It’s been 14 months now since I ditched AT&T and switched to a no-contract plan from Virgin Mobile. In the process, I lowered my bill by half. While the network coverage isn’t quite as good, overall, the process was a no-brainer for me.
Cell phone companies tend to make a lot of money on their subscribers. How else can you explain that Sprint’s unlimited everything plan is $110 but Virgin Mobile, which leases service on the Sprint network, has the same plan for just $55? That is why second tier providers like Virgin Mobile, Boost, and Cricket have gotten so popular in the past couple years.
It used to be that you could only get old, outdated phones for your no-contract plan, but now Virgin Mobile has all kinds of new phones like the iPhone 5S and the Samsung Galaxy S3.
How to Make Money Paying your Bill
So Virgin Mobile is cheaper than contract plans from companies like AT&T and Verizon. But did you know that you can make yourself some extra money by simply paying your cell phone bill? Actually, if you shop at certain stores, you can also save money on gasoline by paying your Virgin Mobile cell phone bill.
It’s pretty simple. While Virgin Mobile gives you the option of paying your bill online or over the phone, you can also buy “Top Up” cards. The idea comes from pre-paid cell phones, but Virgin brought it over to its no-contract plans. Let’s say you are on the middle 1200 minute “Beyond Talk” plan with unlimited text and data for $45 per month. If you go to your local supermarket to buy the $45 Top-Up card, you can pay for with a card that offers rewards. Get 1% cash back? That’s a free 45 cents every time you pay your cell phone bill.
But it gets better. If your supermarket offers fuel points for purchases, like Kroger stores do, then buying the Top-Up card there gets you 45 fuel points, half way to a 10 cent discount at the pump. Top-Up cards are also sold as a gift card. That means that when Kroger offers 4X fuel points on gift card purchases, paying your cell phone puts you nearly all the way to a 20 cent discount on fuel. So when I pay my cell phone bill in December, I’ll get to save about $3 on my next fill-up.
Get your first month with Virgin Mobile for up to 70% off
The US mobile phone market is pretty much at saturation by now. Everyone who is going to get a phone has one. So the only way for cell providers to grow is by poaching subscribers from other companies. To do so, Virgin Mobile recently decided to take a page out of the playbook of other carriers like Ting and Republic Wireless. Put simply, they are bribing me to find customers for them by offering me $25 off my bill for each subscriber I refer.
Of course, to give new customers an incentive to switch, they will pay you as well. That’s right, if you sign up with this referral link, you will get a $25 credit toward your first month’s bill. For the $35 plan for 300 minutes, that works out to a 71% savings on that first bill.
So why not save 50% on your cell phone bill, earn cash back on your rewards card and save money on gas by paying your bill, and save up to 70% on your first month’s bill? It’s as easy as signing up for Virgin Mobile.
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