How Pure TalkUSA is saving my family money….

I did it…I made the switch. I am almost embarrassed to admit to everyone how much money I was throwing down the drain each month. However, my excitement of what I am saving outweighs that embarrassment!  My family is growing and needed to trim down our budget, so my husband and I dropped the big box cell phone company and made the move to Pure TalkUSA.  When we decided to try to start saving, the first thing we looked at was our phone bill. On average we were paying $150 each month for our family plan with two phones. Here is the break down of what we had:

$60 for 700 shared minutes with unlimited nights/weekends

$9.99 for adding the second line on the family plan

$30 for shared unlimited text messages & free mobile to any mobile

$25 data package for my husbands phone (includes 2GB)

$15 data package for my phone (includes 200MB)

Throw in all taxes and fees, and our average monthly bill hits about $150 a month.

Have you ever analyzed your bill to see what exactly you are using? Honestly, I had not. I use online bill pay (saved a tree and cancelled our paper bills). I never really looked at our bill unless it seemed high.  Yes, we had upgraded to have data, yes we added unlimited texting. All those things add up. Let me just show you what we actually used last month. This is the embarrassing part:

Of those 700 shared minutes we used 399 minutes

Mobile to any mobile and night/weekend minutes – 954 minutes

Unlimited texting – 587 messages were sent/received

$25 for my husband’s 2GB of data (2GB=2048MB) – he used a whopping 225MB

$15 for my 200MB of data and I used 72 whole mega bytes.

That is a grand total of 1951MB of unused data that we paid for!! Data does not even roll over…use it or lose it.

Enter Pure TalkUSA. I always said I would switch but was waiting for them to offer data. When it was released, I shrugged and said it wasn’t enough. I had put off the switch long enough. It was time and here is what we did:

Husband –FREE SIM card and put it in his current GSM phone. He went with the Unlimited Plus Plan for $43.95 –unlimited talk & text (I didn’t have to shell out another $30 for unlimited texting and mobile to any mobile…it’s included).  He also gets 100MB of data and 100 MMS. Yes, with budgeting comes sacrifices. He has to cut down on his web surfing. We both use data on our phones for light email, keeping up with social media, and a little web browsing here and there. The biggest thing has been for us to make sure we take advantage of FREE Wi-Fi. When we are connected, we are not using any of the data in our plan. This has saved us a tremendous amount and neither of us has gone over the allotted 100MB.

Add in another $43.95 & Free SIM for myself to be on the unlimited Plus Plan and we are at a grand total of $87.90 a month for BOTH of us to talk, text, and stay connected. Did I mention all taxes and fees are included?  If my husband either of us do go over on our data, it would only be $10 for another 100MB of data per line. We still would come in way under what we were spending with the big guys. I am happy to report that we are currently saving $62 bucks a MONTH. That will be $744 extras dollars at the end of the year.  Who wouldn’t want an extra $744 a YEAR?

Luckily when we made the switch our contract was up. We did not have to pay any early termination fees. However, I have talked other family members in to making the big switch. Some of which will be paying a termination fee. After doing the math, we realized that with the money saved over the course of the year paying the early termination fee was worth it. We can pay that fee and STILL save money.

We also took advantage of the referral program. My husband “referred” me and received a $10 credit on his bill. Are you kidding me…$10 off for referring a friend? So, I referred my mom and I also received $10 off.  This credit shows up after the referees second month of service. Our goal is to refer a friend each month. We actually have a friendly competition going on as to who can save the most by referring friends and getting $10 credits. So far, I am winning!!

If you are looking to save money in 2012 or considering making a switch with your cellular service, I highly recommend Pure TalkUSA!!

1st Prize winner of the $350 Amazon Gift Card is – LAURA MUSSER
2nd Prize winner of the $150 Amazon Gift Card is – TRENT MCKEE
3rd Prize winner of the $50 Amazon Gift Card is – VICTORIA NARODITSKY

Winners must contact Pure TalkUSA by December 19th, 2011 to claim their prizes. To claim your prize, please email us at info@puretalkusa.com

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from Pure TalkUSA

Pure TalkUSA is here to help you out. Did you wait until the last minute to snag that perfect gift for your loved ones? Give them the gift that will keep them connected. With Plans starting at just $10 and phones as low as $4.95, we are sure you can find something for just about anyone on your list. How about the texting teen? Try the Unlimited Talk & Text for only $39.95 a month. Check out our Plans here and our phone selection here.

Use promotional code HOLIDAYSHIP now until December 19th to receive FREE expedited shipping. We guarantee to have your order to you by December 24th. See details here.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from Pure TalkUSA.

Need to start shopping for the Holidays? Short on Cash? Pure TalkUSA is here to help with A Pure TalkUSA Holiday Giveaway. Enter to win the following: Grand Prize: $350 Amazon Gift Card, 2nd Place: $150.00 Amazon Gift Card, 3rd Place: $50 Amazon Gift Card. Contest starts on Thursday December 1st, 2011 at 12:01 AM EST, and ends on Thursday December 15th, 2011 at 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be selected at random and announced by Friday, December 16th, 2011.

To Enter:

Fill out and submit the entry form for your chance to win.

Want more chances to win?

You can try one or all of these entry methods in addition to the entry form to increase your chances. Participants are allowed up to three entries per person and only one entry per method.

Twitter

Follow us on Twitter @puretalkusa and retweet the “Enter Pure TalkUSA Holiday Giveaway to help you with your holiday shopping” to your followers.

Facebook

“Like” us – Pure TalkUSA – No Contract, Low Cost Cell Phone Plans and post a status update about the Pure TalkUSA giveaway and why you need A Pure TalkUSA Holiday Giveaway. Be sure to include @Pure TalkUSA – No Contract, Low Cost Cell Phone Plans in your status update so we can track it. Keep it short (140 characters or less).

Blog

Have a blog? Write about the giveaway and spread the word. Tell us what you would do if you were to win. Be sure to submit the link to us via entry form.

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for; Pure TalkUSA now offers data! That’s right, you’ve read it correctly. We are happy to present our new Unlimited Plus+ plan which features unlimited talk, text, 100 MMS and 100MB for only $43.95 a month. Need more data/MMS? If you use more than 100MB or 100MMS, you will receive an additional block for just $10. Just like with our other great plans, there are no contracts. You pay your bill month to month and you can even switch between plans with no penalties. Click here for more information on this and our other great plans!

And don’t forget, you can earn DOUBLE REFERRAL REWARDS now through September 25!  Click here for details.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!

Well, this is right, and, unfortunately, also wrong for many people.

A recent study conducted by CareerBuilder found that 1 in 4 people employed full-time do not plan to take a vacation this year, blaming this on the cost and an inability to take time off of work. Though the remaining respondents did plan to take a vacation, a third of them planned to take their work along with them while they were gone.

Of course, this study didn’t include those not employed full-time, and a natural assumption would be that it might be even more difficult for those without the benefits of a full-time paycheck to head to the beach for a week.

Though it might be easy to dismiss this study without feeling too sorry for those that can’t take a break, the fact remains that this number has been increasing over the last few years, indicating that we are taking less and less time off from our busy schedules. This lack of time away can lead to burnout, decreased job performance, higher stress levels (which can lead to serious health concerns), a general feeling of disassociation from family and overall lower levels of happiness and satisfaction (which can in turn lead to a more unhealthy lifestyle).

Vacations are important to our overall wellbeing, and it is important to take them, if only for a few days.

How Can Pure TalkUSA Help?

There are 2 ways in which we can help you take that much-needed vacation:

1. Save money with our service

Read over our Facebook page, our Reviews and our blog posts. Pure TalkUSA will save you money, period. And oftentimes, this is no small amount – many users report saving between $80-100 A MONTH on our service. In addition, we also offer Referral Rewards to customers that refer their friends.  For each customer you refer, we will give you 202 minutes (or a $10 credit if you are on the Unlimited Plan); this credit allows many users to get by with a $10/month cell phone bill, increasing their savings per month drastically.  Saving enough for a few nights in a hotel doesn’t take long at this rate!

2. Enter our “I Need a Vacation Giveaway”

Pure TalkUSA is giving away a $250 hotel giftcard, as well as other great prizes.  All you have to do to enter is spread the word about Pure TalkUSA.  For details on the giveaway and how to enter, click here.  Winners will be announced by July 15!

You deserve a vacation – let Pure TalkUSA help you get one!

It’s summer time & vacation mode is in full swing. Enter Pure TalkUSA’s I need a VACATION Giveaway to win the following: Grand Prize: $250 Hotel Gift Card, 2nd Place: $50.00 Visa Gift Card, 3rd Place: Pure TalkUSA Vacation Bag. Contest starts on Monday June 20th, 2011 at 12:01 AM EST, and ends on Friday July 8th, 2011 at 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be selected at random and announced by Friday July 15th, 2011.

To Enter:

Head over to our site and submit an entry for your chance to win.

Want more chances to win?

You can try one or all of these entry methods in addition to the entry form to increase your chances. Participants are allowed up to three entries per person and only one entry per method.

Twitter

Follow us on Twitter: @puretalkusa and retweet the “I Need a Vacation” giveaway to your followers.

Facebook

“Like” us – Pure TalkUSA – No Contract, Low Cost Cell Phone Plans and post a status update about the Pure TalkUSA contest and why you need a vacation. Be sure to include @Pure TalkUSA – No Contract, Low Cost Cell Phone Plans in your status update so we can track it. Keep it short (140 characters or less).

Blog

Blog about the contest and tell us why you need a vacation. Then submit a link of the blog post to us via entry form.

Visit our contest page for official rules and entry details.

Check out the “Reviews” tab on our Facebook page (on the left side) to see what customers are saying about Pure TalkUSA! If you are a customer, we’d love for you to add your review as well – we love customer feedback.

Thanks!

But, perhaps we should focus on cleaning up another part of the household that often grows messy over time….the family budget!

Let Pure TalkUSA help you scrub your budget!

I don’t know about you, but my family’s expenses change relatively often.  Maybe not month-to-month, but definitely every 3-4 months.  We might enroll the kids in a new program, have another end, have school or childcare expenses change (one of the best things about summer break? No bus/lunch expenses for school!! Yippee!), find that we’ve finished paying for something or that we have a new something to pay for (yes, new hot water heater, I’m looking at you). At this point, if we want to stick to a budget or know what our expenses are each month, it is important to sit down and review our budget to discover if it is still accurate and, more importantly, if there is any way we can trim it.

That’s where Pure TalkUSA comes in.

We all know that Pure TalkUSA is less expensive than contract phone companies, so I won’t focus on that here.  However, I will provide you with a scenario that might make the other benefits of this service – the flexibility – more evident:

Susie and her husband used Contract Company for their cell phone service and have no home phone, choosing instead to save that money.  Susie uses her phone fairly often, but not loads, and finds that her usage fluctuates from month-to-month.  She typically averages about 400 minutes/month, but at times has used only 300 and has also had months as high as 800.  Her husband uses his phone (and iPhone®) for work and also texts quite a bit, so they have an Unlimited Family Plan with a minimum amount of data (for his email) totaling $135/month plus taxes/fees.  

Unfortunately, Susie’s husband lost his job. While he was fortunate enough to find another job, this change forced them to reevaluate their spending.  They decide to trim some fat on their wireless bill.

Enter Pure TalkUSA.  Susie and her husband decide to start off with the Family Flex Plan and set their limit at $50 (756  minutes, plus an additional 50 minutes for the second line = 806 minutes).  Remember, they will only be charged the full $50 if they need all of these minutes, and will be charged in increments of $10 as they need them.  Both choose to use their current GSM phones, and Susie’s husband just uses his iPhone with WiFi when accessing the Web.

Susie and her husband find they are using almost all of their 806 minutes each month, so they switch her husband to Unlimited ($39.95) and set her limit at $40/month (551 minutes).  Susie starts building up some rollover minutes, and usually only hits $30 on the Flex Plan (making their bill about $69.95 each month).  She decides to tell some friends about Pure TalkUSA, and both she and her husband refer 3 friends.  This gives Susie an additional 606 minutes and her husband a $30 credit towards their cell phone bill!!  With the extra minutes, Susie trims her budget to $20/month, making their combined bill $59.95 each month.  Since they are trying to save for a vacation, Susie’s husband decides to switch back to the Flex Plan for 2 months, and refers 3 more friends.  For 2 months, their bill totals only $30/month, allowing them to put away a little extra for a trip.

Susie and her husband are excited about the flexibility to switch plans as often as needed (without losing any built-up rollover minutes) and about getting great Referral Rewards!  Now their goal is to refer a total of 30 new customers so Susie can get an iPad®, but she might settle for an Amazon Kindle® at 10 Referrals!

Think about Susie and her husband when making decisions about your budget and your wireless needs.  With very little change to their usage, they were able to save an average of $100+ a month (when factoring service and taxes/fees) and even more when they really wanted to.  Consider what you are currently paying for your phone service and then ask yourself how Pure TalkUSA can save you money.  Between cutting your monthly bill, the ability to switch from plan to plan AND the minutes/credits/items you can earn with our Referral Rewards program, it’s time to clean up your budget and switch your service to Pure TalkUSA!

Happy Spring Cleaning!