ctuttle

Last year when I bought my Blackberry I checked all the deals, and you are right each one has a slight advantage but with one advantage comes with something that might not be an advantage. Amazon had probably the best deal but I decided to go with the kiosk at the Sam's Warehouse (Don't have Costco here) because the person at the kiosk was actually knowledgable about the phone and had my number ported and I walked out of the store with a working phone. It worked out to be they were $25 more than the best deal I found online at Amazon, but I didn't have to send in and wait for a rebate plus I didn't get charged for activation, which was $30, so the in-store deal was actually better when I did all the math.

I was switching carriers so I looked at everybody and it is amazing how many different deals there are. I had different 800 numbers with the same carrier and found different deals for the same phone. I mentioned Activation fees, and found they ranged from $0 to $50. Some required certain plans to get a free phone, and some only required any phone plan.

I think they all have an amount they are going to receive as profit, and they move the numbers around like a car dealer that it is difficult to find the real best deal unless you make a check list of everything and get a true bottom line price. I did most of my "research" when I was travelling and had many hours to kill at airports and did a lot of surfing and calling on the deals.

The thing I was most pleased when I got my Blackberry was switching from at&t to T-Mobile. I was able to get voice and the unlimited Blackberry Data for just a few dollars more a month than what I was paying for voice. T-Mobile is significantly cheaper and where I use the phone it has better coverage. And don't get me started on how much better T-Mobile's customer's service when you compare it to that miserable at&t's. It's been a year and so far T-Mobile hasn't done anything to annoy me.

What I discovered was it was just a few dollars difference on the hardware among deals, but the service price is where you can really save, and when you calculate that savings over the 24 months of your contract you are looking at quite a large amount.

There are just so many variables with cell phone service, bundling with other accounts/organizational discounts, and even how they round-up minutes of use. Some have free incoming minutes, some allow free calls to a group of numbers, or to others with the same carrier. You have to know as much or more about their service before you can pick what turns out to be the best deal.