Well I did it. I finally got my own phone plan. Previously I was on my parents and they finally decided they were done paying my phone bill so they helped me transfer to my own plan. It’s so expensive!! It’s going to be $117 a month! What?! And my old phone was 6 years old and on its last leg so I traded it in and it got enough credit to get me a new iPhone 16. I’m stoked about the new phone, but today out the door was $185 after the “transfer fee” “activation fee” and a screen protector and phone case. My first months bill is due tomorrow. I’m gonna have to carefully budget in order to not go under with bills. My parents were very sweet in paying my phone bill all these years. I’m 26 so it’s about time I have my own phone plan. I offered to pay my portion of the phone bill and stay on their plan, but they said no. So now I’m a big girl all on my own. Whoop.
I pay around 40$ for unlimited att android
Do you have Xfinity where you live? I pay $35 a month for phone and $10 for internet.
I’m still on my parent’s Verizon phone plan but i understand that they won’t be around forever, which is why i have a Lifeline phone thru the local carrier…it’s got limited internet and only costs $7 a month. The Verizon phone has unlimited internet, which is nice cuz i quit paying for Wifi a few months ago.
wow thats a lot. thats why i never do contracts. mine is $15 a month. they get u with the “free” phone but u end up paying way more in the long run than buying a phone unlocked
congratulations on ur new phone tho. iphone 16 looks cool
Yes I agree my plan is quite expensive. It’s with Verizon, I don’t trust any other carriers
Enjoy your new phone. I love the iPhones.
i pay about 100 bucks a month for phone but i use it as my internet connection too
How many months is that for?
My phone is £45 a month for 24 months and the sim only deal is £7
- Strap up for the roller-coaster ride.
I remember when my mother led me into that same trap (with AT&T) about 8 or so years ago, and it actually qualifies as one of those times I would have used a time machine to travel back in time and stopped myself from listening to her ‘directional behavior’ (retrospective cringing right now).
Of course this is the same woman who would spend $900 USD every few months to refill our natural gas tank, instead of using the subscription plan to cut the same bill down to $500 a tank refill. Never trusting her with finances ever again.
So I used to pay ~$80 a month for ATT’s Post-pay plan, like the sucker I was. And then spent an extra 800 on an ‘newest and greatest’ iPhone which is presently junk/spyware I passed on to my dad to use for his own phone. Sounds familiar?
Then I switched to consumer cellular Post-pay for ~$40 a month post-pay for about 10 GB.
Then moved over to several other carrier Prepaid plans for ~$50 a month with higher data limit plans.
And now I use Mint mobile Prepaid plans for ~$2 a gigabyte, if I pay upfront for the 6 month period. Of course that goes down to ~$45 for 3 months of 20-40 GBs of service (so 60Gb-120Gb altogether in 3 months) IF you can use the ‘new customer’ promotional offer. (They don’t allow you to spam the promotion over and over again anymore, apparently, which I heard is what someone else did for a long time 
)
And I have an older pixel phone which I got for ~$400, and converted it to the de-googled OS Graphene, for privacy purposes.
And I figured out, through a long and expensive process of trial and error, how to use a mobile router for gaming purposes (Don’t use AT&T, they love NAT type-D to death and then the afterlife… so may they rot in hell, for a long list of more reasons on top of that.)
In the commercial world you have to learn to rig the system to your own advantage, and press the envelope to know where the hidden exploits can be found. I could have saved ~$5000 or more dollars, if I started out knowing what I know now.
And of course now I want to downgrade to a minimal phone and spend less on my internet, so like: what was the whole point? Going in a full circle to end up starting in a more humble place where I could have initially began, if had I known all of this already, with greater awareness and understanding.
And with 1000s of dollars saved for better use, instead of being spent to fuel gadgetry on the world of the dead internet.
Optimal:
- You can get a internet plan under a business plan, which requires a business account to sign up, but actually has near-unlimited data usage (I think I heard around 200-300GBs per month for the same monthly price of consumer plans, so around $50-100.)
- Have a de-googled phone to your preferences.
- Use a VoIP service with different numbers for non-intimate relationships of low priority, instead of using your real phone number.
IF you are heavily privacy oriented:
- Don’t own a phone, literally. The tracking is horrendous.
- Use secured Email or Briar for contacts, as an alternative.
- OR use a minimalist phone without GPS tracking chips, combined with a Faraday bags and mic lock for good measure.
If you go this far, then stick to the first point, and just don’t own a phone to begin with.
And yes, FYI Siri/Alexa are listening in, with your consent, meaning the terms/conditions/privacy-policy/etc… That has been confirmed, and is nothing to be overly concerned about for most normies.
But If you love privacy, then…Yeah. Sucks to be alive right now.
Why does everyone need these super expensive phones?
I bought a cheap Android for $130.00 and pay $28 a month for service. I get email, text, phone and lots more bells and whistles.
At that price, you must have unlimited data. I do and I pay 110. per month with Verizon. I don’t have or need Wi-Fi, since I can plug my iPhone into my computer and use the iPhone’s “Hotspot” to get internet on my computer. So, 110. per month is all I pay for everything, phone and computer. I live alone, so it works for me.
I have the same set-up
Congratulations @Hanna_Foxx
Verizon and AT&T are expensive
There are less expensive options out there
That’s a lot but I guess that’s normal for an iphone 16??
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Because I am a fine-art photographer who operates at a master photographer level that needs good equipment that can be pushed to within an inch of its life under challenging conditions. My expensive Samsung does that. A cheap $100 Umidigi off Amazon will not deliver those results. (I do have an Umidigi A15 as well I use for shooting b-roll video).
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I can afford it and I am allowed some toys.
You’d never catch me dead with an Apple product. They overcharge for what they give you. I expect value for the $$$.
Actually because I traded in a paid off phone the new iPhone was practically free. My phone plan itself is $115 and it’s $117 with the new iphone
Congratulations! It’s so nice having a new phone. I got one too last week. Galaxy a16 or something. It’s not the most expensive but, it’s OK and it’s new. I’m making it my baby.
Yeah I did not go with the most expensive one. I just got the base model 16, no fancy upgrades or anything. But it is a huge upgrade from my iPhone XR that was from 2018
That’s exciting 
glad to hear it! Don’t forget a phone case so it lasts you longer