Best Cell Phone Plans for Families In 2017 | The Truth!

According to Pew Research Center’s 2015 report, every year, almost 25% of Americans have to cancel their cell phone service due to financial reasons. Everyone knows that cell phone plans are expensive, and in response to their customers’ needs, the four giants in the wireless carrier industry have offered cheaper alternatives, like family plans and package deals, for years — but those plans change often. In this article, I’m going to evaluate the best cell phone plans for families offered by the four largest wireless carriers in the United States: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

A Quick Rundown Of The Major Carriers’ Basic Family Plans (For 4 Lines)

To give you a preview of what these four carriers have in store for you, here’s a comparison of their plans for a family of four:

The Major Carriers’ Best Cell Phone Plans For Families

T-Mobile

T-Mobile claims to have the best cell phone plan for families out of all four network carriers. Through the network’s T-Mobile plan, a family can get four lines for only $160. At present, T-Mobile charges $70 for the first line, $50 for the second line, and the third, fourth, and up to the eighth line for as low as $20 each. Please note that this offer is applicable only when you use auto-pay. Without auto-pay, an additional $5 will be charged per line, increasing your monthly payment to $180 (if you have a plan with four lines).

T-Mobile sometimes offers promotional plans, where they waive the cost of the fourth line, shrinking your payment to $140 per month. Aside from the unlimited data, the network also offers unlimited talk and text as part of their best cell phone plan for families.

Verizon

Verizon is a great alternative for families who want flexible data plans. For just $90 per month, a family of four can share from one pool of 16GB data. Verizon sometimes runs a promo that offers an additional 2GB data for select data plans (8GB and above).

Unlike T-Mobile, Verizon charges an access fee of $20 per line. So if you are a family of four, you have an additional access payment of $80, making your total monthly payment $170.

Sprint

Sprint subscribers love this network because of their cheap plans. A family can choose either a tiered data plan or unlimited data. Sprint charges $160 for four lines with the first line charged at $60, the second line at $40, and each succeeding line at $30.

AT&T

AT&T charges $80 for their 10GB data plan, and just like Verizon, AT&T also charges their subscribers an access fee of $20 per line. So a family of four would have to pay an additional $80 on top of their monthly payment of $80. This brings the total monthly payment to $160. AT&T also offers a 16GB plan for $90, a 25GB plan for $110, and a 30GB plan for $135. Their unlimited data plan is available to customers who also subscribe to their U-verse or DirecTV service.

Haven’t Decided On Your Plan Yet?

To figure out which deal from the four big networks if the best for you, you can also check out our Cell Phone Savings Calculator. With this tool, you can search for the best cell phone plans for families and save a lot of money on your monthly bills.

The four big carriers offer many options for the best cell phone plans for families and it’s easy to get confused about which plan is best for you. Hopefully, this article has helped to answer some of your questions, and if you have any thoughts you’d like to share, we’d love to hear them in the comments section below.