You share utilities with your roommates. Why not your phone bill?
You鈥檝e finally moved out on your own and you鈥檙e feeling free. Free to decorate how you want, blast your stereo whenever, and 鈥� oh, right 鈥� pay your own bills.
NerdWallet has found that many young adults聽聽because it saves money all around. If you鈥檙e not so lucky, consider setting up your own family plan with friends or roommates.
Having roommates may already lower your cost of living: You share rent, utilities, maybe even food. If you鈥檙e managing expenses collectively, a shared cell phone bill shouldn鈥檛 be too much extra trouble.
Go prepaid 鈥�
If you get some friends on board, it鈥檚 probably best to jump on a聽. They鈥檙e generally cheaper than bigger carriers like Verizon and AT&T, and there鈥檚 no credit check to get service. Plus, most prepaid carriers offering family plans don鈥檛 force you to share data. Instead, they divvy up monthly data allotments into separate buckets. (Jenny might drink your milk, but at least she won鈥檛 hog your gigabytes.)
础听聽can get you significantly cheaper cell service than an individual line. For instance, a basic Cricket Wireless plan with unlimited talk and text plus 2.5GB is $40 per month. With its 鈥済roup save discount,鈥� four lines on the basic plan come out to $100 per month all together, or $25 per month, per roommate. You can save $180 a year.
鈥� but know what you鈥檙e getting into
Many prepaid providers piggyback on bigger carriers鈥� networks, so the service is essentially the same. For instance, Virgin Mobile operates on Sprint鈥檚 network without restriction.
This isn鈥檛 always the case, however. When you look at prepaid carriers like Cricket, which operates on AT&T鈥檚 network, you鈥檒l find that Cricket gets the same coverage, but its LTE data download speeds are capped below what you鈥檇 usually get on an AT&T plan.
So make sure you know whether your prepaid carrier comes with any caveats and whether you鈥檒l get good local service on its network provider. You鈥檒l also want to know聽, as the average cell phone user usually clocks in between 2GB and 3GB. Don鈥檛 pay for more than you actually use.
Another thing to keep in mind with prepaid providers: They don鈥檛 all allow you to bring your own phone. Some, like Cricket, are compatible with most unlocked phones. Others, like Virgin, only allow you to use a handset you buy directly from the carrier. The bigger carriers all have some sort of installment plan, in which you can pay for an expensive phone over a couple of years. With prepaid carriers, you鈥檒l have to buy your phone upfront if your current phone isn鈥檛 compatible.
If some or all of your group are in the market for a new phone, all the better. If not, you鈥檒l have to weigh the value of purchasing new phones against the savings on your monthly bill.
For those with good credit,聽聽offer a potential way out. They鈥檙e inexpensive, have separate data allotments and allow new phones to be paid in installments. Plus T-Mobile鈥檚 got some of the best data-saving features around, allowing users unlimited video and music streaming.
Don鈥檛 lose friendships over a cell phone bill
If you鈥檙e going in on a family plan with friends, make sure you set clear expectations about who鈥檚 responsible for paying the bill and when the money from everyone else is due. Your slacker roommates might be cool with a brief power outage due to a late bill, but letting their cell phone get shut off? That might be just the right amount of motivation to pay on time.
The point person whose name is on the bill might get stuck covering for a delinquent friend who doesn鈥檛 pay by the due date. So you鈥檒l want to make sure your fellow family plan members are reliable and that they know they鈥檙e responsible for any extra charges they incur on the bill. Getting something in writing could be a good way to keep everyone honest.
Sprint used to have a 鈥淔ramily鈥� plan that allowed separate billing for different members of a family plan, but has since discontinued it. No other carriers allow separate payments, so be sure everyone remembers to pay on time.
Go ahead, float the idea to your roommates. You don鈥檛 have to be family to be on a family plan.
Stephen Layton聽is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email:聽slayton@nerdwallet.com.
This article was written by and was originally published by聽.
