Finding a Cell Phone Promotion By Accident Saved Us $250

Cell Phone

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If you want to chop down the price of your cell phone bill, there are about a dozen ways to do it.   If you want to cut the price of the monthly service you could go with a no contract provider, you could sign up for only talk and text, or you could even just pay for minutes. It all depends upon what you want out of your cell phone service.   Additionally, the cost of phones varies widely based upon brand name and capability. A person can pick up a basic phone from any mobile phone provider inexpensively or a used smart phone can be had for a pretty good deal online.

But what if you’re part of the segment of the population that enjoy technology, like the service and coverage available from a major carrier, and want to have a phone that at least is in the ball park of the latest and greatest? Do those people simply have to resign themselves to the fact that they’ll be paying an arm and a leg for it without hope of a good deal from time to time?

 

Wrong. We stumbled across a great discount on a cell phone upgrade completely by accident.

My son informed us that the wifi on his phone was no longer working. He had done some research and found that this sort of thing happens from time to time on Apple iPhones.   This poses a bit of a problem, because without wifi access, 100% of his data usage would come out of our data plan. If you’ve ever had someone stream a movie to a mobile device while traveling, you know how fast the data meter can spin. He has had his phone, which he paid for himself, for several years without losing it or causing any damage to it.   Add in the fact that he’s getting straight A’s in school, we decided we would investigate getting him a new phone.

We walked into the AT&T store just shy of noon, and were greeted warmly by the manager saying he would be with us in just a minute. A few minutes later he came over and immediately starting apologizing. I don’t know what was going on with the staffing at that store, but he said he was extremely short staffed, and the wait time to talk to someone was 3-4 hours.

There was no way I was waiting hours to talk to someone about a cell phone, especially on Football Sunday.

As we drove home, we decided to stop into BestBuy and see what they could do for us.  As we shelled the BestBuy employee with questions, we found out that there were two promotions going on that may be of interest to us:

  • Each new ATT Next Plan activation is eligible for a $50 BestBuy Gift Card.
  • Upgrading any smart phone to a Galaxy S5 receives a $200 BestBuy Gift Card.

My son’s eyes lit up, as he wanted to switch from iPhone to an Android phone.

We had to pay for the sales tax, plus we required him to have an Otter Box case on his phone to protect it. Those two items totaled close to $100, which we paid for with the gift cards. We walked out of the store with a new Galaxy S5 for my son, with a case, and about $150 of BestBuy credit. Of course, we also got a monthly bill of $27. We’ll initially make the payments, but as soon as he turns 16 in January and gets a part-time job he will inherit those payments.  It’s never a good sale if it makes you buy something you weren’t going to buy anyway.  The special promotion was on the phone my son really wanted, so it we got a great discount on the product we were looking to purchase anyway.

Cheaper plans and phones could be found. But if you have room in your budget, and the latest and greatest cell phone is something you want to spend your money on, it’s worth it to shop around even if you’re going to stick with your same provider. If you match prices and kickbacks between different authorized retailers, you might just save a little bit of cash.

Have you ever saved money on a new mobile phone because of a promotion at a retailer? How much did you save?

About Travis

24 Responses to “Finding a Cell Phone Promotion By Accident Saved Us $250”

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  1. Good to know you don’t have to give up the phone completely to get a good deal. Because I travel so often for work, I’ve been hesitant to make any switches to Republic wireless or other similar companies, but keeping coverage AND saving money? Alright!

    • Travis says:

      Companies like Apple do not allow retailers to put their products on sale (so I’ve heard), but they get around that by offering gift cards for the retailer instead of discounting the product. I was very surprised to see such a remarkable deal going on at BestBuy in comparison to the actual AT&T store. What a crazy day!

  2. Nice work Travis! What’s even crazier is the wait time they gave you at the Verizon store. We’ve been able to score a few deals here and there, but not this good. But, I think we’re going to be going the no-contract route when our plan expires early next year – I can’t wait to shave that extra $100/month out of our budget and over to investing. 🙂

    • Travis says:

      Yeah, I have no idea what was going on at the store (it was actually AT&T). They must have recently changed things around, as the counter was gone, and there were a bunch of individual tables for people to work with employees at – sort of more like the Apple store. I dunno if they had a bunch of people quit, or what….but he said there was supposed to be 8 people working, and he only had 2. I felt really bad for the manager….

  3. We just switched over to Verizon for our service and with each new two year contract you got 1 gig of date free for the length of it. So we signed up both my sons so we got 2 gigs are shared data for free. Roughly a $20 value per month or $480 for the length of the contract. Sounds pretty good to me.

  4. I found out about a different at&t plan (that at&t conveniently never told me about) from an apple store employee when I had to buy a new phone (my phone broke but I was eligible for an upgrade). If I never got the new phone I would have never known. Saves me about $30/month.

    • Travis says:

      Cell phone plans seem to be changing frequently these days….it’s like the major carriers are in a price war. I think at least for the foreseeable future, it’s going to be in our best interest to check the carriers every now and then and see if the plans available and pricing have changed. Thanks for sharing your experience, Tonya!

  5. Nice work Travis. Many people don’t know about getting plans at BestBuy or Radio Shack. Those places put on promotions all of the time which don’t coincide with the service promotions.

    • Travis says:

      I knew you could go to BestBuy for phones and plans (although they don’t do T-mobile anymore apparently), but I didn’t know they would be offering something like this. I thought it would actually be a tough sell, because they may not have the same inventory as the actual ATT store. But, I guess you sometimes get perks with going to another major retailer…they have some leverage to offer (their own gift cards) that other authorized ATT dealers do not!

  6. Nice! It must have been fate! I’ve actually had similar things happen many times in my life. Recently, we were waiting to get into a crowded restaurant, when we decided to leave due to the wait. We found a smaller hole in the wall restaurant nearby. Not only was the food amazing, but someone randomly paid for our meal. We don’t even know who it was! That would have never happened had we stayed.

    • Travis says:

      Doesn’t it seem like the best restaurants are those hole in the wall kind of places?? My wife and I found one downtown in the city we went to college….it was SUPER cheap, and delicious – perfect for a college student! Thanks for reading, Kalen Bruce!

  7. catherine says:

    That’s great! I had a similar, though not on the same scale when I swicthed from Blackberry to android (I’d never go Apple). As long as I turned over my old BB they gave me a free Samsung (at the time the S3 was out) and my bill decreased by $25/month….decent!

    • Travis says:

      That sounds like a Win/Win, Catherine! I used to be a big anti-Apple person too….and I don’t think I’ll ever switch over to iPhone, I really don’t have a problem with the product. Seems easy to use, and the new ones are really light and thin. That being said, I LOVE my galaxy phone as well…..I’m sticking with that. 🙂

  8. Great lessons for your son, Travis! Our girls are still a little young for cell phones, although Lauren will be wanting one within a year or two. So right now, my husband and I have cell phones through work. And I have to admit when work pays for them, I don’t do as much due diligence to make sure I’m getting the best price. 🙂 But you can bet when it’s time for Lauren and Taylor get phones and I’m paying for it – we’re going to look for the best deal!

    • Travis says:

      That’s great that you have employer provided phones…that’s a significant expense that you don’t have to worry about (for now). That’s the best kind of discount! 🙂

  9. It’s awesome that your son saved up for his phone and is taking good care of it. I know many adults that can’t do that!

    Great deal scouting!

    • Travis says:

      I know what you mean, Emily – I see kids of all ages, and adults, walking around with cracked screens, and phones that look like they’ve played catch with them (and dropped them) on gravel. My kids’ phones look like they’re brand new! Of course we told them how much they’re worth retail, and said that if they break or get lost they either go without a phone, or they have to buy a new one…so I think they were motivated. 🙂 Thanks for your comment!

  10. jeffersonq says:

    Very nicely done by your son, Travis!

    I just found out that my new job offers a cell phone reimbursement that will cover a large portion of my bill. That is a very sweet perk as well!

    • Travis says:

      That IS a sweet perk, Jefferson! I get a discount through my employer off the data plan – it’s not a huge savings, but every little bit helps. Thanks for sharing!

  11. Great job! I think it’s great that he’ll have to pay his own cell phone bill in a few months. That will teach him =) Our kids aren’t old enough to have their own phones yet but I plan to do the same thing.

  12. I got really lucky as I saw the paid campaign for Walmart Family Mobile JUST when our 2-year contract was up with Sprint. Both Victoria and I got the LG L9 phones and the unlimited no-contract plan and we’ve been really happy with it. Now it seems like every company is starting to slash the price of their plans.

    • Yeah, we’re on ATT’s no contract plan – which is actually simply paying for the service and not for the phone upgrade in two years. So…..now we’re paying for his phone (at least for a bit). We’ll see how long this one lasts him? Thank for dropping by!

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