My job gives me a $50/month stipend for a cell phone. While I could use my personal cell, for various reasons I don't want to do this.
Unfortunately I will need to text and send decent quality photos. I have an old Samsung s7 I'm no longer using. I have wifi in work, and at home.
Can anyone give me advice on how to do this as cheaply as possible? I'd like o be able to keep as much of the $50 as I can.
Advice Needed: I need a Work Phone for Cheap
byu/KikiDKimono inFrugal
Posted by KikiDKimono
21 Comments
Sign up with Visible and buy one of the cheapest compatible phones through them. (You could also buy a phone elsewhere but my partner got burned by buying a phone on eBay that was supposed to be compatible but wasn’t. If you buy through them and it’s not compatible you have recourse).
Can you expense the up-front purchase of a device?
Not without clarifying at the very least the country that you’re in.
I switched my personal phone from Verizon to US mobile a few months ago, was nervous about the switch but honestly it’s been really smooth. Now I pay $25 a month and never worry about data
Can you add a 2nd line to your phone plan? They often have specials on phones (Verizon, T-Mobile).
I support keeping a seperate number, but are you sure you need a seperate device? Do you need to install any work apps that might give aiat control of your device.
If not, Consider a virtual phone number on your current phone. Google voice is free for most things and will give you a phone number that supports texting. You would just make all your work calls/texts through the goggle voice app. To anyone you contact, it’s just like any other phone number.
$50 monthlystipend means thats the max your company will reimburse you for your bill. So if your monthly bill is $35 thats what they pay. You don’t get a free $50 every month and get to keep what’s left over. That’s not how company expenses work. Source: I process expense reports for a living.
If you don’t need a data plan and can live with Wifi, check out TextNow. It is ad-based and free. I’ve got my daughter’s old iPhone 7 on it, and was able to port our old land line # to it.
Helium Mobile. $0 depending on how many texts a month. I think it’s like 300?
Tracphone!
Ultra mobile got $10 per month for 12 months deals going on.
Mint is like $10/mo for the cheapest plan. Get a used android on swappa
I have Google Fi with a plan where I pay separately for data and use very little data because I use wifi, and I pay $23-24 per month.
are you good with getting a second number/line on your existing phone?
I buy refurbished phones with warranty on eBay
Google Voice number (free) ringing to the GV app on the S7 on wifi. You could even have the GV app on your personal phone. You can also text with GV on a computer browser.
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Tracfone has bundles occasionally, usually through Walmart. I bought a Moto G play with 1500 minutes/1500 texts/3 g data, and 1 year of service for $50. The tech support is pretty good (they have real people!) and the service is fine.
I search TF bundles through the WM website.
Google voice number on your phone and pay your bill with the stipend
I got USMobile and I’m paying $25/m unlimited call, text and data. There’s also a Light Plan that’s $10/m 2GB data and unlimited call and text
If the reason you don’t want to use your phone is the phone number you can always get a digital Sim. IIRC I found a site where you could get it and keep it for free if you used it weekly. Otherwise you could rent the number for $2.99/month.