Validas: Kill Your Bill

Introducing the Validas Wireless Family Plan Shopper’s Guide

Introduction

Welcome to Validas’ Wireless Family Plan Shopper’s Guide. You can use this to navigate your way through the dozens of Family plans offered by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless. We’ve priced them all out based on the monthly cost for a family of four and group like-with-like so you can compare plans side by side.

Happy Shopping!

Plan Shopping Tips

1. There’s no reason to buy a plan that doesn’t include unlimited nights, weekends, and mobile to mobile calls. Make sure your plan includes these benefits. We’ve only included those plans in our tables below.
2. Some plans seem less expensive because the price for the first line is cheaper than with other similar plans. If that’s the case, check the price for additional lines with each carrier and consider your total cost before buying. That’s why we’ve priced them all for a family of four.
3. Often the right deal for you is with your existing carrier. It won’t cost you anything to switch to a plan that’s a better fit for your family. 80 percent of the time your carrier will

Family Plans Overview

There are 86 different family plans in the market from AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular (not including A la Carte add-ons for text and data).

• 42 different voice-only family plans
• 22 Do NOT include unlimited nights and weekends
• 16 Do NOT include unlimited nights and weekends or mobile to mobile
• 10 US Cellular, 6 Verizon
• 13 different plans that include unlimited voice minutes
• Only 3 unlimited voice and text plans that don’t also include unlimited data
• 6 unlimited voice, text and data plans
• 2 Sprint, 2 VZW,1 AT&T, 1 T-Mobile
• 14 plans with unlimited text, but a fixed number of voice minutes
• All have unlimited nights and weekends and unlimited mobile to mobile, but only those from Sprint start night hours at 7 pm
• 21 plans with unlimited text and data, but a fixed number of voice  minutes
• All have unlimited nights and weekends and unlimited mobile  to mobile, but again only Sprint starts nights at 7 pm
• Across the board T-Mobile’s plans are the least expensive for a family of four.
• T-Mobile also is perceived to have poor network coverage relative  to the other national carriers
• US Cellular is arguably the least family friendly provider.
• It offers 10 family plans, but all are voice only, and none include unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile calling, or unlimited text and data

Number of Family Plans Per Carrier

Verizon Wireless:  33

T-Mobile:  12

US Cellular:  10

Sprint:  7

AT&T:  24

So, who’s the most family friendly?

It depends on how you measure it.

Cost: T-Mobile is friendliest.

Options: Verizon is friendliest.

Simplicity of Choices: Sprint is friendliest.

Balance of Price and Options: AT&T and Sprint are friendliest.

Early Nights and Weekends: Sprint is friendliest.

Remember that plans and prices change all the time, so when it’s time to make a final decision, you might want to visit  www.myvalidas.com/consumer and find out exactly which plan is best for you.

Happy Shopping