Because then you’re paying a ridiculous amount of money for your monthly plan. You should be paying for your device outright and then using it on a prepaid carrier. The reason the large carriers finance at 0% interest is because it ties you to their exhorbitant plans for 2 years.

For $70 a month from T-mobile all fees included you get unlimited talk, text, data and 3G tethering. The price goes down to $60 a month for two adults - yes both adults need cell phones, how else are they going to be reachable for jobs and if one is at work and the other is at home?

I know my older son doesn’t have cable or home internet and he uses his phone for everything including entertainment, internet connectivity to his computer, etc.

I’ve known families with children who were going through things and the kids studied on a hand me down laptop and use their phone’s internet access and tethering to do homework.

And my prepaid plan is all unlimited at $30 a month on my phone I bought all cash for $200. It's much cheaper!

Actually, we are paying $40 a month for each phone on a family plan but I was making an apples to apples comparison so I said $70.

How long will your $200 phone get updates? How long will it be fast enough to run the latest apps?

If you bought a 32GB 5s in 2015 for $499, you would still be getting updates and it is still as fast as most midrange Android phones. I bought a 64GB iPhone 6s in 2015 for $749 and just recently gave it to my son. It is still going strong, and if history is any guide, it should still get updates for at least another 2 years. It’s also faster in single core performance than any but the highest end Android phones.

https://bgr.com/2015/09/10/iphone-6s-iphone-6-iphone-5s-pric...