Ting Review – Cell Phone Service for Less

I recently switched my cellphone service provider to Ting, and I imagine I would write a letter similar to the one below if my former cellphone carrier was a person.

Dear AT&T,

I’ve had my sights on you from the beginning. When I found out you run on the GSM network, I knew you were the one. But after 16 years, and countless attempts to make things work, I’m so sorry to say that I found someone else.

The bottom line is that you are just too high maintenance. I would love to keep our relationship going forever, but I just can’t handle the payments.

I’m sorry. Times are different now and I’ve moved on…

Best of luck,
David

I would feel really bad to break up such a long relationship. Luckily, AT&T isn’t a person and I feel absolutely no obligation to overpay for essentially the same service. In fact, switching over to Ting has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in recent times because cellphone bills come monthly and the new reduced bill always remind me how our family is saving $70 every single month.

What to find out more? Here’s my review of Ting so far after six months of switching over.

Ting Supports the iPhone

To be totally honest, I’ve wanted to reduce my monthly bill for years but I was reluctant to switch over to the lower costs carriers because I didn’t want to give up the iPhone. I know Android phones are awesome too but I just prefer the iPhone’s stability and not having to ask many of my friends to install messaging apps just to reduce texting costs. With Ting, you don’t need to worry about whether your existing phone will work because it supports pretty much all the phones out there.

Ting Runs on Both GSM and CDMA Networks

Pretty much every other carrier in the United States either runs on the GSM network, like AT&T and T-mobile, or the CDMA network, like Verizon and Sprint. Ting, however, leases voice and data services from Sprint and T-mobile, meaning that you can have phones that run on either network work with the carrier.

Actually, you can even have phones on both networks in the same account to share data and minutes.

The Beauty of Ting is in Its Mobile Rate Plans

I was always overpaying for minutes and data back in my AT&T days because I either underestimate my usage and pay high overage charges or overestimate and not use enough. I must not be the only customer with this issue, because Ting includes unlimited text and calls with their plans. The only option you have to decide on is how much data you wanted to be included with your plan.

Here’s what their rate plan looks like:

I used to pay about $110 for two lines, and now the monthly cost is $30. (Actually, my bill is a few bucks more because you still have to pay government taxes that is slightly different every month but is in the $2 to $5 range). The savings is still something like $75 a month and the amount is a huge difference to pay for essentially the same service.

And plus, I won’t be paying nearly as much in the months that I travel overseas. I was in Asia for a month last year. I would have saved another $10 that month because I won’t be using any data.

Add that all up and it’s a $75 x 12 + $10 = $910 savings. Every. Single. Year. Wow!

We’ve been banking the savings, but we can also choose to use the $910 yearly savings to upgrade both our iPhones to the newest and shiniest version every time Apple refreshes the product.

Click Here to Check Them Out at Ting.com

How’s the Reception

Phones run on the same T-mobile, Sprint, or Verizon network, so coverage is exactly the same as customers on those three carriers. There were nervous moments in the beginning when the phone wouldn’t work in my house or close to my daughter’s school when we initially switched, but it turned out that it was a glitch with the iPhone iOS software update. After that iPhone bug was fixed, reception seemed normal. Now I don’t really notice any reception issues, which is the way it should be.

One Small Quirk is with Voicemail

I can’t say what Android has, but the new iPhones have a visual voicemail feature that lets you manage your voicemail right on the phone. The newest version even turns the voicemail into texts so you don’t even have to listen to it.

Ting doesn’t support visual voicemail. That means I now call into my voicemail and get that arcane “press 1 to listen to the next message and press 7 to delete the message” prompt like the old days.

This wasn’t advertised but my phone now supports visual voicemail. I’m not sure if the service is guaranteed but I no longer have to call in to retrieve my voicemails and I just use the usual point and click to delete and listen to the recordings.

This might be a deal breaker for you. It would be for my mortgage broker friend who loves the visual voicemail because he no longer has to replay messages over and over just to write down the call back number people leave him. I, on the other hand, is just slightly annoyed at the beginning but I ultimately don’t use voicemail that often to justify paying more just to have the feature.

Alternatively, some people found a workaround by using Google Voice to intercept the voicemails in order for them to manage them through the free app. I haven’t tried to get this to work myself (like I said, I just don’t use voicemail that often) but you may want to look into it if you really can’t live without visual voicemail. I’m just hoping that Ting will start supporting this feature in the near future.

Here’s How to Save Even More with Ting

Speaking of Google Voice, you can actually make pretty much all calls within the United States with the app for free using data instead of being charged voice minutes. All you have to do is use the app to make every outbound call while you are on Wifi. This saves you more money if you are with Ting because none of those outbound calls will be considered voice minutes and since you are on Wifi, it won’t count against data usages either. Keep this in mind once you switch.

Conclusion

It’s been quite a while since I was this excited for a service, but like I said, I always remember how I’m saving pretty much $910 a year every time the cellphone bill comes. Look at the mobile plan rates and work out how much it’ll cost you, but switching is a no-brainer for most of us since we can keep our phones and our phone numbers too.

Click Here to Check Them Out at Ting.com

Disclaimer: I’m a customer so I’m naturally bias. I also want you to know that I will get a small fee as compensation to help keep the site running should you decide to sign up and try their services out via my link here.

Tagged as: Frugal Living, Review

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