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Total monthly cost of iPhone plan?

H

hunterjoules

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2007
47
0
I have a question for all the iPhone owners out there--about how much a month do you actually pay for your iPhone plan?

For instance, if I were to choose the $59.99/month plan, how much would I actually spend after you add in fees, taxes, etc.?
 
Around $70 to $80, I have been travelling a lot and paying roaming charges so I don't know exactly, and I'm too lazy to dig into my bill details.
________
BMW Museum
 
Last edited:
I have the 900 minute plan, plus the 1500 text. The bill is $99 and some change. Also, AT&T will pre-bill you for an additional month on your first bill. My first bill was closer to $200.
 
Wow. Compared to what I am paying (about $25-30 a month) on my Sprint SERO plan that is expensive. I am interested in an iPhone but the high monthly charges are keeping me away.
 
Redline13 said:
Wow. Compared to what I am paying (about $25-30 a month) on my Sprint SERO plan that is expensive. I am interested in an iPhone but the high monthly charges are keeping me away.
Click to expand...

The monthly charges on an iPhone through AT&T are lower than that of the Blackberry plans I can tell you that. I went in to buy a Curve and came out with an iPhone. The iPhone purchase + plan offered a fairly substantial cost savings over the Blackberry plans. While the iPhone lacked features that my Sprint BB for work (870xe), I found that I could live without certain features as a casual user.

Sit down and do the math and you may be surprised. I have a $79 plan (1350 min) with the 1500 texts ($10) and the PDA plan ($20). Forget surcharges and such as they're really similar among phones afaik. Multiply that by 24 and add $400 for the phone and do the same for whatever your alternative is. If it works then it works. If it is not just the numbers and you want an iPhone for whatever fancy reason then clearly money would subordinate style and the answer is clearer.
 
I have the basic 550 minute family plan. One iPhone and one regular phone. My monthly cost is about $84.
 
Does anyone have just the basic $59 iPhone plan without any text or anything else added? How much a month is it with taxes and stuff?
 
jessica. said:
The monthly charges on an iPhone through AT&T are lower than that of the Blackberry plans I can tell you that. I went in to buy a Curve and came out with an iPhone. The iPhone purchase + plan offered a fairly substantial cost savings over the Blackberry plans. While the iPhone lacked features that my Sprint BB for work (870xe), I found that I could live without certain features as a casual user.

Sit down and do the math and you may be surprised. I have a $79 plan (1350 min) with the 1500 texts ($10) and the PDA plan ($20). Forget surcharges and such as they're really similar among phones afaik. Multiply that by 24 and add $400 for the phone and do the same for whatever your alternative is. If it works then it works. If it is not just the numbers and you want an iPhone for whatever fancy reason then clearly money would subordinate style and the answer is clearer.
Click to expand...

I was in the market for a new cellphone when the iPhone was announced. The total difference in ownership costs over 24 months between the Sprint plan I went with and AT&T/iPhone plan I was looking at was almost $2,000. I like the iPhone but not that much. It's not the one time cost of the hardware that keeps me away it's the high cost of the monthly plans compared to what I can get elsewhere.
 
I have a family plan with 3 phones: 2 iPhones and a Blackberry Pearl. My wife has the Pearl and we didn't activate a data plan with it since she didn't want it. My daughter's iPhone is the middle one with 1500 text messages. I chose the least expensive iPhone plan for myself since I don't text that much. Our family plan has 1400 minutes. Our last bill was $200.
 
Bootsie said:
Does anyone have just the basic $59 iPhone plan without any text or anything else added? How much a month is it with taxes and stuff?
Click to expand...

I have the basic $59.99 plan. I never exceed minutes or texts. My last bill was for $68.81. I live in Virginia, so that's where the govt. fees come from. YMMV.

Monthly service: $59.99
Usage charges: $1.79 (1 call to directory assistance! Yikes.)
Credits/adjustments/other charges (regulatory cost recovery charge, federal universal service charge): $3.04
Government fees and taxes (VA Wireless E-9-1-1, Virginia Communications Sales Tax): $3.99
Total: $68.81

(And holy crap do the "data transfer" details make you scroll, scroll, scroll!)
 
FunkyJunk said:
I have the basic $59.99 plan. I never exceed minutes or texts. My last bill was for $68.81

Monthly service: $59.99
Usage charges: $1.79
Credits/adjustments/other charges: $3.04
Government fees and taxes: $3.99
Total: $68.81
Click to expand...

Great thanks, that is about what I was expecting.
 
Redline13 said:
Wow. Compared to what I am paying (about $25-30 a month) on my Sprint SERO plan that is expensive. I am interested in an iPhone but the high monthly charges are keeping me away.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately for you, virtually any other plan on any other carrier is going to be relatively expensive compared to your special SERO deal, so you've sort of boxed yourself into a corner with that.
 
Bootsie said:
Does anyone have just the basic $59 iPhone plan without any text or anything else added? How much a month is it with taxes and stuff?
Click to expand...
FWIW, if you really live in Utah, it looks like Utah has one of the more expensive state taxes (#11 out of 50) for wireless. :(

http://www.mywireless.org/allstatestax/

So if you see a monthly price given in this thread, keep in mind it may or may not be what you'd pay in Utah.
 
aristobrat said:
Unfortunately for you, virtually any other plan on any other carrier is going to be relatively expensive compared to your special SERO deal, so you've sort of boxed yourself into a corner with that.
Click to expand...

I agree. It's tough to find wireless plan that is a better value. I don't really see my self as boxed in though. Lower monthly bills are a good thing!
 
I noticed one thing about adding a line to an existing AT&T Family Plan. It seems that unbeknowst to you that AT&T will change your family plan to include more minutes at a higher base rate when you add a line. I called them yesterday about it and they admitted that they changed my base family plan from $45 to $50 and added 50 minutes to now be 550 minutes. Also, about 1200 of my "Rollover" minutes disappeared when they changed plans. I complained so they set it back.

Looking back I think they did it a year or so ago as well. When we started our base family plan was $39.95 for 450 minutes. When I added a phone it jumped to $45 for 500 minutes. I thought the base charge had something to do with me adding a phone with a data plan so I didn't complain about it.

I would imagine that others will see the same sort of thing so beware.
 
From what i can tell since the cheapest minutes rate plan is 39.99 and the cheapest internet package is 20 you will spend about 59.99 + what ever taxes apply.

Of course you can force AT&T to shut down the extra 20 a month and just use pay per use but that could get pricy if your not carefull.
 
hunterjoules said:
I have a question for all the iPhone owners out there--about how much a month do you actually pay for your iPhone plan?

For instance, if I were to choose the $59.99/month plan, how much would I actually spend after you add in fees, taxes, etc.?
Click to expand...

$65.08

That is what you pay monthly for the $59.99 plan. Why? Because I have the same plan ;)

I don't have anything added...
 
a cool Hundo which is a step up from what i started out with, but i would always go over 1500 texts...and that was pricey

what can I say, I don't like calling people unless i'm in the car (bluetooth)
 
$140

2 iPhones
550 Minutes
Unlimited Data on Both
Unlimited Texting on 1 of them.
 
Don't use directory service, just send a text to Google (466453). Send name of business and city and state. It their return message you can just click on the number to dial it.
 
mikelliott said:
Don't use directory service, just send a text to Google (466453). Send name of business and city and state. It their return message you can just click on the number to dial it.
Click to expand...

I love this feature! I also just found out about GOOG-411 (1-800-GOOG-411) which is basically the same thing, but free and for voice. Good for folks who don't have text plans.
 
$39.99 iPhone 450 Minute Plan
$30.00 iPhone Data

$00.68 Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge
$01.27 Federal Universal Service Charge

$00.73 Illinois 911 Surcharge
$08.27 State/Municipal Telecommunications Act

$80.94 TOTAL
 
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