My wife and I both have cell phones, currently on a shared Cingular plan that I think is ~$65/mo including all the fees and whatnot. We’re passed the initial 12 month commitment period or whatever it was.
We barely use the phones (probable <150 minutes/month, combined), but prefer to keep separate phones and numbers.
What’s a good carrier/plan for us (two lines/phones, low usage)?
I’m not sure if this is advice or torture, but have you thought about looking into the various pay as you go stuff?
My impression is that these plans may be absurdly overpriced at high usage levels but it’s possible that with extremely low usage like yours it might actually be less money.
Some quick searching on Verizonwirless.com seems to indicate that after paying $90 per phone, you would pay $30 per month ($1 per day access fee) with unlimited night calling and $0.10/minute. If you only call 150 minutes per month you’ll only end up paying $45 (+ absurd hidden charges in all likelihood.)
So offhand it doesn’t look great but maybe some other companies have better deals.
T-Mobile has a plan where you pay as you go; if you pay $100, you get 1000 minutes for the year, which is what I did. Doesn’t particularly help to have two people on it, but might not be a bad option. You have to pay full price for your phones, though.