I had a 2 year contract with ATT. The contract just ended last month and I thought that I had to renew it or else I will lose the service, and more important my number. I surfed the ATT website to see what kind of deals they have, and it took me some self restrain to stop myself from renewing with a cool cell-phone and a 2 year commitment (they charge some hefty fee to cancel your service while in contract). Finally, I did some research online and found the following:
1- You don't have to call to renew your contract. What will happen is that they will keep charging you with the usual terms month by month.
2- Cell phone companies have some cheaper plans that they don't promote. So I called ATT (CB7017) made sure that the service will remain there, on a month per month basis, as long as I am paying my bill, and no cancellation fees since I did respect my 2 year contract.
I was able to get a 200 minutes (with 1000 minutes for weekends and nights) plan for a monthly rate of 29$ instead of my 450 minutes plan that I hardly use and was able to save 10$ per month! I only lost the roll-over I used to have and I never needed to use.
This looks closer to a slight victory, but I am a deep believer in optimizing my needs and in informed consumerism. And since my old cell-phone is still running, I might as well invest a bit in it or just enjoy the 240$ I will save in 2 years.
