Call me Cheapskate

I have been contemplating unburdening myself from my monthly cellular telephone bill for a long time now, and moving to a different area code was the perfect catalyst for switching to a prepaid plan.

The reason to switch to prepaid was to save money, and the requirements were GSM and WNP. I already had my mind set on switching to Petro Mobility for its minimal cost (only monthly cost is $0.99 for E911), ease of topping up, long balance expiration, and features included. Also, the purchasing the prepaid phone (perhaps the only negative, as you cannot simply buy the SIM card), comes with a starting credit of $5.

As I did with my parents, who rarely use their cell phone, it was a simple cost benefit analysis.

They had a monthly plan with Telus, 200minutes for approximately $30/month. I analyzed their last six months of bills which showed that at most 15 minutes were used (including accidental calls when the keypad was not locked). Assuming that their phone usage doesn't change, this amounts to a monthly cost of 15minutes * $0.20/minute + $0.99 = $3.99!! That's a $26/month saving! When I actually purchased the phone, it came with another $20 airtime bonus as well.

In my case, my monthly bill was at least $90/month, and while I typically did not exceed my monthly allowed minutes, I did rack up quite a few long distance minutes. I also love to send SMS. Now that my living situation is different, I expect a significant change in my LD habits. Assuming in prepaid terms that I will spend $10 on SMS and $80 on local calls, I can talk for 395.05 minutes (6.5 hours) and send about 200 sms.

So far, I have topped up with $20, and we'll see how the savings come along over the next few months.

So why call me cheapskate? Well, since I switched to prepaid, My fiance has caught me rejecting her cell phone calls (she's on Petro Mobility too, so I effectively wasted her 20 cents), and penny pinching at the takeout counters.

I'm well on my way to becoming a grumpy old man :)