Walmart Phone Plans: Go Cheap with Walmart Family Mobile

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This feature has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #CBias #SocialFabric #FamilyMobileSaves

Cheap Wireless Plan Options:  $40 Unlimited Talk, Text and Web with Walmart Family Mobile  Phones

My teen daughter has had her original cell phone, a “dumb” phone as she calls it, since we first got it when she was 12 years old.   She’s been asking for a smartphone all year.  Even though she is willing to pay for the phone herself, she’d also have to buy out her Verizon contract at a pretty hefty price.  Also, we found out that any time she switches phones during a contract we’d have to pay full retail price for the phone itself and not be able to take advantage of any of their advertised specials.

Because she’s been such a great student all year, I want to surprise her with a new phone instead of making her wait until Christmas (when her existing contract is up).   I decided to explore other options for the best wireless option plans.  Whatever I chose had to be an unlimited plan, because this girl LOVES to text.   I also wanted to avoid long-term contracts.

I first asked the savvy moms of the Mommysavers Discussion Forum about Cheap Wireless Plan options, they pretty much all told me to check Walmart.  After some investigating of my own, I discovered that the Walmart Family Mobile plan is a great deal.  Here’s the rundown:

Walmart Family Mobile Phones: Plans and Pricing

• $40 for the first line; $35 for each additional line
• One-time $25 Starter Kit required per line
• Plan includes 1 GB of shared Web access at 3G speeds

The best part for me was that you pay month-to-month and don’t have to sign a long-term contract.  If you decide to upgrade your phone, it’s only a one-time $25 activation fee.

I decided on the T-Mobile MyTouch.  It’s an Android-based smartphone that retails for around $150.   It does everything she wants it to do:  Take pictures (it has a 5 Mega-pixel camera), play music, and have all the fun apps like Facebook and Instagram.

Another nice thing about the Walmart Family Mobile plan is that you don’t have to purchase the phone there.  You can bring in any phone and they’ll activate it for you.  It only took about five minutes to purchase the Starter Kit and activate the phone.  It couldn’t have been easier!  I was in and out in about ten minutes.  I can’t wait to surprise her on the last day of school!  View more photos on My Google+ Album.