Best Phone Plan Deals: Save When You Switch, Open a New Line or Get a Prepaid Deal [CNET]
Finding the best ways to save on your monthly service bill can require reading a lot of fine print, but we’ve done a lot of the legwork to compile the best offers available at major carriers. Some deals will help you snag discounts when adding multiple lines, while others may offer free subscriptions, gas points, restaurant discounts and even travel rewards to go with your new phone plan. Big rewards are especially common at major carriers like Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. And you can often save even more when you’re looking at smaller carriers that piggyback on larger networks.
Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.
Whether you simply want to decrease your current bill or switch to something new so you can add some more lines, there are various cheap phone plans available, as well as some great offers you should be aware of so you can keep saving. Below, we’ll show you the best phone plan deals available right now. Act fast, though, if you want to take advantage of them, because some of these offers are available for only a limited time.
Read more: Best Phone Deals
Best prepaid phone deals
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One of the best deals in wireless service comes from Mint Mobile. You can sign up for service for as little as $15 a month (prepaid in three-, six- or 12-month blocks), which is just a fraction of what the big carriers are charging. Mint Mobile runs on the nationwide T-Mobile network, so you’ll have service all over the place, and getting started is as easy as answering a few questions online. You can move your existing number to Mint or get a new one, and use your current phone or a new device — it’s entirely your call. Mint Mobile recently rolled out some new family plan options as well.
For a limited time, you can get unlimited 3 months for only $15 per month. The deal must be paid for upfront and will revert back to a full-price plan once it’s over.
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Verizon is one of the largest carriers in the US. It offers both prepaid and contract plans, but on the prepaid side the company rewards people who keep using the service and paying for it. Verizon offers prepaid customers up to $10 off per month for loyalty discounts. You need to be a prepaid customer for 10 months to see the discount, but for months four to nine you can save $5. Or if you choose, you can save $10 a month by signing up for autopay. However, Verizon no longer allows you to stack these discounts.
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You can score one month of unlimited data at Boost Mobile for only $12.50 if you’re a new customer. This plan includes unlimited talk, text and data. You’ll also get 30GB in Premium data. Note that this plan doesn’t include monthly taxes.
There’s an Unlimited Plus plan for $50 that includes all these perks, along with a discount of $300 on devices, a mobile hotspot, global talk and text, and 40GB in Premium data. Monthly taxes are included in this plan.
The final option is the Unlimited Premium plan for $60, which includes unlimited talk, text and data, global connect, a discount of $430 on a device, a hotspot, North America connect and 50GB in Premium Data. The price includes monthly taxes.
However, Boost requires that you sign up for autopay to get this price.
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Metro by T-Mobile offers four different prepaid plans, with the midtier option also including a one-year subscription to Vix Premium, 25GB of hotspot data, and a 100GB Google One membership. The MetroFlex Plus plan is $70 and includes Amazon Prime and Amazon Music subscriptions. You can also save $5 a month on all unlimited data plans after your first month if you enroll in autopay.
Best contract plan deals
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Verizon doesn’t offer any straightforward monetary discounts on its contract plans, but there are still some savings available. Plans start at as little as $30 per month and go up $65. Folks on an Unlimited Welcome, Plus or Ultimate plan can add additional services and subscriptions like Hulu, Disney Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, TravelPass and more for a flat rate of just $10 a month. That saves you as much as $35 a month on select subscriptions. You can also pick and choose which ones you want to add to your plan, and swap or cancel them at any time.
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T-Mobile has a few different plan options that can save you money, but you have to meet certain requirements for some of them. For instance, T-Mobile offers a discount to military personnel, veterans and first responders, as well as to folks who are over 55.
If you don’t qualify for any of those, right now you can score a Go5G Essentials plan for $90, the Go5G Plus plan for $150 or the Go5G Next plan for $180. Each of these plans covers up to three lines.
Like Verizon, T-Mobile also offers other bonuses, like Netflix and Apple TV Plus subscriptions, Shell Fuel rewards, discounts at restaurants like Little Caesar’s, and a free one-year AAA membership for more elite plans, such as Go5G Next.
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AT&T plans start at $36 for the Unlimited Starter SL plan, $41 for the Unlimited Extra EL and $51 for the Unlimited Premium PL. On its Unlimited Premium plan, AT&T offers up 60GB of hotspot data and unlimited talk and text in 20 Latin American countries.
These are in addition to the other normal offers, like unlimited talk and text, 5G access, AT&T Active Armor advanced mobile security and more, plus discounts for military, veterans and medical workers. Customers who switch to AT&T can get an unlimited data plan for $25 per month if they bring their own phone. The discount starts after three billing cycles.
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There are a lot of offers on phones from Visible, but the carrier also has deals on its plans. Visible just announced that you can sign up to its annual plans and lock in the Visible plan for $20 per month for two years, or score the Visible Plus plan for $35 per month for two years when you use the promo code CHAMP. This offer expires Aug. 21.
Visible also offers a 15-day free trial, so you can see if its service is up to par.
Signing up for an annual plan will unlock bigger savings. The basic annual plan blocks robocalls, provides unlimited use of your phone as a hotspot, and free international calls to Mexico and Canada for $275 a year ($25 off). There’s another plan with these perks, plus smartwatch service, unlimited data on its 5G Ultra Wideband network, international calling to 30 countries, and texting to over 200 countries for $395 a year ($145 off).
Visible is also offering Connection Protection, a program that helps you keep your service for up to three months in case of a layoff.