Not so far, nope.  Years ago my favorite wireless company (Cingular) was absorbed by AT&T, throwing me back into 2 year contract, ever increasing fee hell.  Every time it came up, I looked around annoyed that I was paying extra for texting (really, folks?), limited phone minutes (that I never used, but still) couldn’t afford to put the guys on decent data plans and every 1 MB over the “data limit” was a ridiculous charge.  Most of all, I hated the idea that I was basically paying for a phone over a 2 year period but at the end of that period I just kept paying – no drop in my bill.  Insult to injury, when I went to look at “upgrades” when this contract expired, my “old data plan” was no longer available – please pay more.

So I looked with interest when T-Mobile started advertising their no contract, unlimited everything plans.  I was paying about $130 (including taxes and fees) for our lines, only one smartphone in the bunch with 2 GB of data and constant fear of “going over”.  I never used my “rollover minutes” and I was paying $30 for unlimited texting, without which I would go broke with a teenager.  Off we go to T-Mobile to check it out.  $50 for the first line, $30 for the second – unlimited talk and text, 500 MB for each after which the bandwidth throttles (but doesn’t cost more).  An extra $20 gets me 2.5 GB for each phone with the same throttle. Now for the phones – the guys were happy with the Nokia 521 which, had I financed them over 2 years would have run me $10/month after which that would have dropped off my bill.  I went ahead and bought ’em.  Total monthly bill – $115 (including taxes and fees).

So to compare:

• $15 less per month for a 2 year savings of $360
• 3 GB more data and no additional data charges
• 2 smartphones instead of one

Heck, I even feel good about spending to buy the extra data.  The signal in the house isn’t as good, but it’s not like AT&T was great (one downside of a metal roof) but everywhere else is about the same.  And to give the guy at AT&T credit, when I called to cancel my account and he asked why – I said “T-Mobile” and he said, “Yep, we’re hearing that a lot.  I used to be with them, they will treat you right.”  No argument at all.