Kick your (adult) kids off your phone plan

And get a new plan. You're probably paying too much.

This past weekend was probably the most beautiful April weekend in the history of Chicago. On Saturday, I went sailing, and it was fantastic. I am far and away the oldest person on our team racing crew. When we were off the water, one of my teammates was talking about his phone problems. His parents finally cut him off their plan. I laughed, because I recently cut my son and daughter-in-law off our plan.

“That’s child abuse!” my teammate said.

But it’s really not. I did a stint on the Cook County Grand Jury many years ago, so my threshold for child abuse is high.

Anyway, in my case, the catalyst was Verizon raising rates by $4 per line per month for the same service. For years, I had stayed with Verizon even though they were more expensive because they had better coverage and better customer service than their competitors. But, over the years, competitors improved their coverage while Verizon degraded its customer service. I now had an incentive to do some research.

Here’s what I found:

• Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile rent their infrastructure out to firms known as mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs. These companies offer access to the same service for much less money. MVNO brands include Mint Mobile, Consumer Cellular, Cricket Wireless, and US Mobile.

• MVNO customers have lower priority if cellular traffic is heavy, so there may be some users who can’t take that risk. The vast majority of users won’t notice a difference.

• If you choose an MVNO that runs on the same network that you use now, you shouldn’t have an issue switching your phones—unless you have a Samsung phone. Those seem to be touchier about a switch, even if they are unlocked. We had no trouble with iPhones or Pixels. In most cases, you switch without installing a new, physical sim card.

• You can get phones from a ton of different places. I’m a fan of Back Market, which sells refurbished phones, but they are hardly the only vendor out there. You don’t need to stick with an expensive carrier just to get a new phone.

I decided on US Mobile (affiliate link), an MVNO on Verizon’s network. I switched my husband and me, then told the other two people on the plan that they had to switch, too. They grumbled but did it. My son was unable switch his Samsung phone, so I agreed to buy him a new Pixel. Even then, it was cheaper than what we paid with Verizon.

Before the switch, we had four lines on Verizon, plus home wireless internet bundled with Disney+. For this, we paid $240 per month or $2880 per year, which would increase to $3072 at the new rate.

On US Mobile, each line is $270 per year. We’re still paying $70 per month to Verizon for home wireless and Disney+, for a total cost of $1920 per year. Even with the $250 to buy my kid a new phone, we’re ahead by $902 in the first year.

And the next generation in the family has participated in this important rite of passage, getting off the family phone plan.

Have you switched phone plans or kicked off the young adults in your family? What was your experience?