Best cellular family plan – AT&T v US Cellular

AT&T-v-US-Cellular
AT&T-v-US-Cellular

I remember the day I first received my cell phone. Someone called me while I was at the store and everyone in there stopped what they were doing and looked at me. But what is the Best cellular family plan between AT&T and US Cellular? This was nearly 20 years ago and at that time, mobile phones were not that common.

As such, when I took out a plan, it would always be one that was for a single line only. Things have changed a lot since then. Now, most entire families owns a cell phone. That is four or five lines in one home. Each one using their phone for making calls, sending messages and going on line.

However, one of the things that can be frustrating is that some members of the family only use their phone occasionally while others regularly exceed their allowance.  If that is the case in your home maybe it time to consider a family plan as you can have one bill that gives some users freedom to use a lot of the data allowance while others are only making the odd call. So its important to figure out based on your specific calling profile what is the best cellular family plan.

So what about AT&T?

With AT&T you can pick and choose the amount of data that you want and pay one payment a month.

550 minutes                                      $59.99 (based upon 2 lines, additional lines are $9.99 a month)

300 MB                                              $20.00 (this is based upon 1 line, additional lines are $9.99 a month)

Unlimited messages                       $30.00 (up to 5 lines)

The total cost of this plan for 5 lines would be $169.92. This plan is good if most members of the family only use their phones occasionally. However, it probably wouldn’t do for extended usage.

US Cellular – are they expensive?

With US cellular you can have 5 lines with unlimited minutes and then pick your additional add ons.

 5 lines with unlimited minutes   $269.99 per month.

5 lines unlimited messaging         $100.00 per month.

5 lines with 5GB data                      £250.00 per month.

The total cost of this plan is $619.99 per month. However, it does come with unlimited minutes, messaging and 5GB of data. While this plan may look expensive, it does work out at around $104 per month, per line. There is also no limit on calls and messaging so it is handy for users who spend a lot of time on the phone. However, it should be noted that 5GB of data won’t last forever and it can easily be used up by downloading a few movies or playing online games.

For an extra $40 per month per handset, data allowance can be upped to 10GB per month.

These packages are both worth considering for families. However, if you spend large amounts of time downloading or playing online games you may want to consider a plan that has unlimited data as this could save you money in the long run.

In Summary who has the Best cellular family plan

Each person’s mobile cell phone is usage is different, no two people have the same call and data profile. Before choosing your operator make sue you know how many calls, messages and data you use each month.