Long Beach California Real Estate Loans

Long Beach, Ca.  In the current economy where Americans are strangled at the pump, squeezed in the grocery market, worried about finances, and trying to save every dime possible.  It is with pleasure that I share with you how my personal family recently accrued an approximate savings of $285.00-$300.00 a month by changing our mobile phone service company.

In the old days, before mobile phones, every household had at least one hard land-line phone.   Granted, if there were teenagers, an occasional second line was installed to handle the traffic.  Nevertheless, telephone service was pretty straight forward:

one home+one phone=one bill.

Today in America Life, with the advent of mobile technology, mobile phones have become considered "essential."   Phones are not just for talking anymore, they supply the tools for web access, photography and video, text messaging, video gaming and e mail not to mention contact management and calendar access, and emergency life line.

A simple 4" mobile phone has become a mobile Computerized World Access Portal(CWAP) and if we modify the letter "W" to an "R," we as parents can relate to what it is our children are spending their time doing with these devices besides using them for there best and most important use: Parent/Child communication.  That said,

unfortunately, the world is not as safe as it was when I was growing up and today, it is considered good parenting to make sure that your child has emergency phone access and a mobile phone is the best child locator tool. As long as it is monitored carefully, I agree with allowing youngsters access to a mobile phone, if not on a daily basis on a case by case basis.  For example, if they are going on a field trip at school, a Sporting event, or some other supervised outing wherein it is convenient and smart to be able to communicate via a phone.

Meanwhile, the old formula of one home+one phone=one bill has morphed into:

one home+one phone(a land line)+internet service(DSL)+cable access+several mobile phones=multiple outrageously expensive monthly multimedia bills that can cost thousands and thousands of dollars a year.

Let's take a residential phone service at home that with taxes can cost a min. of $50-$100 a month, sometimes the DSL is provided by the same phone company, sometimes you have to pay for the internet access separately.

Cable television access that routinely runs between $50- $100 a month for a minimal plan.  Again, you may be able to combine cable with hard wired internet access for an extra charge.

Then there is the litany of mobile phone service providers including:  Sprint/Nextel, AT&T,Trac Phones, Cingular, Verizon, etc.  Although, most of these have some type of family savings plans, I have to share with you the recent advent of Metro PCS in the Southern Californian Market Place  and how it is saving my family a considerable amount of dough.  Hopefully, without sounding too much like a commercial, for a limited time, Metro PCS is offering four lines with unlimited calls for $100/month.  Although, the phones are limited in area coverage(not so good outside of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Orange Counties, the service is inexpensive and meets most families needs.)  Note that is $25/ month per phone with unlimited calling including local, text messaging, and long distance.  Best of all, Metro PCS did not require my family to sign a contract. 

If you are a business traveler, this system will simple not work for you.  This is not as of yet, a nationwide company.  The coverage is mostly local.  There is no coverage as of this writing in Portland; however, Las Vegas in connected.  Also, another draw back is as of today, this plan does not work with the Blackberry Phone. 

The draw back for the plan is that you must pay for the phones up front and this plan does not include web access.  But for $5/month more per phone you can add the web access. 

Now, compare what I was recently paying at a competitor:

For unlimited web access and phone calls my old phone was $135/m.

I added a second phone for my wife which cost another $100/m.             

My daughter was paying at least $50/m for her own service.

Our land line at the house is normally around $70/m.

Imagine putting out almost $400/m just to be able to communicate via mobile and home service.

This was costing us an average of $285-$300/m with taxes for just three mobile phones and an additional $70/ month for our home line! Imagine putting out almost $400/m just to be able to communicate via mobile and home service. Now, with Metro PCS's plan, we have increased the amount of mobile phones from three to four phones.  We use one for my business, one for my wife, one is being used by our 17 year old daughter, which leaves a spare at the house for any of the other four younger children that might need it for a special occasion all for only $100/m.

Now, because of the unlimited long distance part of our plan,we can cut back our land line service to a more basic plan and save an additional $35/month.  All together the total savings for my house hold by utilizing the Mobile PCS is between an astonishing  $215/m-$250/m.  Now that's a monthly savings of between $2500-$3000/year.

I see that my family members are going to be able to fill our gas tanks, after all this summer!