Skylar Taylor-Barrick

March 8, 2021

Feeling Content With Technology

My entire adult life, i've switched smartphones almost every year. For a long time, these upgrades were justified by reasonably mind-blowing updates to the technology or design. But this year, Apple will introduce the iPhone 13 series, and my iPhone 11 Pro seems just fine. Similarly, my Husband's iPhone X is still treating him well. That need to get the new thing has faded a bit.

Last month, we cancelled our postpaid AT&T Wireless account (we're keeping Fiber) and switched to TracFone, the prepaid wireless provider. My parents have used TracFone since nearly their launch, so it's not like it's new to me. But while helping my Dad activate his new PIxel 3 I noticed their smartphone plans were an interesting value. We were paying for unlimited data while using less than 1GB/mo each. That makes NO sense! 

Instead of $140/mo, we now pay $40/mo. We get unlimited talk and text, and 2GB of data each. If we don't use all of our data in a month, it stays in our account for the future. Their $1 SIM kit on Amazon includes AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile cards, and you can choose what network you'd like to activate on. You can switch between them at any time. You can tether, there's no throttling, the only missing feature is Visual Voicemail, which I can certainly live without.

In a similar way to HEY feeling like a refreshing dose of how we used to do things, so does this. There's not a ton of over-complication and contracts and fees, just $20/mo per line, every month. I would *legitimately* recommend it. 

I think this is a pattern of making better choices. We've been looking at a new car lately and I've started to prefer a more moderate option instead of something ostentatious. That feels good.