Having a phone with reliable service is pretty necessary these days, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend over $100 per month on a service plan. With a little digging, you can find ways to sign up with a network for less, especially when you’re looking at lesser-known carriers that piggyback on larger carriers’ networks. You probably won’t get quite the same level of coverage and customer service that you’d receive from one of the three major US carriers — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — but it could open up tons of different options you may not have known about and save you a decent chunk of change in the process.
Whether you simply want to lower 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 deals you should be aware of. Below, we’ll show you the best phone plan deals available right now.
Read more: Best Phone Deals
Best prepaid phone deals
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Sarah Tew/CNET
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 current number to Mint Mobile with your current phone, or look to get new of both. It’s entirely up to you. Mint Mobile just rolled out some new family plan options as well.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
Visible is running several deals right now that are all worth considering depending on your current needs. If you bring in an old phone that’s not compatible with Visible’s network (which is built on Verizon’s nationwide network), you can get a Visible Midnight or TCL 30 LE phone for free from Visible. If you finance your phone using Affirm through Visible, you can upgrade your phone once it’s at least 50% paid off. And if you refer a friend, both of you will save $20 on your first month’s bill.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
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. In addition, Verizon offers those who use Autopay an additional $5 monthly discount, meaning you can save up to $15 a month for sticking around.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
Boost Mobile has been around for a long time and right now the carrier is offering a deal on a SIM card. New customers can try out Boost’s 5G network with 2GB of high-speed data and get the SIM Kit for free, making this deal a real no-brainer if you want to save some money. You can sign up for plans at Boost Mobile with prices as low as $8.33 a month, depending how much data you plan to use.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
Metro by T-Mobile offers four different prepaid plans, with the top-tier option also including a one year subscription to Vix+, 20GB of hotspot data and a 100GB Google One membership. With this plan, you can also get four lines of service for $150 a month, which is cheaper than the price you’d normally pay to get only three.
Best contract plan deals
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Sarah Tew/CNET
Instead of offering a monetary discount each month on its contract plans, Verizon has just continued to expand the amount of free extra items that are included with the plans. Right now, select plans offer free subscriptions to things like Hulu, Disney Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, TravelPass and more. The freebies that are included with Verizon’s 5G Get More plan total up to $67, plus Verizon offers a $10 discount for those who enroll in Autopay.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
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 example, T-Mobile offers military, veterans, and first responders a discount as well as those who are over 55 years old. If you don’t qualify for either of those, everyone is eligible to buy two lines, get a third free if you’re on an eligible Essentials, Magenta or Magenta Max plan. That means you can get three lines for as little as $90 a month. Like Verizon, T-Mobile also offers other bonuses like Netflix and Apple TV Plus subscriptions, and a free one-year AAA membership.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
On its Unlimited Premium Plan, AT&T offers up 50GB of hotspot data and unlimited talk and text in 19 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.
