Ting customer spotlight: Curt W.

jroveda • March 16, 2019

Ting customer Curt W. recently took to our subreddit to show what his family’s monthly bill has looked like over the past year. We were so glad to see how he’s able to save with Ting that we wanted to learn more about how he keeps his family’s monthly bill so low.



How long have you been with Ting?

We’ve been customers (three lines and later four) since Jan 2015.



What made you want to sign up with Ting?

We were Sprint customers and I got tired of going into the retail store and going through a painful negotiation with them every couple years only to be presented with plans that were intentionally confusing and made every attempt to bury costs that would pop up later (Framily Plan, anyone?). They also tie everything to buying new phones – fake discounts or not. The very last time I ever set foot in one of their stores, it literally took me three tries before the sales person I was working with would openly just say the simple words, “This will cost more than your prior bill.” What a horrible experience. And don’t even get me started about how in the heck they thought it was okay to raise prices every time.



After shopping around, I think I literally stumbled into Ting. I can’t even remember what sent me there. Digital ad? No clue.



I really like the pay-as-you-go pricing which puts 100% control of the bill in my hands. I’m surprised so few other companies offer it. The funny part is that your pricing makes so much sense and is so simple but was so radically different than everybody else’s that I was actually incredibly confused when I started to do my research. Like, it just didn’t click at first that, if I barely used my phone at all, my bill would be nine bucks. How? That’s one of the reasons I posted my bill – just to peel back the mystery if anybody was wondering. In short, what would have been over $200 per month is running us much closer to $120.



Was your average Ting bill always this low, or was it after a change in usage?

Our bills have always been low – often under $100 when we only had three lines. I had read a lot about folks overestimating their bandwidth needs and that’s been the case with us. With really minor discipline, it’s pretty easy to keep the bill low. But even if we absolutely hammered it one month (which we did, by accident), we’d probably only match the Sprint plan and then only for that one month. No thanks. We hit $240 one month because of a data leak on my wife’s phone. Otherwise, we’ve only ever hit about $170 and rarely that. That’s four lines.



What are you (or aren’t you) doing in order to keep your bill so low?

We included the kids in everything we did and they totally get the idea of having some discipline about bandwidth but feeling free to use it when they need to. We don’t use much talk time and texts are dirt cheap, so we don’t ever talk about those. Use all you want. I also get a bandwidth alert, which is nice. I used to check in mid-billing period on the app but I don’t do that any more as it’s just not necessary.



What do you use the saved money on?

Handsets, Netflix and cable. Because we stopped bleeding mobile money, I kept our cable service and added Netflix. We also buy phones whenever we feel like it and everybody got new handsets within the past few months. We use a Samsung 9, two Pixel 3’s and an iPhone XS. Cable will probably be the next to go. Too many other options now. Because Comcast has been offering better (desperation?) deals lately and because of the savings on Ting, we spend overall less money on connectivity (including Netflix) than we used to a few years ago.



What’s your best tip for someone to cut their Ting bill?

1) Find the Wi-Fi. Phones are so good at this now, just let them do their thing. As a Comcast customer, I jump into Xfiniti hotspots all over the place. Most businesses have them, too. My phone just does that automatically.



2) Check the app data usage screen on your phone. Some of them are horrible bandwidth wasters. For whatever reason, Twitter was just killing my bandwidth a while back. Bye-bye, don’t miss it. Use a browser window. We really don’t do much more than that. I mean, if you’re fighting with your kids about watching too much YouTube, that might be a struggle. Not sure Ting can solve that. But it’s so easy to avoid major bandwidth issues. Also, I’m the adult and Ting makes it incredibly easy to get alerts and shut off access if necessary. Why fight?



I stay with Ting largely because of the bill but I posted my bill and took the time to talk to you because your service is simply unmatched across the board. I mean that very sincerely. Whether I jump into a chat session or post to Reddit, you have always gone above and beyond in trying to take care of me and it sure seems like all of your people have been told to do that no matter what.



One more story:

A couple years ago, we did consider going back to Sprint on an unlimited plan. Beyond the fact that their $160 plan was actually $200+, they couldn’t just pick our numbers and drop them on their network unless… wait for it… we bought new phones from them. Well, of course. I contacted Ting about this and your guy went to great lengths to describe to me how we could drop the number on an old phone and free the number, blah, blah, blah. In short, your folks showed service way beyond expectations on someone who was actually considering leaving Ting. And here we still are.

Join other Ting users like Curt on our subreddit for more cost-cutting stories, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook for other discussions.

