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I don’t know if I’m supposed to mention companies by name. I am with one of the big two or three phone companies. We changed from the other "big phone company" a year or two ago. My son was looking to build some credit so we put our phones under his name.

I feel like it just costs too much for the way that my husband and I use phones. My husband just talks on the phone and sometimes will text. I bet he doesn’t Google anything except once a month or something. I was thinking maybe he needed some thing like a month to month card or something.

I use my phone all the time… To manage our home, set up his appointments, etc. I’m constantly googling addresses and phone numbers and locations, etc.

Currently we have Wi-Fi, TV, and phones, and our cost is well over $300 a month. I am wanting to reduce the phone to one of the $30 a month kind of plans. I don’t really need all that many GB due to having Wi-Fi at my house, and the fact that it is almost everywhere. I do however use my phone gps a lot.

So, what do y’all recommend for our service?

I was particularly drawn to a service that is owned by an actor that I have recently seen a lot of ads about. It is affordable, but I have found out what company they use and I have had troubles with that company before. With bad connection.

I simply have to cut some corners financially and so this is one of the areas I think we could save a little bit of money each month.

TV is a total MUST for us. My husband is in bed 90% of the time it has nothing else that he can do. And I am always nearby within monitor range, and need my TV to pass the time as well.

I’m guessing by the way I’m asking questions, you all can see that I don’t even know what I’m talking about. I want to have Wi-Fi at my house so that I don’t have to pay for unlimited data on my phone. I want to have TV, but I don’t need all the bells and whistles. Just the stations we like to watch and Netflix and HBO for example. (Can’t miss Real Time) 😊

And I just need my husband to have a sort of basic service, and me to have a more expanded service.

If any of that makes any sense in the technology world, does anybody have any suggestions?

The very first thing I would recommend you do is reach out to your current provider and ask if there are any assistance or discount programs for seniors or disabled or financially struggling. Often they want proof of low income. But there are MANY assistance programs available for things like this. You just have to ask.

Yes, that would be great, but we would not qualify. We have money with an investment group that is what I used to pay life insurance premiums every month. So having that money that is technically available to us, keeps us from getting any kind of special assistance. And I would sort of feel bad about that anyway, since there are many people in much worse shape than us.

I just feel like, based on our usage, we just don’t need all of the unlimited data because we have Wi-Fi at home and rarely go anywhere.

TBH, we are facing about 4 years left of $$$ to pay insurance policies. 🫤. If I die, he should be ok, and vice versa. Where we will be screwed is if we both live a while longer. 🤨. We hate to let them go due to the UNGODLY amount of money we have put into them through the years.

I am actually looking into reverse mortgages on our home, to see if that would be a better option for having more years to pay on the insurance policies.

Anyway, this type of thing (phone service) is left to me, now… Whereas my husband used to take care of it. So I just don’t feel knowledgeable enough to make these decisions without some input.

I know, I know… "Helpless female" does not look good on me! But technologically speaking, I have always been and probably will always be… Helpless.

I'm sorry you have to deal with this stuff. Here are some thoughts and experiences:

For cell phone service, search the web for info on 'MVNO' - MVNOs lease bandwidth from the big guys and resell it to users like us. Search for a list of MVNOs, and I expect you'll see some familiar names. You might get a better deal from unfamiliar names, though.

We use cell data like you do and a(n) MVNO; if we use cell data, we pay by the megabyte, but we use very little cell data. Our monthly bill is usually $27 for 2 smart phones.

I found the one I use because an SI member asked for feedback in Off Topic. IOW, if you do some research and ask questions, you're likely to get good info.

*****

The Big 3 seem willing to sell Internet access without cable TV and phone service. Around here Comcast charges $52/month for 50 or 75 mbps, and ATT charges a bit more. A new cable company is wiring my city, and they charge $30 for 300 mbps service. Check with your providers for their charges for Internet-only service.

*****

For TV, I went to streaming and dropped cable a few years ago - Sling, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and some other services for limited periods. The prices keep going up but remain cheaper than cable for equivalent service.

There are some free streaming services that have immense libraries - Tubi, Pluto, Crackle, Freevee, Filmrise, Plex ... each one overwhelms me with choices. In fact, there are so many choices that I often can't choose and just go back to .Perry Mason' and 'Matlock'.

To use all these services, I bought a Roku, which I upgrade every 3 or 4 years. Every so often I look for cheaper alternatives, but I haven't found any.

HBO now broadcasts via the Max streaming service for $10/month and up, so you can give up cable and still get HBO.

*****

My reco is to do some research, if you have the time and energy, and figure out how to get what you want. Figure out the cost. Then call your cable company and tell them you want to cancel. They'll probably give you a deal that's at least close to building your own package.

Oh, wow… Thanks sisoon! That’s a lot of good information.

I will definitely try to figure out what all of it means, and do some checking. Maybe I can motivate my husband to help me. He understands all about the streaming and cable and I do not. I just want to have a remote in my hand and click it on and be able to get the channels that I watch. 🙃

Anyway, we’ll try to investigate like you suggested and come up with some kind of solution.

Because I know absolutely nothing about all of this, should I write down the channels that my husband and I like to watch the most so that whatever we find we can be sure that those channels are included? TBH, I don’t even know what streaming is and how it is different than basic cable. 😏

I think what is most irritating as of late is that I am unable to do anything with rebooting or resetting or anything that involves our account, because it is in my sons name. So I must get it into our name if for no other reason.

So…I lost my phone, or it was stolen, although I don’t know how. Long story I won’t bore you with.

So I tried to contact Asurion insurance and they would not let me make a claim because our account is in my sons name. So he went down today to find out what I should be doing.

They told him that once my phone was paid off a few months ago, that they canceled my insurance.

Can they do that?

They told him that I qualified for a free upgrade, but then I would have to start paying for my phone all over again. I just can’t afford to do that.

I can’t imagine that they can cancel the insurance without notifying us.

I’m so frustrated I’m just going crazy. I don’t even know how to ask for help because any helpful answers involve words that I don’t even understand.

I want / need TV for myself and my husband. And I need a phone… And I really need a smart phone because lately he has been less able to travel for medical appointments and we do it over the phone. I am at a loss for what to do.

Are there people that you can pay to advise you about this kind of thing? Because when you all give me such great advice about researching the whole thing, I don’t even know how to research it. I don’t even know where to begin.

It is been a week from hell and I am at the end of my rope.

Is it possible the insurance wasn't being paid so it was cancelled? It doesn't sound right that the insurance carrier/phone company would cancel it because the phone was paid off.

I assume you can't track where your phone is with something like find my iphone?

I'm so sorry you have one more headache that you don't need to deal with.