi so accessible now (many restaurants/businesses have open wifi available) it really hardly matters. Thanks for your questions, hope my answers help!
That is helpful. Thanks!
Travis – I have six kids, three with phones (5 phones total) and honestly the savings really add up with this plan! It forces you to be smarter about which phone you choose as you have to either own a phone or buy a new one up front. With the major carriers, your “free” phone adds up to be way more expensive than the phone you pay for up front. Yes, we settle for a little less quality and occasional speed loss, but is that really worth the extra hundreds if dollars at the end of a two year contract? Our older kids complained at first, so i told they were welcome to buy their own plan and sign up for the two year commitment, IF they would first multiply their monthly payment of “only $80/month” and compare that to the $40/month they pay me to be on our plan… They decided to save the money and stick with Dad’s “crappy” plan!
It’s always interesting to see how kids will change their tune when the decision hits them in their pocket book, and they see exactly how much things cost. Thanks for sharing your story, Pete. As far as the cost of those fancy smart phones….I really had an eye opener recently as I prepare to do another blog post on Walmart Family Mobile. Keep your eyes out next week for it. 🙂