How to Use Ooma and Net10 to Cut your Phone Bills in Half
I get excited about re-occurring monthly savings, so today was a good day. I had been paying about $60/month for 2 lines with a monthly Verizon family cell plan, but rarely ever used the 550 minutes given to me. My wife and I generally use about 300 minutes per month. Today, I think I finally came up with a plan that can cut that in half AND offer me more functionality.
I haven’t had a land line in two years, and really never wanted to go down that path ever again. Additionally, monthly service VOIP (such as Vonage) never has really appealed to me because I couldn’t foresee using it enough to justify the $25/month charges. So here’s my two-part plan to cut my monthly bills from $60 to $30 and actually get more service.
Part 1: Switch to a New Pay-by-the Minute Prepaid Cell Plan
I’ve decided to transfer my Verizon numbers to Net10. Net10 is a Tracfone brand. Basically you pay 10 cents per minute with no daily airtime fees if you use your phone. It’s just 10 cents per minute for all domestic calls (text messages are 5 cents each to send and receive). I’ve heard coverage with Tracphones are pretty good. The clincher for me was that there are no daily air-time usage fees. A lot of the other prepaid cell plans charge you $0.99 or more for each day you actually use the phone in addition to the per minute charges. With these plans, if you end up using the phone daily, you’re typically paying more than you would be with a standard monthly service plan.
Right now they have a sale where you can get a Motorola phone + 300 minutes for just $49.99, a savings of $40. Essentially, with the 300 minutes, you are getting the phone for $20. Not bad, especially considering that my old Verizon phones are going for about $50/each on EBay.
Part 2: Buying an Ooma
Ooma is a VOIP system that charges a flat up-front price for the equipment, and then you are never charged again. There are zero monthly service charges. All you need is high speed internet to hook it into, and then it can be used with a regular landline phone. The cheapest I found the ooma Core VoIP system was on Amazon
How Ooma & Net10 Combined will Cut my Bills in Half
I will never use more than 300 cell minutes per month between the two phones, which means I shouldn’t go over $30 per month on the Net10 plan. With the Ooma being $200, I will break even within 7 months with Ooma and the two phones on Net10 (vs. my previous cell plan). After that, Ooma is basically free, and my only phone expenses are the $30 per month for my minutes with Net10. I will have effectively just cut my phone bills in half!
Additionally, I will be Able to now Enjoy the Following 6 Benefits
- No more cell phone contracts, so if Net10 isn’t any good, I can easily go elsewhere without a significant expense.
- No more accidental overage charges, or having to worry about my minutes (Net10 shows you the minutes and service period left on your cell phone screen).
- I’ll have a VOIP and won’t have to worry about my minutes. The Ooma has been said to have better clarity than landlines (and definitely better than a cell phone). The reviews on Amazon look pretty good.
- You can’t transfer numbers with landlines, your Ooma number moves with you.
- I will now be able to use a home fax line again, if I need to.
- With the Ooma, if I need a second line, I can get one for fairly cheap ($13/month, I believe).
I’ll report back with reviews on each of the services shortly.
Save Money on Phone Bills Discussion:
- What clever ways have you been able to cut your phone bills?
- Have you tried Ooma or Net10? What are your thoughts?
- Are there any other phone services out there you couldn’t live without?
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Sweet plan. Yeah, I’ve always been scared off by the daily usage fees on pre-paid plans. Makes them seem like a rip off and really constraining. Haven’t heard of Ooma yet, so really excited to hear how it turns out for you.
“Monthly service VOIP such as Skype”? Skype does have a monthly service, but they are best known for their a la cart 2 cents a minute voice service. And their monthly plan is something like $3/month. Not sure why you think it’s $25/month.
At $200 for the Ooma, that’s almost 100,000 minutes you’d have to use on Skype to break even (not counting lost interest). At 300 minutes/month, that’s more than 25 years.
Sorry, I meant “a la carte.” *
My bad – insert Vonage for Skype. Skype is a real possibility that’s worth mentioning – but what was attractive with the Ooma is you get your own number, can receive calls, and don’t have to be on your computer. I don’t know enough about Skype to know how its features compare. Can you give a rundown, Andrew?
Skype–have to be on your computer unless you buy a Skype phone, not sure how much those cost but not $200. Can get unlimited outgoing calls to the U.S. & Canada for $3/mo and get your own number and receive calls for $30/yr. Call quality is probably not as good as Vonage or Ooma but it’s highly dependent on how good your internet is. The good thing is you can test it out for free, since all calling to toll free numbers is free on Skype (don’t even have to pay the two cents a minute).
Just a note, in my experience faxing documents over a VoIP line very rarely works well. I’ve never tried Ooma, but anything over 2 pages is pretty much guaranteed to fail and 1-2 pages are still lucky to transmit successfully.
I call 1-800-FREE411 (1-800-373-3411) instead of 411. Last month alone I saved $20 off my bill just by doing this switch. I never thought I called 411 that often but I guess I did. They have business, governemnt, and residential listings and they also have daily horoscopes and weather. It is really easy to use. You listen to 2 short ads while they get your number, but sometimes those ads have special promotions!
Or call 1-800-GOOG-411 (Google 411) which is also free, and you don’t even have to listen to an ad while they get your number.
I’ve been using Ooma for 2 months now and highly recommend it. Many people have phone, cable, and internet bundles now, so the service may not save them money, but us it worked perfectly.
I don’t know anything about Ooma but it sounds good. I do have a Net10 phone which is really great, I’m now saving money every month just by having it and making the same number of calls. I recommend Net10 prepaid but my wife has a Tracfone which is also good so either one.
I have ooma and use it with my cell phone also. However, I have Page Plus Cellular, which is an MVNO using the Verizon Wireless network. You can port your number for free and they include 100 minutes. You can also activate your existing Verizon phone. The benefits is of course the widespread and reliable Verizon network and minutes last 120 days and rollover when you add another pin/card. Minutes are less than .06 (6 cpm) when you get an $80 card. Also, you can have a cell phone for as low as $2.50 / month by adding a $10 card every 4 months.
@ Bill – good plug. I checked out their site. There is no daily airtime fees? Looks a bit cheaper than Net10, but with more add on fees (their phones are more expensive, it’s $10 if you change phones, etc.). But I do like that you get 4 months of added service by just buying a $10 card. I’m paying for the service dates and not even utilizing my full allotment of minutes with Net10.
I have a Net-10 phone. I’m a big fan of prepaid plans especially since I’ve been paying for unused minutes under traditional plans for years. I’m also a fan of TracFone but made the switch to Net 10 b/c it has more gadgets to play with. The current phone I have came equipped with blue tooth, 1.3 megapixels camera, MP3 player and FM radio and still was very affordable!!
TracFone is cheaper cell provider if you don’t use a lot of minutes. I dont even use 400 minutes a year so buying a one year card for $99 or less + $20-40 for the phone and I’m done. I usually replace the phone every 3 years so I pay around $9 a month for a cell phone.
For personal use, I have no idea why people need to use a cell phone as much as they do. If you need to talk for a long time then you should be on a land line/VoIP phone where the rates are cheaper or unlimited. It really boils down to “need” vs “want”. Of course, if you want to pay $30-70 a month for a cell plan then “want” all you can. But I’d much rather have $720 more per year to enjoy life vs spending it talking on a cell phone.
As for ooma vs Skype. While skype is “cheaper” in the short term, it’s also not easy for computer noobs to understand. Also, after about 3 years of usage, ooma wins over Skype. This is assuming the Skype subscription plan + in number calling (about $65yr). Ooma’s model is to have people replace the hardware every 5 years with offering new hardware every 2-2.5yrs. You don’t have to upgrade to continue to get free service. This is probably why the ooma hardware device has buttons and remote units. They want you to wear it out, drop it, or have it get dirty enough that you’ll want to replace it. Why else do you think it’s white? Either way, for those that don’t always have the latest and greatest stuff the original ooma hardware will be all they will ever need. The only problem comes if the company fails and you’re stuck with a worthless device. But if you have Vonage or other like VoIP products then so long as ooma is in biz for 1yr then you’re okay to at least break even.
So bottom line, if you’re on a budget or “smart” about your money….go TracFone for cell and limit use and get ooma…but if budget is tight on spending $200-225 at one time then go with skype (you still need to buy a ATA device which is around $50). With the money saved, put it towards a ooma device so you can stop paying monthly phone fees for VoIP. Just be sure to lock away the ooma device and use your phone to access your voicemail and other features. That way your ooma hardware will have a long life and save you even more money before you have to replace it with the latest ooma model.
Ive found that being on Net10 prepaid is much cheaper than a contract.
The conection works similarly in that it needs airtime to be connected. Its easy enough to top up and still cheaper.
The low fees of 10cents a min and 5cents a text are consistent and very impressive.
It realy is a bonus that there are no hiden charges or daily fees.
This way with Net10 I know what im getting and exactly what im paying for.
http://www.STRAIGHTTALK.com
30$ give you 1000 minuts and 1000 messages.
45$ gives you unlimited everything.
the only drawback – brutal hardware.
P>S> they use VERIZOn network – really really good coverage!!!!
I used to have AT&T employee plan over at radioshack and after I quit I just switched to this thing. works like a charm.
I have the ooma and currently enjoying the no monthly payments. this is the real deal people.
btw look up Ron Paul everyone!
If I have OOMA will my incoming calls be long distance to the caller??
@ Don – Incoming calls are charged as per the incoming callers plan. Your Ooma has no impact on them.
@ Dennis – If you got Ooma you could discontinue your phone service and run Ooma off of your DSL line. Normal DSL charges would apply, but your Ooma would run off of DSL and you would not need to pay for a phone line.
I have been using Ooma for a few months now and couldn’t ask for anything better. What I have now discovered, for my family that lives out of town, is “Google Voice” I have now set up a local number that is in my families calling area through GV and forward that number to my Ooma number. Now my family can CALL ME anytime for FREE!! Google Voice is FREE by invitation only which can take a few months to get your invo, but… I have found that you can buy an invitation on E-Bay for around $2.00
Thank you so much for this information. I got ooma after reading about it and a sale on slickdeals.net. I googled ooma to learn more about it and stumbled upon this website. Goodbye phone service, goodbye Verizon’s $100 monthly bills for me and my wife! Cancelling my phone service didn’t save me too much money since they will just increase the cost of my internet due to me having no phone service. However, using net10 instead of Verizon will save me a bundle, because instead of using Verizon to call family on the weekends, I will use OOMA. Thus, I will rarely use my cell phone for anything!!! Thank you again!
If you just want talk and text, Net10 is great! All calls are 10 cents/minute and all texts are 5 cents (send/receive). The $30 (300 min) card and free Nokia phone work fine if you don’t need mp3/web/IM/etc.
Pricing is some of the lowest I’ve seen and you can buy recharge cards at multiple locations. Some places (like Family Dollar/Dollar General) even sell $15 (150 min) recharge cards.
I was happy with the cost and signal quality of Net 10; great if you just want talk and text (I’ve never tried any of their higher grade phones).
Great signal. Verizon-like network at a fraction of the price. Customer service is sub-par. That being said, it’s worked for me and I will continue with them until it doesn’t.
After switching to ATT Go Phone, I wish I would’ve stayed with Net 10 to save!!!
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