UPDATE: Plan details have changed since this article was published. Rest assured they are still awesome! You can find the current details here.
It’s been over a year since we got rid of our “dumb” phones and got smartphones with Republic Wireless. It was kind of a no-brainer: unlimited talk and text, plus unlimited data on WiFi for $10/month with no contract and a 30-day money-back guarantee– yes please!
Since we are usually close to WiFi, the $10 plan works perfect for us. What’s even better is that we can switch plans up to twice a month. On a couple of multi-state trips where it’s been convenient to have data, we have switched to the $25 plan, which includes 3G data. The charge is prorated so we only pay the higher rate for the days we are on it.
Guinea Pigs
We were pretty much the last people in our families to get smartphones. Everyone else, who had ditched their dumb phones earlier, was paying a whole lot more for cell phone service. We were the Republic Wireless guinea pigs in our families. As we told our families about our major savings, they got curious too. So far my parents and my husband’s parents have switched, along with six of our siblings/siblings-in-law.
My in-laws were really overpaying on their plan. Their plan included a wee bit of data, but they were terrified to use it for fear of going over. Texting wasn’t included at all in their plan. They were still paying nearly $100 a month for their two phones.
My parents had had their phone plan for ages. My dad was happy with his unlimited data plan and said he’d never let it go. As he got closer to retirement, he started scrutinizing his expenses more seriously. Weighing the cost difference, it was easy to see that a Republic Wireless plan looked a lot nicer on a fixed income than his $150 per month plan, so he and my mom switched.
What We Love
The most obvious reason that we love Republic Wireless is that the price is right. I haven’t found anything that beats it. I love that you aren’t locked into a contract and that there is a 30-day money back guarantee when you first sign up and buy your phone.
Here are a couple of other reasons we’re big fans:
- I can make calls from the basement. Basements are notorious for blocking out cell signals. When I had a dumb phone, I always had to go outside to get any reception. Since Republic Wireless makes calls over WiFi when it’s available, I can now make great calls from the basement that we call home.
- We have Smartphone benefits. Besides having a phone that can call, text and get on the internet, there are so many features that help me to organize my life. I use it for my shopping list, my calendar, stopwatch/timer/alarm, Kindle reading app, GPS, camera, and many more handy things, all for less than we used to pay for the dumb phones.
- We’ll never have extra charges. Other cell phone companies charge extra when you go over the allotted amount of data or charge per text message. Republic Wireless doesn’t do that. Your bill will only ever be your rate ($5, $10, $25, or $40), plus tax. They don’t even have a laundry list of extra fees and taxes. On our $10 plan, we pay around a dollar of tax each month. Eleven bucks each. That’s it.
What We’ve Spent
I wanted to look at the total cost (including the purchase of the phone) over a year’s time. Some people have a hang up with buying a new phone when so many cell phone companies offer “free” phones. Companies like to convince customers that they are getting a free phone by bundling it into an expensive two-year contract. Without doing the math, some people are hesitant to pay for a phone up front.
Here are our actual costs over the past year of having Republic Wireless phones.
My Phone
- Moto G (16 GB) $179 + $10 shipping + $13.43 sales tax
- No-frills case $9.90
- 12 months of service on $10 plan (with 8 days on the $25 plan) = $123.79
- Tax averaging $.96 per month = $11.56
Total cost of first year including the phone and case purchase = $347.68 ($28.97/month)
Husband’s Phone
- Moto G (16 GB) $179 + $10 shipping + $13.43 sales tax
- No-frills case $9.90
- 12 months of service on $10 plan = $120
- Tax averaging $.96 per month = $11.56
Total cost of first year including the phone and case purchase = $343.89 ($28.66/month)
Obviously the second year will be much cheaper because it will not include the purchase of a phone. Next year, each phone will cost simply $10.96/month, for an annual total of $131.56 per phone.
Why people don’t switch
Our new phones and plans have been great for us. Sometimes I wonder why everyone doesn’t switch. I’ve heard several reasons people give that keep them paying more for their phones:
- They love their iPhone or other model that is not compatible with Republic Wireless service. In my experience, this is the number one reason why people don’t switch. iPhone users can be pretty serious about their iPhones. Because Republic Wireless phones require are custom-built to seamlessly switch calls back and forth between WiFi and cell coverage,, you have to have a phone from Republic Wireless. Don’t worry though, they don’t cost an arm and a leg either.
- Switching takes effort. While many will readily admit that Republic Wireless is cheaper and would probably work well for them, it’s easier to just stick with what you have. If you aren’t concerned about saving money, then it’s easier to not rock the boat.
- Other special circumstances. Some people get their phones through work. Some need phones for travelling abroad. Some people with unlimited data stream everything through their phone as an alternative to cable. Some people live somewhere that doesn’t get a Sprint or Verizon signal.
What about you?
Needless to say, our Republic Wireless Experiment was a success. We crunched the numbers initially before buying our phones upfront, but it’s great to be able to look back and have things turn out just as we planned. We feel like we’re getting an awesome deal and have no plans of changing.
If your budget could use some trimming back, whether it’s to pay more toward debt or to save more for the future, I would definitely recommend taking a look at what you’re spending on your cell phone. Seeing the savings in my family (and extended family) is enough to convince me that most people are over-paying for their cell phone service. I’m sure that Republic Wireless isn’t the perfect solution for everyone, but it is worth considering. Would Republic Wireless save you money?
Note: I used my affiliate link in this post. That means if you click through my link and choose to go with Republic Wireless, I will get a commission. As always, all the opinions and experiences that I share are my own. I wouldn’t share it with you if I didn’t think it was wonderful myself.
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I hate republic wireless, I get so many ads that my phone goes dead in about 4 hours, I have reset my ad preferences many times but I still get ads. And no one can tell me how to fix it.
For your readers who don’t have Republic wireless available to them, I recommend they check out tracfone.
There are a lot of decent smartphones out there now that are Tracfone branded.
Hubby and I have never had a smartphone, and were more than ready for the upgrade, but refused to pay the exorbitant fees that everyone we knew paid per month.
What we did:
– knew we wanted a company that uses the verizon network, as it had the best coverage in our area
– weighed the options. We’re light users of minutes, heavy on the texts, and didn’t need a lot of data, so Tracfone won.
– Tracfone sells their phones on their website, but you can also buy Tracfone branded phones on ebay, other websites, in stores etc.
– I found a deal from QVC – they have them constantly – where an LG Ultimate 2 Tracfone branded was only $100 PLUS it came with one year of service/ 1200 min/1200 text/1200mb of data.
– if you’re going with Tracfone do a deal like that! It’s only a $100 and you have a year of service( $50 value) included.
– then I bought decent covers from ebay for a few dollars each
– the phones work just fine, coverage is great, reception has no problems, all the smartphone perks have been so fun, and it is dirt cheap!
– we’re 3 1/2 months in and I’m just now needing to buy some texts – $10 for 1000 texts.
Tracfone is great if you aren’t a really heavy user, which we aren’t. Definitely worth checking out. Calculating in the fact that you do have to pay for each year of service, our phones shouldn’t cost more than a few $ a month.
Hi! Funny you should write this, since my husband and I were just getting ready to switch to republic wireless :). It doesn’t seem like your link is working though, and I would love to give you a little kick back ;). Is it just me that can’t get it?
Hi Rachel! Ahh! Thanks for letting me know (and for wanting to sign up through my link)!! You’re right– the last link wasn’t working (the others in the post did). It’s fixed now. Thanks!
My husband loves his Republic Wireless phone service (signed up via your link)! I can’t thank you enough for your recommendation. We were already considering RW, but I needed another person’s real-life experience.
To Sheila, I needed (not wanted) an iPhone and needed Verizon’s coverage, too, due to the job I held a year ago, when we were switching. I wear hearing aids and the telecoils work best with an iPhone, streaming the voices into my ears. For those reasons, I went with a Verizon-based prepaid (Page Plus, but I’m getting ready to switch to Puppy Wireless) instead of Verizon itself. For $29.95 per month, I have 1200 voice minutes, 3000 texts and 500 mb of data, but there are other plans that are lower in voice minutes and higher in data. I just needed enough data to sign onto my online brokerage when we were traveling, look for the nearest vegan restaurant when in a different town, that sort of thing. It’s not as seamless as RW, but works fine for me when I remember that this is one of the changes that enables us to live on a fixed income and stop drawing from our retirement savings, letting them grow again. Because I had been on T-Mobile, I had to sell my GSM-based iPhone (via an online service) and buy another CDMA-based one. It’s more trouble to do all this, certainly, but we dropped our costs a huge amount. For those stuck in contracts, perhaps calculate how much it would cost you to back out of your contract and then calculate how much you would save in a prepaid service. Some people will find they actually save money, while others need to wait out the contract. It’s all scary, but researching will help find the right solution for you. Thanks again, Stephanie.
You bring up a great point about canceling the contract and paying the early termination fee. If you have a long time left in an expensive monthly contract, it will often save money in the long run (and sometimes the short run) to just take the hit and then have a much cheaper monthly cost. It’s always good to crunch the numbers for your own situation!
I’m so happy to hear that you are completely satisfied with Republic Wireless after a year. We plan on making the switch to Republic next summer if the military sends us to a location where Republic Wireless will work (fingers crossed)! Thanks so much Stephanie for the update/review! 🙂
Awesome! How exciting to not know where you’ll be stationed. I love new adventures!
I have been seriously interested in your phone plan for quite a while now… unfortunately we are stuck in a contract for a while still 🙁
We were paying $150 a month through verizon, and decided about a year ago to switch to sprint to “save money” they were advertising $50/month unlimited everything plans.. we got completely duped, instead of signing “contracts” you have to make payments on full price phones for 24 months…we shouldn’t of agreed! Now we are paying nearly $200/month for my husband and I to both have phones.
I am dreaming of the day I can pay off these ridiculous phones, and have a $22 monthly phone bill!
Oh Heather that is frustrating! I hate it when companies try to be sneaky and con you into things like that! That is highway robbery!
Did you consider a wifi-only carrier, like Scratch Wireless? You can buy daily/monthly “passes” if you’re away from wifi, and texting is always free. If you have wifi pretty much everywhere, you could spend $0/month. My employer doesn’t give us little people the wifi password, so it wouldn’t work for me, but I find it very intriguing.
Thanks for sharing Cath. I’ve never looked into anything like that. In addition to our WiFi use, we do use talk and texting a lot over the cell network when we’re away from home. My husband has an hour commute each evening, so we talk on the phone a lot.
I wanted to look into this for my 80 year old parents who want a smartphone. The one question I have concerns connectivity procedures. Will the phones automatically connect to available wifi or do you have to manually connect anytime there is an open network nearby? My parents would freak out from confusion if they had to do any sort of logging in at strange locations…
Hi Deb! Your phone will automatically connect to any network you have connected to before, but for the first time on a new WiFi network you will have to authenticate (as you would with any smartphone). For example, every time I got to Target or Sam’s Club or friends houses, my phone automatically connects to WiFi since I connected to their network when I first got my phone (and I have the settings set to automatically get on available WiFi networks). Maybe you could help your parents connect to the networks they would most often use or show them how to search for available networks and open up a web browser to agree to the terms of service for places like McDonalds that offer free WiFi.
I don’t know if that helps at all. I’m pretty sure it would be the same situation with any smartphone, as it is more a procedure required by the WiFi provider than by the phone itself.
Thank you, Stephanie!
How does this plan work if you can only be on Wifi 20% of the time,but need the ability to talk over 600 min, data of 3-4Gb data and send over 300+ texts a month while not on wifi? Are the fees outrageous? I currently pay $75 a month for 7Gb data with rollover and unlimited talk/text. This is a corporate rate.
You would have unlimited talk/text (whether it’s on Wifi or cell, doesn’t matter). With the $25 plan you have “unlimited” data, but after 5 GB, they throttle the speed. There are no fees or overage charges period.
I have a phone with with my job, but we got one of these phones for my husband. He likes it about 90% of the time. He doesn’t like how most of his photos are blurry and that sometimes it randomly dials people when the phone is in his pocket–both those issues may be user error. I think his phone is great and very well made. We didn’t get a case, but you don’t have to worry about is breaking like you do with the iPhone. I am very grateful for your review because you have saved us a bunch of money!!
Which phone does he have? My outdoor photos turn out great, but the indoor lighting makes it harder.
My husband and I made the switch after reading your article last year. Before that, we had dumb phones too. Now we have smart phones for a fraction of the cost of the dumb phones. Thank you for the information! Now I use my smart phone all the time for school and couponing. I was even able to use it on my trip to Europe since I could make calls/text via Wifi.
That’s awesome that you used it in Europe on Wifi! 🙂
I travel for work and I travel abroad a lot so I would never be able to switch. I would love to pay $10 a month for a phone but I use my phone (and mostly the data) way too often. I need it to be reliable. I actually just switched to T-Mobile from AT&T and I’m not crazy about them. Some places I travel to don’t have T-Mobile towers. I have 50 MBs (I think) of “roaming” that I can use but I eat it up quickly! I’m not under contract and I’m mad at AT&T (which is why I switched to begin with) so I may switch to Verizon next year. Either way, for those who have more “normal” jobs, this is a wonderful option! Even $25 a month for a phone is super cheap these days!
That sounds frustrating trying to find a mobile provider that you can work with and has good coverage! Best of luck!
You have had me convinced for quite some time to switch to Republic Wireless. I have a dumb phone that is about 8 years old. I really, really want a smart phone and I am to the point that I really need one to keep up with our farm’s website. My husband is completely on board (he won’t switch because he won’t give up his iphone) but car repairs keep eating into my phone money. I told him the other day that I just want a smart phone sometime before I die. Has anyone had any luck with purchasing a Republic Wireless phone off of e-bay?
Car repairs are painful!! I hope you get your phone soon! 🙂
Our reason for not switching is coverage. Where we live, only Verizon is giving us decent coverage. I occasionally check and see if there have been improvements from other carriers, but until we can actually use our phones around town with another carrier, we will be with Verizon. I think the coverage will eventually be there for us and we will definitely switch. I didn’t realize that iPhones weren’t an option with Republic, though! I do love my iPhone!
Republic roams on Verizon, so for talk and text you would be fine (there are no roaming charges), but if you had data with the $25 or $40 plan, then it would matter because roaming data is very limited. So if you wanted the $10 plan (data just on WiFi), you’d be fine.
Wouldn’t the internet need to factor into that cost? For us, we don’t have internet at home (no computer). Plus I have no idea how to get internet at home to make it possible to use this service. Right now we get unlimited text/data and 300 min for 35 (not including tax) per phone. That means we would need to find internet for under $50/month to make it worth switching. How does it affect your data usage for your home internet?
I guess I made the assumption that most people (at least most people who are reading this) have internet at home. If you don’t have internet at home already, then the data on WiFi wouldn’t work at home. You would still have unlimited calls and texting on cell (WiFi not necessary) if you had the $10 plan. You could still get data with the $25 plan.
Our internet now has unlimited data (most internet plans now do), so data usage isn’t a problem. Previously we had a limited data plan for our home internet (we live in the boonies, so options have been pretty slim) and we were still fine. People tend to use less data surfing the internet on their phones than on a desktop computer, I think, both because sites are optimized for mobile and it’s just not as easy to surf on your phone like it is on a desktop computer (bunches of tabs and windows open, etc). Calls over WiFi do use data too, but it was never enough to cause a problem for us on our home internet with limited bandwidth.
Haha, I read these articles on my phone. Thank you for your reply Stephanie! The article is great, i guess we’ll have to see what internet options we can get at our house. I’d be interested to see how long your phones last. We currently have Virgin Mobile and the phones seem to go out after about 2 years (although that might be standard across the board).