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How Does Tello Mobile Compare to Other Networks

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If you’re looking for a low-cost cell phone provider that gets the job of talk and texting done without all the bells and whistles, Tello Mobile may be the right cell phone provider for you.  While it lacks many of the features of other cell phone providers, the price can’t be beat.

How Does Tello Mobile Compare to Other Networks?

About Tello Mobile

Tello Mobile offers affordable cell phone service and terrific customer service.  However, since it is a discounted cell phone provider, it won’t have all the features of a big cell phone provider like AT & T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon.  On the other hand, Tello Mobile doesn’t have all of the expenses.

How Much Are Tello Mobile Plans?

Tello Mobile is an ideal cell phone provider for those who are in high school and college students just starting out on their own.  Their plans are affordable, especially for those on a tight budget.

Their cheapest plan is for no data and 100 minutes and free texting for just $5 (taxes and fees not included).

While on the other end, their plan for unlimited data and unlimited minutes is $39 per month (tax and fees not included).

How Does Tello Mobile Compare to Other Networks?

You can choose a range of options in between these two extremes based on your own specific needs.  In addition, they offer family plans that are equally affordable and designed for two to four family members.

They do not require a contract, a benefit that many people enjoy.

Coverage

Their coverage is provided by the Nationwide Sprint Network on a 4G LTE network.  Historically, among the big four Sprint is ranked lowest for coverage, so if you live in a rural area, Tello Mobile might not be the provider for you.

Interestingly, they offer free calling to four international locations—Canada, Mexico, China, and Romania.

Cell Phones for Purchase

You can easily bring your cell phone over to Tello Mobile if it has CDMA capabilities.  If you don’t have a phone or don’t want to bring one over, you can buy an affordable phone from Tello Mobile.

However, don’t look for the latest version of a cell phone here.  Instead, you’ll find older versions of phones for a lower cost or refurbished phones.  For instance, they are currently offering a refurbished Apple iPhone 8 for $399 and a refurbished Apple iPhone XR for $519.

Customer Service

Tello Mobile has polite and helpful customer service.  You can reach them via phone or email, and they have an extensive FAQs section that may negate the need to talk to someone.

However, unlike other, more expensive providers, they do not have a physical location you can visit for additional assistance.

Final Thoughts

Tello Mobile is a provider that offers the basics and free calling to a few select countries.  It is best for individuals or families who have light cell phone needs or for high school students or college students looking for affordability.

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How Can You Tithe When You Can’t Pay the Bills?

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Most Christians believe that you should tithe, specifically 10% of your income.  While this can be a sacrifice, many Christians are devout in doing this.  But does this rule also apply when you have no money?  Tithing when broke is possible, but you may need to be creative in how you do it.

Tithing When Broke

Start Small

If you’re determined to tithe, start small.  Give what you can.  For years, my husband and I lived in the suburbs of Chicago and made less than $40,000 a year.  We always gave to our church, but we definitely didn’t give 10%.  Now that our income has improved and we’ve moved to a place with a lower cost of living, we have increased how much we give.

There’s nothing wrong with giving what you can and increasing that amount little by little as your financial situation improves.

Tithe Your Sacrifice

We all have areas of our budget where we spend unnecessarily.  Maybe you spend money on a case of beer every month or a Netflix subscription.  Tithing when broke may be in part just a matter of finding those little extravagances in your budget and cut them.  The money from those items becomes money that you tithe.

Find Free Ways to Give Money

There are also free ways you can donate money such as signing up for Amazon Smile.  If you shop through AmazonSmile, .05% of your purchase total goes to the charity of your choosing.  (There are over 1 million charities to choose from!)  I found our church there and signed up.

Likewise, some grocery loyalty cards also have a charitable component.  I signed up for our church through my grocery store’s loyalty card, so a part of every purchase is tithed to my church.

There are other ways you can give for free.  For instance, I signed up for Swagbucks.  I use it sparingly, so I only earn one or two $25 gift cards, but I use those in December to donate a toy to a needy child.  Every year, our church puts up a Christmas tree with gift requests from needy kids.  I always take one and buy something using the free gift cards I’ve earned.

Volunteer

Tithing when Broke
Photo by Anna Earl on Unsplash

If you don’t have any money to give to the church or you can’t give as much as you would like, consider volunteering instead.  There are so many opportunities to volunteer within the church such as serving as an usher or singing in the choir.  The office may need help or you may have specific training such as accounting that you can use when volunteering with the church.

There are also other ways to tithe such as volunteering your time in the community working on houses for Habitat for Humanity or working in a soup kitchen.

Final Thoughts

Tithing is an important part of being a Christian.  However, you may not financially be able to give as much as you would like.  Luckily, there are many others ways to give.  Tithing when broke may require you to give of your time instead or find organizations that give a part of your purchase price to your favorite charity.

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How We Save Money With Ting as Our Cell Phone Provider

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For the longest time, my husband and I had simple Tracfone flip phones in case of emergency.  We mainly used them just to keep up with one another, if necessary.  We didn’t even have texting.  But then my husband found it necessary to have a cell phone for work.  We didn’t want to be strapped to a cell phone provider who would charge us a hundred dollars a month or more, so we decided to go with Ting, which has no contract requirement.  I love to share with people how we save money with Ting as our cell phone provider because it helps us maintain a modest budget.

How We Save Money with Ting as Our Cell Phone Provider

We’ve upgraded to smart phones.  We can now text, call, search the internet, etc. just like most people in the United States.  However, by using Ting, we’ve found several ways to cut our costs.

Basic Ting Services and Charges

Ting is a provider who charges based on your usage.

Phone Line Charge

Each line that you have on the plan costs $6 a month.  So, for my husband and I, there are two lines.  We pay $12 a month for these.

How We Save Money with Ting as Our Cell Phone Provider

Talk Minutes

There are also base rates for the minutes that you use to talk on your phone.

  • 1 to 100 minutes = $3,
  • 101 to 500 minutes = $9,
  • 501 to 1000 minutes = $18, etc.

Texts

And there are base rates for texts.

  • 1 to 100 texts = $3,
  • 101 to 1000 texts = $5,
  • 1001 to 2000 texts = $8, etc.

In addition, you will also pay taxes and regulatory fees monthly.

Limit Our Usage

Since Ting is basically a pay as you use provider, we try to limit our usage to keep our bills low.  From October 2019 to February 2020, our monthly bill averaged $63.  The highest bill was $84 in October when I was traveling, and the lowest was $46.

Once the pandemic hit and we began to stay home most of the time, our monthly bill dropped to $30.

If you want to focus on keeping your bill low, you can set up usage alerts, such as an email sent to you once you use 450 megabytes, so you don’t go over the 500 megabyte limit before moving into a different charge rate.

You can also enable settings that don’t allow you to make any more texts after a certain number, etc.  This is very helpful if you have teens on your plan.  This allows you to keep their usage within the confines of your budget.

Basic Phones

How We Save Money with Ting as Our Cell Phone Provider

Ting also sells phones.  My husband and I try to go with the most basic model available.  The current phones we use cost less than $200 apiece.  (We bought them during a sale Ting was having.)

We also use a cell phone case to keep our phones in good shape.  My husband and I have both dropped our phones, but they were not damaged thanks to the cases.

Final Thoughts

While we wanted more modern cell phones, we didn’t want to pay a lot for them every month.  The strategies given above are how we save money with Ting as our cell phone provider.  Ting is not in every area, but you can see if they’re in your area by entering your area code on their website.