I might spend money on random networking equipment I don’t need, but when it comes to my cell phone plan, I save money at every turn. This includes switching to a family phone plan instead of being on my own.

Being On a Family Plan Can Save You Money

Let’s face it: cell phone plans aren’t getting any cheaper. Unless you can add more people to your account, that is. For my wife and I to be on our own T-Mobile plan with just the two of us would cost $150 per month on Go5G Plus. This is astronomical for just two people, especially when you consider T-Mobile charges the exact same for three lines.

However, one hack that we discovered shortly after we got married is that a family plan is vastly cheaper than being on our own plan. My parents graciously let us join their plan, and we’ve saved money ever since. Of course, we pay them for our portion of the bill, which I’ll go into more detail on a bit further in this post.

But, we save a significant amount. In fact, it’s nearly 50%. With the five lines on our plan, which include my two parents, my brother, my wife, and me, our portion of the bill is $88. That’s $62 below the cost of us being on our own plan, and all it took was us joining my parents’ plan.

Another way this can help is if someone on the plan is eligible for a special discount. First responders, nurses, teachers, military, and a few other categories can sometimes get additional discounts on a mobile plan. These discounts typically apply to the entire account, which can save even more money should someone in your family be eligible.

A Family Plan Could Let You Get a Higher-Tier Plan for the Same Money

If you were to look at T-Mobile’s plans, you’d see that two lines of The Essentials cost $90 plus taxes and fees per month. My wife and I pay $88, taxes and fees included, for Go5G Plus on a family plan. This means we’re paying less to have a Go5G Plus plan than we would be for The Essentials on our own.

This is another way that a family plan could be quite useful to you. Being able to upgrade to a better plan without spending any extra money or even saving money is fantastic. I love that I have the benefits of Go5G Plus for less than what T-Mobile’s most basic plan gives me.

If you stack the special discounts on top, then it’s possible you could even go with a top-tier plan for the per-line cost of a base plan from your carrier.

This is, of course, predicated on the fact that you might want the higher-tier benefits of those upper-level plans. If you didn’t, then things could be even cheaper for you. In our case, if my wife and I went with The Essentials, our phone bill would be just $50 per month. That’s a fantastic deal, for sure.

Just Be Sure to Come Up With a Payments System for the Family

One thing that can get everyone’s feathers ruffled is money. So, before you set out to start a family plan with your friends or family, be sure to set out a payment system that everyone has to follow.

For my wife and I, we Apple Pay my parents at the start of every month our portion of the bill, which includes our plan plus our phone payments. As our phone payments drop, we send less money by the amount that the bill has decreased.

Also, I sometimes (depending on my travel schedule) have a higher-tier plan than my wife, so we keep an eye on the bill to make sure we’re paying what we should every month.

I’ve even heard of some families where those on the plan pay upfront for the entire year, so they don’t have to remember to pay monthly. If the bill doesn’t change at all, this is a fantastic option for those who want to not worry about bills every month.

One major thing to keep in mind, though, is trust. You need to have lots of trust in those that you share a family plan with. The account owner can do anything they want to the account, including terminate lines, transfer SIM cards, port numbers, and more.

This means that if you just join a family plan with a bunch of friends who you don’t really know all that well, at least one person will be able to make changes nobody else can reverse. Even if everyone has access to the account as an account admin, the primary account holder still has the most power and can do anything they want, regardless of the other admins.

Sharing a family plan with people can be a great way to save money. Another fantastic way to cut your bills is by setting up Apple Family Sharing. Here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s family plan, including how it can help lower your monthly subscription and purchase bills.