tragic flaw number 57

[eirias]

No exciting person is without flaws, right?

My SO is trying to convince me that we should get cell phones. We have discussed it numerous times and I fear I won't be able to stave it off much longer.

It's not that I'm opposed to the devices in general; when I've lived abroad I've had them (still have my GSM hardware from the last trip, actually) and found them extremely useful. In Finland there's not really another option, as the country is basically not wired for land lines and if you want one you have to pay the phone company to physically put it there. So I am not the Luddite sort of cell phone abstainer, the kind who doesn't want to be reached at any time that is not convenient to me. I like being reached, in general. I am also not (terribly) afraid of brain cancer.

No; the issue here is that, in some circumstances, I am cheap as hell. Specifically, the paranoid, competitive part of me that is the closest our social instincts come to reptile brains -- that part is cheap as hell. It's the part of me that, when playing the ultimatum game, wants to reject any offer that's less than 50%. When I read the various plans offered by cell phone providers, this bit of me just starts a giant caterwaul. THAT'S TOO MUCH MONEY! it says. TEN CENTS FOR AN SMS? OUTRAGEOUS! I know, I say, but... THAT'S TWICE AS MUCH AS YOU PAID OVERSEAS! AND FOR WHAT?? HOW CAN YOU EVEN THINK OF SPENDING SO MUCH MONEY ON FRIVOLITIES?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LITTLE YOU MAKE?!

By this point the rational part of me that realizes I am (A) part of a family that makes more than I do and (B) essentially powerless in this situation and so I might as well give up and fork over the cash has tuned out and wants to go back to reading LiveJournal. Or maybe even doing work. Anything but reading about cell phone plans.

Comments

[ksledgemoore.livejournal.com]

I find that a lot of aspects of cell phones/cell phone company services are rip-offs. However, simply having a cell phone, I think, is cheaper than relying on a land line for your phone calls. Now, I suppose I could schedule in my friends and family to call me on my land line (requiring that I be at home and not able to move around too much in the house) so that they would pay for all of the long distance calls, but cell phones are more convenient because I can do my cleaning while on the phone, I can talk on the phone while I'm out such as on my walking commute (though I try to avoid using it too much in public places where other people will be annoyed), etc. On the weekends and in the evenings all minutes are free, and between people of my same company they are free. The only part that annoys me is that we can't opt for fewer minutes at a cheaper rate because we're already on the cheapest version (700 for the two of us to share, I think).

But yeah, given that nearly all of our people live far away and phoning is the best method of communication, I'm glad we have the phones. It's also convenient when we need to contact each other during the day or at other times, though that part of it is sort of a luxury that we could perhaps do without.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Yeah; I know that the math works out re: cell phones vs land lines for some people, but not for us. First, we've got a family of 2, so we're choosing between paying for 1 phone plan or 2, essentially. Second, the land line plan we have is pretty good (due to some serious strangeness with some calls I made to Anchorage, I think they kind of tried to buy us out of complaining to the FCC or something by giving us their "Select" plan for free, which means oodles of free long distance minutes each month). Plus neither of us is keen on the whole "911 can't find you" aspect of cell phones (not always a feature, but enough to be worrisome, last I heard). So I don't think abandoning the land line is a sensible alternative for us at this point.

Oh and I don't care about people who are annoyed by cell phone use in public -- I think the same etiquette should apply to those conversations as applies to in-person conversations in public (watch your volume, try not to talk about anything TOO lurid). I think cell phones came of age over here while I was "over there," and so I just got used to everyone always being on the phone. It's normal to me.

[ksledgemoore.livejournal.com]

Well, I do see what you mean about the financial aspects...in spite of me saying it's cheaper to do it with cell phones, we would prefer to be a bigger "family" for it to work (we're also just doing 2 people -- maybe we should latch on to one set of our parents) and as it turns out we have a land line in addition anyway, so it's just an extra expense. The land line is very expensive, too, because there was only one option. We got it in order to do the internet, because it was either that or cable and we don't have a tv.

I guess if I got long distance through my land line then I wouldn't want a cell phone, either! My husband and I are even considering switching to one shared phone...but I think that might be dumb because the people we call the most are each other.

[exilejedi.livejournal.com]

Read some interesting tips recently; basically it boils down to:

1. Go to a physical store to sign up; do not use the internet or phone to do so.
2. Find a store that's owned by the company itself and not a franchised one.
3. Negotiate with the manager to get startlingly better deals than you would otherwise get.

[evil-fizz.livejournal.com]

Go to a physical store to sign up; do not use the internet or phone to do so.

I think I would distinguish between going to the store to sort out a plan and getting a phone. "Free phones" usually mean a two year contract extension. You can get decent deals on "unlocked" phones on Amazon. Tom got a new one recently, and it was half the price on Amazon. (When compared to the list price offered in the store.)

[exilejedi.livejournal.com]

You can negotiate a month-by-month deal with an in-store rep that you could never negotiate over the internet or phone. I've managed to do this. It helps to have a great story about how you're thinking of switching from some other carrier, etc., if only the deal were sweet enough..... :-)

[marphod.livejournal.com]

I went pre-paid myself.

The cost, per use, is significantly higher than my land line, or even most moderate plans, but my usage is really low. I spent 10$ the day I got the phone (phone, minus rebates), and I've spent 100$ for more mintues since then.

The price works out to 10c a minute and 10c per outgoing SMS (incoming is free). I've still got over half my purchased minutes left. Its been 9 month -- I may run into a situation where the minutes I bought are going to expire before I use them.

Ah, well. Still, the cheapest way for me to get a cell phone.

[cynic51.livejournal.com]

I still don't have one. My girlfriend delights in pointing out all the various scenarious where I might need one, but it's not worth the money to me. She might wear me down eventually, but more likely is that she'll follow through on her repeated threat to get me a second phone on her plan. In which case, I suspect it will get lost rather quickly.

[alfeld.livejournal.com]

So, if I understand you correctly, your objection is basically: "The grass is greener on the other side so I'm not going to have any grass at all."?

However better a deal I could get overseas I do keep my cell phone...

[thekat03.livejournal.com]

if you have anyone else you can incorporate into your "family," it may be a bit more manageable. for example, tod and i have a 4 cell phone plan, with each of us carrying a phone, one for la, and one for my parents. splitting a family plan between two isn't much cheaper per phone than individual plans, but splitting it more ways is a bit better.

alternatively, try out the prepaid phones. if you're really used to not using a cell phone, it will probably end up being cheaper.

[rshruti.livejournal.com]

If you're not sure how much your usage will be, or if you're keeping the land line and just using the cell for emergencies, prepaid might be the way to go, at least at first while you figure out your usage. I am personally looking into Virgin Mobile, which seems to have the least sucky terms around and uses Sprint's network. Of course, I'm still waiting for society to force me to get a cell phone (like, an announcement that all pay phones are going to be taken down or something).

I have the exact same reaction as you when I read the various plans online ($70 per month?!?! Why would I spend that on a PHONE?!)

[kirin]

We go for a plan that gives a modest number of anytime-minutes per month, which roll over. This has the advantage for anyone who doesn't use the phone lots (like, pretty much everyone I know) that the anytime-minutes soon accrue to be effectively infinite. The value of this is that you then never have to worry about expensive extra charges for running over, no matter what time of day or week you end up suddenly needing to spend an hour on the phone for an emergency. And you can also use it frivolously from time to time with no concern.

It's probably not the absolute cheapest plan in existence, but the never-worry-about it aspect sure is nice. For the same reasoning we also got the nation-wide no-roaming. (Most common need for cell phones? While traveling. Roaming charges suck a lot.)

OTOH, if you plan to use it *really* infrequently, the pre-pay per-minute plans other people have mentioned might end up being better.

[japlady.livejournal.com]

I use the pay as you go phones, you can get one seriously cheap and its only $20 every 3 months, i.e., $80 a year.

[japlady.livejournal.com]

Still have a land line, and my phones message redirects folks to leave any messages there. I only have it on if I'm expecting a call, or trying to meet up with someone, or if the car breaks down, etc.

Other wise there's very little that requires a person can't wait till I get home to tell me about.