Paul writes travel and tech articles for Dappered. Follow his travel adventures on DrivingInertia.com.
The marketing machine is in full swing behind the new HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4 smartphones, and the hype machine is building behind the iPhone 5S and Nexus 5. I went to Verizon the other day and put one of the latest, greatest phones in my cart and picked out a plan. Verizon is now charging $60 for 2GB of data and a $40 line fee — $100 a month (plus $200 for the subsidized phone). Sure, I can “share” the data, but 2GB isn’t a ton to share. All in, I’d spend $2,600 on this latest, greatest phone over the next two years.
$2,600. Ouch.
Problem is, I also want a new suit, but the only way I can figure to justify one is to cut into the budget elsewhere. What if, for example, I don’t get this phone from Verizon? What if I compromise, buy my own phone, and find myself a deal? What could I afford then? It’s time to shop around.
Option 1: StraightTalk AT&T + Nexus 4 = $1,400 over two years
$1,200 remaining for suits
For $45 a month, StraightTalk wireless offers unlimited talk and text and “unlimited” data. There’s no hard cap with StraightTalk’s data because they piggy-back on multiple networks with different rules, but if I want maximum coverage, I’ll opt for their AT&T option. Yes, I’ll sacrifice the 4G speeds I’d get with Verizon, but I’m willing to compromise on that to still be on a top-tier network. If you’ve got an AT&T-compatible phone (like a still-good iPhone 4S), you can save even more by BYO-ing it, but if you don’t, the $300 Nexus 4 is worth a look with this plan. All in, I’ll end up just under $1,400 over two years.
This leaves $1,200 in savings, which breaks down in suit terms like this:
- In 4 or 5 months, I’d be able to get a new J. Crew Factory Thompson.
- In a year, I’d have banked just enough to get a linen Ludlow (summer 2014 is all of a sudden looking pretty good).
- Or, if I go the distance, my savings can easily get me a Suitsupply La Spalla. Word from Ben is they’re awesome.
My goodness.
UPDATE: StraightTalk AT&T SIMs are in short supply and selling from 3rd parties for $40+ on Amazon. Luckily, there’s an alternate (and still affordable) way to get on AT&T’s network: Red Pocket Mobile. Their $60 unlimited talk, text, and 2GB data plan pushes the two-year total to $1,740, leaving $860 for suits. Still enough for a J. Crew Factory Thompson and a Ludlow, though, but not enough for a La Spalla.
Option 4G: T-Mobile 4G or Sprint LTE on Virgin = $1,100 over two years
$1,500 remaining for suits
At Dappered, we love Virgin Mobile. The phones are reasonably priced, the Sprint network is solid (cue enraged former-customer comment), and the plans are a deal. Plans start at $35 a month for 300 minutes, unlimited texts, and “unlimited” data (Virgin Mobile throttles you at 2.5GB). And Virgin now offers a 4G LTE phone, the Samsung Galaxy Victory (on sale for $230). It’s a tempting deal and will set me back $1,100 over two years if I opt for it. [Note: You can save another $100 by opting for the very-solid HTC One V ($130).]
Then there’s T-Mobile. They recently revamped their pricing structure, but they left their best-deal plan alone. It provides “unlimited” data (throttled after 5GB at 4G speed), unlimited texting, and 100 minutes of talk. The plan is buried on their website (way near the bottom). It’s also still available via Walmart. Opting for a Nexus 4 ($300) would connect me to T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network, which is not LTE, but it’s pretty damn close. Price is about the same as the Virgin options above, $1,100.
A $1,100 smartphone means there’s $1,500 left in the budget for suits. I could go wild at Indochino.com — picking up three of their Essential suits (probably the light grey, navy, and charcoal), and almost have enough left over for their midnight blue tux. Here’s to hoping they extend the satin all the way across the lapels by then. I could scrape together the sixteen dollars I’d be short.
Tempting.
Option 3: Ting or Republic Wireless = $700 over two years
$1,900 remaining for suits
Republic Wireless offers unlimited text, talk, and data for $19 a month. There are two catches — one is that there’s only one phone (and it’s $250). The other is that they expect you to be on WiFi much of the time. That’s how they keep the cost so low — they route as much as they can through your already-paid-for WiFi network. Meanwhile on Ting, if you keep your existing Sprint phone, you can save some serious money on your monthly plan after your contract expires. It’s possible to build your own plan that comes out to $700 in two years (you’re already $250 ahead thanks to not having to buy a phone). Both Ting and Republic us the Sprint Network.
$1,900 remaining. That’s some serious juice. That’s enough for one $469 Suit Supply Purple Line suit every six months. Four. New. Suits.
Or, if I really wanted to go big, that’s enough for a fully canvased, made in Italy, Brooks Brothers Fitzgerald fit, Golden Fleece suit.
Seriously, how did a nearly $2,000 suit get into play? Or a new suit every six months? Insane.
(Thanks to Adam for the tip on Ting and Serge for the tip on Republic Wireless.)
What do you think? How much tech are you willing to compromise for style? Have you cut back on anything else, like cable/satellite TV, to have more room in your budget? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Just a minor point of clarification on Straight Talk – it uses either the ATT or the T-mobile network, depending on which SIM card you buy. I’ve got an ATT one, and I’m quite happy with the service on my iPhone 4s. I’ll be keeping this thing till it finally kicks it.
Also, the company sometimes offers little discounts, so I only pay $42 a month. Not a huge difference, but it’s something.
Sprint is solid? Looks like someone has never lived in NYC 😉
Anyways, I wish any of those carriers had acceptable service in the city. Unfortunately, Verizon and T-Mobile seem to have the best signal of late (AT&T is slowly getting better while Sprint is atrocious). I’m definitely eying the cheap new T-Mobile plans that don’t require a contract.
My choice ended up being a Galaxy S3 for free (getting more & more frequent every week) and grabbing the cheapest Verizon plan.
For the married folk out there, does anyone know how these comparisons hold up when you’re comparing multi-line plans, or who currently has the best deals? My wife and I are on Verizon, and our contract just expired.
Looking at the Share Everything plans, we’d be out $70/month per line for 2GB, or $75/month if we upped the share pool to 4GB. Not great, but definitely better than the $100 listed above.
For my wife and I, it’s $45 (me on StraightTalk) + $35 (she on Virgin) = $80 a month total.
Maybe it depends on the borough. We were just in Brooklyn and my wife didn’t seem to have any problems with her phone on Virgin.
Hmm, that’s strange. Everywhere I’ve been in Brooklyn that’s close to the river (I live in Williamsburg), Sprint data has been awful. Their voice has always been great but their 3G isn’t acceptable. Especially in lower Manhattan, Sprint data is practically non-existent.
I actually disabled the internet on my smartphone about 36 hours ago. After however many years, at least 7, with a smartphone, it’s tremendously liberating to effectively not have one.
And the honeymoon phase ends in 5, 4, 3….
Doubtful. I’m rarely connected when mobile. And I love it.
Maybe. It’s very possible. But so far, I’m liking it. I’ve flicked the internet on once or twice for Google Maps, when I’ve needed it. But I find myself not pulling my phone out of my pocket for that 30 seconds waiting grocery store checkout line, and it makes all the difference in the world.
I’m happy I have internet access when I need it, but I’ve found myself becoming a distracted mess because it’s always there to tempt me. So this is a happy medium, at least for me.
I was actually wondering that while reading the article, is there a way to choose which network you piggy-back onto so you can get better service? So it’s based on a SIM card and not just whichever network is in the area?
P.S. Love your username.
Option 2 has $35/month for 300 minutes plus unlimited text and data? You guys need to come up to Canada where we have the privilege of paying $60/month for 200 minutes and unlimited text and data.
Don’t even bother going to the competitors. Their plans are exactly the same.
Why not look into the Blackberry Z10?
I know that you have the option at sign-up to either choose a T-Mobile compatible SIM or an ATT compatible SIM. I imagine you could switch back and forth if you wanted, but you would need to purchase both.
It was my understanding that when you buy the ATT SIM, you’re on ATT’s network, and when you buy the T-mobile SIM, you’re on theirs. ATT (which is what I switched from).
Hello, battery life!
An unlocked Z10, while very cool, is as expensive as a Nexus 4 sold inside the pocket of an Indochino blazer.
T-Mobile it is! (Or maybe move to Park Slope?)
Unfortunately the T-Mobile option is heavily dependent on the signal strength in your area. With that said, I recently made the jump from a $90+ a month Verizon plan to the month-to-month $30 T-Mobile (100 minutes, unlimited data) option and haven’t looked back. That extra cash each month adds up quickly and just goes to show you how ridiculously overpriced these 2-year contracts have become. Plus I have the freedom to jump carriers if something better comes along in the future. Can’t beat that.
Thanks for the breakdown. Looking to reduce my bill while getting an upgrade. Mainly looking for talk and text plans as I could care less about data. But looks like you have to have it these days. Leaning towards the HTC one option with a 35 plan.
Lol Blackberry
I’ve been using sprint for 5 years in Manhattan and it had been slowly getting worse since the introduction of the Iphone on the network (I have one so maybe I’m part of the problem?) then Sandy hit and it just became atrocious and has only recently made any significant rebound to pre-Sandy reliability which is still mediocre. My contract is up this year so I’m going to look into some of these options.
I was really just kidding. I’ve been contemplating dropping data when my contract ends. I feel like we value people less when we stop having those little conversations in the checkout line. I also feel like I’d read more without my iPhone. I left Facebook in January and haven’t looked back, so hopefully I can “disconnect” when my contract expires. I would do it sooner, but I see no sense in paying for something (especially paying so much) and not using it.
As far as I’m aware, you cannot purchase the AT&T SIM on Straight Talk anymore (since January), as the company increased restrictions on MVNOs. You can still buy the T-Mobile SIM from Straight Talk, but a much better option for many people would be to purchase the T-Mobile Monthly 4G SIM directly from T ($1 last time I checked) then choose from one of their many plans, such as the $30 100 min/Unlimited Text & Web mentioned in Option 4G.
By the way, T-Mobile seems to be putting in a lot of effort to improve their US network, and I wouldn’t be surprised if their connection speed and availability is better than AT&T/VZW in a years’ time. It’s already arguably the best network in Germany.
Wow, StraightTalk AT&T SIMs are going for $40+ on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Straight-Talk-Compatible-Guide-Included/dp/B00A0D26NG
Going to update this with an alternative: Red Pocket Wireless. Unlimited talk and text and 2GB of data on AT&T’s network. $60 a month and available here: http://goredpocket.com/unlimited-refills/sw2.html
Straight Talk no longer sells ATT compatible SIM cards, so anyone with an ATT device looking to switch over will have to look elsewhere.
Check out Greg’s comment below. The only StraightTalk AT&T SIMs left are the ones already in stock at stores (bummer). They’re no longer available from StraightTalk.com, so the easiest way to get on AT&T’s network is probably through Red Pocket Mobile: http://goredpocket.com/plans
It’s a bummer, but they are still available from some stores and on Amazon. Unfortunately, their price reflects their scarcity.
Nice!
Very interesting take on how to save for a suit. A bit heavy on all of the writing. I have the Virgin Mobile plan, but would probably look elsewhere for compromise. Probably eating out would be a good comparison
just thankful I have a job that hooks me up with an international plan smartphone for free 🙂
Where did you get 200 minutes and unlimited data? Best I could get was 6GB, unlimited text and 100 minutes (plus an unlimited “Top 10”, so I don’t really use them anyway) for 62$. And I had to call their “retention service” saying I wanted to leave them to get that “deal”.
how ludicrous is that “ascot” level tie with that fitz GF suit? who was behind that idea?
Sorry. My error. Data is capped at 1GB. Texting though is unlimited.
Interesting. I’d seen listings for those SIMs on Amazon and eBay but had always just assumed Straight Talk wouldn’t allow activation.
Red Pocket is probably the less-risky option (added above), but you’d save enough money to defray the cost of the expensive Amazon SIM in 3 months. Might be worth the risk. The better idea is to check your local Walmart and get one for $15.
Sell raffle tickets for a date with Beth, but don’t tell her about it.
Stop with this senseless smartphone hype. They’re not functional, overpriced, inconvenient, and full of obsolete and unnecessary functions and apps. If anyone had told me in 2003 that in 10 years phone will be bigger, heavier, bulkier, won’t have a keyboard, will have less battery life, worse reception, worse sound quality, and to use them in winter you’ll have to remove your gloves, I would laugh them in the face. Funny how it worked out.