HOW TO: Save Big On Text Messages

I finally did it. No more monthly fees for text messages from AT&T. Thank you, Push Notifications. The way people use texts varies considerably from person to person. Some need unlimited messages while others only send a couple a day. In any case, here are options that should make kicking the costly text message addiction easy for just about everyone, well anyone with an iPhone that is. Savings could range from a couple dollars a month to over $20 a month if you're on a family plan.

Textfree Unlimited (currently $5.99) and Textfree Lite (free)

Textfree Lite is limited to only 15 messages a day and that number could change at any time for the better or worse. If you're subscribing to AT&T's minimum plan, that's already a considerable increase in your texts per month. Textfree Unlimited is unlimited for a year. Either of these options may work for you. In fact, both may work for you. You can ease into the elimination of AT&T text messages over time by using Textfree Lite initially. Then upgrade to Textfree Unlimited when you're ready to go whole hog like I did. When you install one of these apps you are prompted to sign up for a unique username@textfree.us account name. I went with my name (which was luckily still available) so that people can easily identify who the text message is from. Textfree doesn't use a password because it somehow identifies your unique iPhone. So if you reinstall or delete the app your account is still attached to that iPhone. When you reinstall the app you're already logged in. I installed Textfree Lite last week on my original iPhone and then needed to transfer the account to my new iPhone 3GS when it arrived. To do that I had to send an e-mail to support@pinger.com and they took care of transferring the account within 48 hours. Textfree supports the following carriers in the United States. From Pinger's Web site:

You can send a text message to just about any carrier in the US. This means AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Alltel, Virgin Mobile, US Cellular, Cellular One/Dobson, Boost Mobile, Metro PCS, Unicel, Sun Com Wireless, Cincinnati Bell, Cellular South, Tracfone, NTELOS, Cricket Wireless, Centennial Wireless, Midwest Wireless, Surewest, Alaska Digitel, Northcoast PCS, YC, ACS Wireless, and Advantage Cellular.

I know you can send text messages through AIM or Google Talk, but I found Textfree to be a much more seamless solution. A unique username that's my actually name really makes all the difference. There's also an option in Textfree to receive an e-mail copy of every text message you receive. I have them going to my gmail account where I have a filter set up that automatically archives the messages. Now I'll always have them no matter what happens to my phone. If there's something I need they're just one gmail search away. I should also note that MMS messages are not possible with Textfree and the app doesn't currently have the option to send to multiple people at once. You have to retype (or copy and paste) the message.

Cancelling/Downgrading Text Messages

I simply called AT&T up and told them I wanted to opt out of being able to send or receive text messages. There's no way for me to send or receive them now using the built-in messages app. However, I also could have just cancelled my $5/month for 200 messages plan and moved to a per message plan that costs 10 cents each. In fact, I'm going to do that on my fiance's iPhone. I have a feeling if you're resistant to getting rid of text messages this may be the tip that actually gets you to do it. My fiance is more concerned than I am about missing text messages from friends who didn't get the memo about messaging her at her textfree account. So she'll pay 10 cents per incoming message but she'll always reply from her textfree account. This way we'll train our friends and family over time We're gambling that she won't receive 50 incoming messages in a month. If that's true, we'll still be saving money. After a couple months, when all of her friends have hopefully become accustomed to her new account name, we'll opt her out of text messages altogether too.

Conclusion

I've been pretty satisfied with Textfree Unlimited thus far. I've never sent a lot of text messages, so I expected to go gradually from Textfree Lite and going to a per message cost to Textfree Unlimited and opting out of messages entirely. That plan only lasted a week though and now I'm full on Textfree-only. And it's the first time I've ever had unlimited text messages and now I know what I've been missing. It really changes the way you think about communication if you don't have that ever present limit hanging over your head, Also, I signed up for an AT&T Premier Account (you need a school or a work e-mail address that works to activate it) in order to take advantage of that 35 percent off the iPhone 3GS using the Bing.com promotion. What I didn't know is that because I signed up for a Premier Account I'll somehow be charged a couple dollars less per month for the 3G iPhone Data plan. That, combined with $5 less per month for text messages, means I'm paying $3 net more per month for the iPhone 3GS than the original iPhone. How do you like that, AT&T? I'll never pay you for tethering either. Let us know in the comments whether you're considering canceling your text messages.

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