I recently read an article about Ting and how much you can save with their service. Out of curiosity, I checked out their website and ran the "how much can I save" calculator. The results were mind blowing. So mind blowing, in fact, that I doubt I'm doing this correctly and wanted to hear from others who use Ting (or something similar) or also looked into it and found something that I'm missing that changes the savings results.
Below is a screenshot of what they are telling me I'll save:
I signed up for Verizon in September. We purchased 5 iPhone 6's (4 16gb and 1 64gb). We have 21 months remaining under contract. I had previously been with AT&T for 9 years, so I'm not one to jump around.
From what I understand (and this is what I used when answering the questions needed for the calculator), I'll need to sell my Verizon iPhones as they won't work (only Sprint phones will). They recommend a service called Glyde which quoted me $433 for each of the 16gb models and $500 for the 64gb). They are calculating an ETF of $1650. I think I paid for two of these phones in full, however, so that number might be a little high. Regardless, I'd like to use it (I'll call VZ if it seems worth pursuing to get the actual numbers later) as I'd rather be pleasantly surprised that I'm saving even more if I go this route.
I entered the information about number of lines, data used each of the past three months, minutes used each of the past three months, messages used each of the past three months, and the bill total pre-tax for the past three months into their calculator.
As some of you know, I've been out of work since last February and had a major surgery ($6,000 out of pocket) this month, so money is running a bit low right now even though my wife luckily has an excellent and high-paying job. I'm hoping to get work in the next month or so, but who knows? Even if I was working and making good money, I'm always looking for savings.
How in the holy hell can I have 5 iPhones (they'd only be iPhone 5c's now) and continue to use the data, messaging, and minutes we've used on average over the past few months (likely to continue with similar numbers hereafter) and save this much money? I know I'm missing something. It can't possibly be this good. Can it?
Only downside I see is that I'd have to convince the family to fork over their iPhone 6s and use iPhone 5c's (real first-world problem, I know, especially when I'm not contributing financially right now to the family budget).
Possible major downside is the coverage. We tried Sprint for a few weeks between AT&T and Verizon and the coverage sucked. My wife complained constantly about it. I've been told, however, that although Ting uses Sprint's service it also uses other services to cover weak signal areas. Ting has this coverage map with my area on it. If true, I have zero idea why our Sprint coverage was so bad for those few weeks we tried it.
edit: one more thing. We recently found out that my wife's employer has an agreement with Verizon that gives us 19% off each month. That only starts this month, so those savings haven't been factored into what I used in the calculator - I just used what we were charged. Not sure how much this will affect the overall savings, but I'm sure it's not enough where I'm better off staying with Verizon.
Below is a screenshot of what they are telling me I'll save:
I signed up for Verizon in September. We purchased 5 iPhone 6's (4 16gb and 1 64gb). We have 21 months remaining under contract. I had previously been with AT&T for 9 years, so I'm not one to jump around.
From what I understand (and this is what I used when answering the questions needed for the calculator), I'll need to sell my Verizon iPhones as they won't work (only Sprint phones will). They recommend a service called Glyde which quoted me $433 for each of the 16gb models and $500 for the 64gb). They are calculating an ETF of $1650. I think I paid for two of these phones in full, however, so that number might be a little high. Regardless, I'd like to use it (I'll call VZ if it seems worth pursuing to get the actual numbers later) as I'd rather be pleasantly surprised that I'm saving even more if I go this route.
I entered the information about number of lines, data used each of the past three months, minutes used each of the past three months, messages used each of the past three months, and the bill total pre-tax for the past three months into their calculator.
As some of you know, I've been out of work since last February and had a major surgery ($6,000 out of pocket) this month, so money is running a bit low right now even though my wife luckily has an excellent and high-paying job. I'm hoping to get work in the next month or so, but who knows? Even if I was working and making good money, I'm always looking for savings.
How in the holy hell can I have 5 iPhones (they'd only be iPhone 5c's now) and continue to use the data, messaging, and minutes we've used on average over the past few months (likely to continue with similar numbers hereafter) and save this much money? I know I'm missing something. It can't possibly be this good. Can it?
Only downside I see is that I'd have to convince the family to fork over their iPhone 6s and use iPhone 5c's (real first-world problem, I know, especially when I'm not contributing financially right now to the family budget).
Possible major downside is the coverage. We tried Sprint for a few weeks between AT&T and Verizon and the coverage sucked. My wife complained constantly about it. I've been told, however, that although Ting uses Sprint's service it also uses other services to cover weak signal areas. Ting has this coverage map with my area on it. If true, I have zero idea why our Sprint coverage was so bad for those few weeks we tried it.
edit: one more thing. We recently found out that my wife's employer has an agreement with Verizon that gives us 19% off each month. That only starts this month, so those savings haven't been factored into what I used in the calculator - I just used what we were charged. Not sure how much this will affect the overall savings, but I'm sure it's not enough where I'm better off staying with Verizon.
