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ELIMINATE YOUR CELLPHONE CONTRACT The average American’s cellphone bill is about $73 a month. Over the life of your two-year contract, that’s about $1,750. If you talk more than your allotted minutes in a month, they hit you with punitive per-minute overage fees; if you talk less, then you’re throwing money out the window.
It’s a no-win game. Unless, of course, you don’t play it — and instead sign up for a prepaid cellphone.
These phones and plans, given names like TracFone, AT&T GoPhone, Verizon InPulse and T-Mobile Prepaid, let you pay for cellphone service by the minute, not by the month. There’s no contract, no commitment, no credit check (or even ID check), no penalties and no chance of “going over” and getting a shocker of a bill.
These plans aren’t just for no-credit teenagers anymore. They’re fully legitimate, they rely on the same cell networks as regular plans, and the per-minute rates are reasonable. The only reason you haven’t heard of them is that the cell carriers don’t even mention them in their marketing. They’d much rather have your $1,750.
On some plans (“Pay as you go”), you buy minutes in advance, usually in $25 to $100 chunks, either by calling a toll-free number with a credit card or by buying a refill card at a phone center or convenience store and plugging its code into your phone. (“Hey honey — I’m going to run out to the 7-Eleven for a Slushee and some minutes.”)
On others (“Pay by the day”), you just pay a flat 10 cents a minute, plus $1 for each day that you actually use the phone. The rest of the year, you pay nothing.
The sacrifice: If your cellphone is your primary phone, and you use it for 40-minute socializing marathons, traditional plans may be more cost-effective. The savings: $900 to $1,500 a year.
ELIMINATE YOUR HOME PHONE Home landline service is also declining; once again, the Generation Y’ers are leading the way. Some of them are saving money by using their cellphones exclusively. And when they have to call overseas, they use free computer-to-computer “telephone” software like Skype, iChat and Google Talk. These programs are incredibly easy to use, and the sound quality is excellent.
If you shudder at the thought of cutting your landline entirely, here’s a less extreme option: sign up for T-Mobile’s Talk Forever plan. It’s intended specifically for people who don’t want to lose a home phone line altogether.
The deal: unlimited nationwide calling from your home phone for $10 a month. (It works by carrying your calls over the Internet, but you won’t notice any difference; you keep your existing phone and phone number.) The sacrifice: This service is available only if you also have a T-Mobile cellphone. Although if you have T-Mobile coverage in your area, that might be worth investigating; T-Mobile cell service is less expensive than its rivals’. The savings: About $250 a year.
BUY REFURBISHED COMPUTERS You can find refurbished computers and other electronic gear advertised on the makers’ Web sites, offered at hundreds of dollars below retail price — but you’d never buy one, right? After all, who wants a used computer?
Actually, though, “refurbished” doesn’t mean used; it usually means “returned, sometimes without even having been opened.” Products are returned for lots of reasons. People change their minds, get the same product as a gift, whatever.
In any case, a refurbished machine has been brought up to brand-new standards by the manufacturer — and, in fact, is inspected and tested more than a brand-new item. Aficionados consider refurbished gear one of the great secrets of the tech world. The sacrifice: Some companies, like Hewlett-Packard [HPQ
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], issue a shorter warranty on them (90 days instead of a year). The savings: On a computer, from $300 to $2,000.
In all of these examples, the point is to look hard at some of the new technologies that, until now, you may have ignored because it’s a hassle to switch. The money you save could be your own.
David Pogue is a columnist for the New York Times and contributor to CNBC. He can be emailed at: .
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